Scientific Beta

Scientific Beta is pleased to announce the launch of a new suite of indices for the satellite sleeve of institutional investors’ portfolios. Scientific Beta’s initial satellite offering comprises trade tension and pandemic indices, enabling investors to take tactical bets on particular risks relating to trade tensions and pandemics. The objective of the satellite indices is to offer a robust conditional reaction or outperformance following shocks to these risks.

Scientific Beta is pleased to announce the launch of a new suite of indices for the satellite sleeve of institutional investors’ portfolios. Scientific Beta’s initial satellite offering comprises trade tension and pandemic indices, enabling investors to take tactical bets on particular risks relating to trade tensions and pandemics. The objective of the satellite indices is to offer a robust conditional reaction or outperformance following shocks to these risks.

• For trade tensions, Scientific Beta is providing trade war and trade peace indices that react positively and negatively to negative shocks to trade tensions, such as tariff announcements.
  
  
• For pandemics, Scientific Beta is providing resilient and vulnerable indices that react positively and negatively to consequences of pandemic outbreaks, such as social distancing measures.

Commenting on the launch, Noël Amenc, CEO of Scientific Beta, said, “Like all Scientific Beta’s indices, the pandemic and trade tension indices are based on academic research, notably on teleworkability and firm-level exposure to epidemic diseases for the pandemic indices and the tradability of goods and risks relating to trade policy in the case of the trade tension indices. The distinguishing feature of Scientific Beta’s thematic indices is their robustness. The indices are robust to the conditions in which they are designed to operate, rather than being produced through in-sample optimisation, like many of our competitors’ products.”

David Wickham, Scientific Beta’s Deputy CEO and Global Sales and Client Director, added, “Scientific Beta’s offering is organised in the same way as our institutional investor clients’ investment management processes because our approach is client centric. As such, this new suite of trade tension and pandemic indices is part of Scientific Beta’s core-satellite approach, which differentiates the core benchmarks, representing an investor’s strategic allocation, from the satellite, representing tactical deviations with respect to this allocation.”