Monday 29 March 2021
Research / Market
Bond portfolio optimization is very different from equity portfolio optimization. Indeed, while continuous optimization is efficient when managing a portfolio of stocks, it is not always well-adapted to building a bond portfolio because the transformation of portfolio weights into numbers of shares may lead to significant rounding errors. Indeed, bond investors are often restricted to purchasing bonds in multiples of a minimum transaction unit, which can be expressed as a minimum number of bonds or a minimum amount of dollars. This is why discrete optimization has generally replaced continuous optimization when the investment universe concerns fixed-income securities, especially when we consider the business of passive management, such as bond index funds, exchange-traded funds, and dedicated fixed-income funds...
Markets have seen some relief in a year that overall is likely to be remembered as among the most challenging for investors.
Biodiversity, or the term used to describe all living organisms and ecosystems of which they are part, is declining at an alarming rate with now 1 million (out of an estimated 8 million) plant and animal species being threatened with extinction.
At its December meeting, the ECB hiked rates by 50bp, to 2.0% (deposit rate). The Bank delivered a very hawkish statement.
