Investment Studies Center (ISC) @ Union of Investment Companies (UIC), in collaboration with CdR Capital held a seminar on “Strategic Asset Allocation Across All Alternatives”, on Wednesday 29th January 2020 in UIC premises, where the instructor Mr. Apostolos Katsaris, He is CIO of CdR Capital covered this seminar.
Ms. Fadwa Darwish, ISC Acting Director & Director of Technical Support at UIC, opened seminar, where she highlighted the importance of this seminar for employees in financial institutions and investment companies.
The seminar discussed Strategic Asset Allocation Across All Asset Classes and presented a framework investor can use to build optimal Multi-Asset class and portfolios across the business cycle.
The presentation begun with a discussion of the current macro-economic environment and the main factors that can drive market returns in the short to medium term.
After a brief discussion of the historical risk and return characteristics of equities and fixed income securities across different economic regimes, a concise method for presented for examining the current state of the business cycle.
The presenter then discussed expanding static asset allocation models to incorporate strategic and tactical views on markets and implementing portfolios by selecting the market exposures and investment style first and then deciding on the investment vehicle based on liquidity and cost considerations.
The main considerations investors should focus on when building a strategic asset allocation framework were discussed as well as the way investors should set realistic objectives for their portfolios in terms of risk tolerance, liquidity appetite and complexity.
After examining how a variety of asset classes have behaved over economic cycle, a set of alternative betas was presented that expand the investment opportunity set over different parts of the cycle. Access to these alternative betas was discussed in conjunction with a framework for tilting portfolio exposures to various asset classes based on the state of the economy.
The presentation concluded by discussing an application of the above framework in a multi-asset class portfolio.