Etienne Vincent, head of THEAM's global quantitative management, explains how the four main recurring sources of outperformance in the equity markets, extensively developed in the “smart beta” concept, can be likened to the four cardinal virtues described by Plato, the Greek philosopher.

The strong demand in the primary market confirms what is already well known: whatever the inflation expectations, there is significant structural demand, notably from “buy and hold” investors such as pension funds, for bonds indexed to inflation.

The crisis in Ukraine has global markets on edge—and investors fear that deflation could prove a long-term problem for the Eurozone. What matters most, though, is an objective look at economic and financial data.

The survey finds that LDI is popular, but in concrete terms the fund separation approach, which is consistent with the LDI paradigm, is not yet sufficiently widely applied to manage the LDI approach optimally, especially in southern European countries.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) today reported that costs for its investment operations have declined by approximately $80 million for the two-fiscal-year period from 2011-2013. CalPERS also reported that it was found to be "cost-advantaged" in a CEM Benchmarking (CEM) survey, when measured against its peers.