Watching the VIX
Equity investors have enjoyed a period of unusually low volatility in U.S. equity markets. This period of prolonged calm in the market has coincided with an extended upward climb in U.S. stock prices. While these periods of relative complacency can continue for months or years, they can also turn suddenly, because of unforeseen market shocks.
Is USMF the ETF Industry’s Next Five-Tool Player?
WisdomTree’s U.S. Multifactor Index, which is tracked by the WisdomTree U.S. Multifactor Fund (USMF), is designed to provide greater potential for outperformance over standard beta indexes due to its greater stock selection risk and tracking error against beta, inherent in both its unique stock selection and its proprietary weighting methodology.
WisdomTree’s New U.S. Multifactor Index: The Quest for Alpha
Over 10 years ago, WisdomTree pioneered an income-tilted indexing strategy designed to provide broad beta exposure with alpha potential. Today we believe that it may be possible to generate greater excess return over time by taking on greater active risk and concentrating index holdings in stocks that have greater exposure to the factors that have historically been associated with excess return.
Another Way to Lower Volatility in Developed Markets
One of the lessons learned over the past 10 years is that the U.S. equity market has great resiliency—even during periods when markets tank. But for U.S. investors buying into broad developed world index funds tracking the MSCI EAFE Index, the last 10 years were disappointing.
Luciano Siracusano III
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Christopher Carrano
/ Equity, Small Caps, Mid-Caps, Earnings, Japan, Currency Hedged Equity, Interest Rate Strategies, Dynamic Currency Hedging
The Fed Moves: What It May Mean for Equities
From the presidential election through March 9, the U.S. dollar rallied 4.3%, according to the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index. Given the recent rate hike, and that many market participants believe there are additional rate hikes on the horizon, what are the equity asset classes that may benefit from rising rates and a rising dollar?
Jeremy J Siegel
Senior Investment Strategy Advisor
Jeremy J. Siegel, WisdomTree’s Senior Investment Strategy Advisor, is the Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Siegel has written and lectured extensively about the economy and financial markets and is a regular contributor to the financial news media. In 1994, he received the highest teaching rating in a ranking of business school professors conducted by BusinessWeek magazine. His book Stocks for the Long Run was named by The Washington Post as one of the 10 best investment books of all time. His latest book, The Future for Investors, is a bestseller.
Luciano Siracusano III
Chief Investment Strategist
Luciano Siracusano is WisdomTree’s Chief Investment Strategist. He is the co-creator, with CEO Jonathan Steinberg, of WisdomTree’s patented Indexing methodology. Mr. Siracusano led WisdomTree’s sales organization from October 2008 until June of 2015, while also serving as the firm’s Chief Investment Strategist. Luciano stepped down as WisdomTree’s Head of Sales in 2015 to focus full time on his duties as Chief Investment Strategist. From 2001 until October 2008, Luciano was WisdomTree’s Director of Research and was responsible for the creation and development of WisdomTree’s proprietary stock indexes. Luciano is a regular guest on CNBC and FOX Business, and speaks and writes frequently on ETFs, indexing and global financial markets. A former equity analyst at Value Line, Luciano began his career as a speechwriter for former New York Governor Mario Cuomo and HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros. He graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Political Science in 1987.
Jonathan Steinberg
CEO of WisdomTree
Prior to establishing WisdomTree, Jonathan founded, and served as Chairman and CEO of Individual Investor Group, Inc. From 1998 to 2004, he held the role of Editor-in-Chief of Individual Investor and Ticker magazines. Before his entrepreneurial accomplishments, Jonathan was an Analyst in the Mergers & Acquisitions division at Bear Stearns & Co. He attended The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and is the author of Midas Investing, published by Random House in 1996.
Jesper Koll
WisdomTree's Head of Japan
Jesper Koll was appointed WisdomTree's Head of Japan on July 1, 2015. Over the past two decades Jesper has been consistently ranked as one of the top Japan strategists/economists, working as Chief Strategist and Head of Research for major U.S. investment banks J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch. His analysis and insights have earned him a position on several Japanese government advisory committees and Jesper is also one of the few non-Japanese members of the Keizai Doyukai, the Japan Association of Corporate Executives. He has written two books in Japanese, Towards a New Japanese Golden Age and The End of Heisei Deflation. After arriving in Japan in 1986 Jesper initially worked as an aide to a Member of Parliament. Jesper has a Masters degree from the School of Advanced and International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and was a research fellow at both Tokyo University and Kyoto University. He is a graduate of the Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific.
Jeremy Schwartz
Director of Research
Jeremy is responsible for the WisdomTree equity index construction process and oversees research across the WisdomTree family. Prior to joining WisdomTree, Jeremy was Professor Jeremy Siegel's head research assistant and helped with the research and writing of Stocks for the Long Run and The Future for Investors. He is also co-author of the Financial Analysts Journal paper "What Happened to the Original Stocks in the S&P 500?" Jeremy is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and currently stays involved with Wharton by hosting the Wharton Business Radio program “Behind the Markets” on SiriusXM 111. Jeremy is also a member of the CFA Society of Philadelphia.
Christopher Gannatti
Associate Director of Research
Christopher Gannatti began at WisdomTree as a Research Analyst in December 2010, working directly with Jeremy Schwartz, CFA®, Director of Research. He is involved in creating and communicating WisdomTree’s thoughts on the markets, as well as analyzing existing strategies and developing new approaches. Christopher came to WisdomTree from Lord Abbett, where he worked for four and a half years as a Regional Consultant. He received his MBA in Quantitative Finance, Accounting, and Economics from NYU’s Stern School of Business in 2010, and he received his bachelor’s degree from Colgate University in Economics in 2006. Christopher is a holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Kevin Flanagan
Senior Fixed Income Strategist
As part of WisdomTree’s Investment Strategy group, Kevin serves as Senior Fixed Income Strategist. In this role, he contributes to the asset allocation team, writes fixed income-related content and travels with the sales team, conducting client-facing meetings and providing expertise on WisdomTree’s existing and future bond ETFs. In addition, Kevin works closely with the fixed income team. Prior to joining WisdomTree, Kevin spent 30 years at Morgan Stanley, where he was most recently a Managing Director. He was responsible for tactical and strategic recommendations and created asset allocation models for fixed income securities. He was a contributor to the Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Global Investment Committee, primary author of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s monthly and weekly fixed income publications, and collaborated with the firm’s Research and Consulting Group Divisions to build ETF and fund manager asset allocation models. Kevin has an MBA from Pace University’s Lubin Graduate School of Business, and a B.S in Finance from Fairfield University.
Bradley Krom
Associate Director of Research
Bradley Krom joined WisdomTree as a member of the research team in December 2010. He is involved in creating and communicating WisdomTree’s thoughts on global markets, as well as analyzing existing and new fund strategies. Prior to joining WisdomTree, Bradley served as a senior trader on a proprietary trading desk at TransMarket Group. Bradley is a graduate of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Tripp Zimmerman
Associate Director of Research
Tripp Zimmerman began at WisdomTree as a Research Analyst in February 2013. Now, as an Associate Director of Research, he leads the Firm’s data analytics group, responsible for index creation, maintenance and reconstitution. Tripp travels domestically and internationally to speak about WisdomTree index capabilities and meets with clients across various sales channels. He is also involved in creating and communicating WisdomTree’s thoughts on the markets. Prior to joining WisdomTree, Tripp worked in various investment-related roles for TD Ameritrade, Wells Fargo Advisors, TIAA-CREF and Evergreen Investments. Tripp graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with dual degrees in Economics and Philosophy. Tripp is a holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Rick Harper
Head of Fixed Income & Currency
Rick Harper serves as the Head of Fixed Income and Currency for WisdomTree Asset Management, where he oversees the firm’s suite of fixed income and currency exchange-traded funds. Rick has over 22 years investment experience in strategy and portfolio management positions at prominent investment firms. Prior to joining WisdomTree in 2007, Rick held senior level strategist roles with RBC Dain Rauscher, Bank One Capital Markets, ETF Advisors, and Nuveen Investments. At ETF Advisors, he was the portfolio manager and developer of some of the first fixed income exchange-traded funds. His research has been featured in leading periodicals including the Journal of Portfolio Management and the Journal of Indexes. He graduated from Emory University and earned his MBA at Indiana University.
Ambar Bajaj
Fixed Income & Currency
Ambar Bajaj joined WisdomTree as a member of the Fixed Income and Currency team in September 2011. He is involved in creating and communicating WisdomTree’s thoughts on currency and fixed income markets, as well as analyzing existing and new fund strategies. Prior to joining WisdomTree, Ambar traded interest rate derivatives and US Treasuries for a proprietary trading firm. Ambar graduated from the University of Rochester with dual degrees in Economics and Mathematics.
Gaurav Sinha
Asset Allocation Strategist
Gaurav Sinha is currently working as Asset Allocation Strategist at WisdomTree since November 2014. He is leading the Portfolio Analytics and Solutions team and builds specialized investment solutions along with customized analytics for our clients. He is also deeply involved in advancing WisdomTree’s product suite, and has particular expertise on India. Gaurav came to WisdomTree after stints at World Bank, Morgan Stanley and recently with Windhaven Investment Management. He received his Masters in Financial Engineering from Columbia University in 2009 and holds a bachelors Engineering degree from the prestigious Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT).
Anita Rausch
Head of Capital Markets
Anita Rausch is Head of the Capital Markets team. The Capital Markets group is involved in all aspects of WisdomTree ETFs including product development, seeding and bringing new products to market, and working with the client base on trading strategies and best execution strategies. Anita is responsible for the relationships with the trading community and works with them to support the liquidity of the WisdomTree ETFs. Prior to joining WisdomTree, Anita was an Executive Director on the JP Morgan ETF trading desk where she facilitated trades for a wide subset of clients across all ETFs. Anita started her career at Morgan Stanley and became an Executive Director on their ETF trading desk, in charge of the International ETF product. Anita is also a major contributor to both of David Abner’s books, The ETF Handbook (Wiley, 2010) and The Visual Guide to ETFs (Bloomberg, 2013).
Michael Barrer
Senior Associate of Capital Markets
Michael Barrer is a member of the Capital Markets team based in New York. The Capital Markets group is involved in all aspects of WisdomTree ETFs, including product development, seeding and bringing new products to market and working with the client base on trading strategies and best execution strategies. Michael also supports the trading community on providing liquidity and works closely with Hedge Funds on trading and investing in WisdomTree ETFs. Michael began his career in finance as an equity and ETF proprietary trader, followed by two years at Merrill Lynch in an investment-related role. Since joining WisdomTree in 2013, Michael spent a year and a half as an integral member of the sales team and later joined the Capital Markets group to concentrate on his passion for ETF markets and trading. Michael graduated in 2004 from Syracuse University with a focus on business and technology.
Paige Kyle
Capital Markets Associate
Paige Kyle is a member of the Capital Markets team based in New York. The Capital Markets group is involved in all aspects of WisdomTree ETFs, including product development, seeding and bringing new products to market and working with the investor base on trading and best execution strategies. Paige also supports the trading community on providing liquidity and works closely with Hedge Funds and RIAs on trading and investing in WisdomTree ETFs. Paige began her career in finance at Bloomberg LP and subsequently at Bloomberg Tradebook working with clients on electronic trading solutions, developing an expertise in ETF trading. Paige graduated in 2009 from the University of Virginia.
Zach Hascoe
Capital Markets
Zach Hascoe is currently a member of the WisdomTree Corporate Strategy team based in New York. Prior to this, Zach was the Director of Capital Markets for WisdomTree Europe Ltd based in London. He was responsible for building and growing the capital markets infrastructure for the WisdomTree Europe product set among the various market making and trading counterparties across Europe. In addition, Zach was responsible for managing the capital markets relationships with the stock exchanges, authorized participants (APs), market making firms and investment bank institutional sales and trading businesses. Zach began at WisdomTree in New York in August 2010 and has been involved in all aspects of the WisdomTree ETFs including product development, helping to seed and bring new products to market, as well as trading strategies and best execution strategies for the client base. He is a frequent contributor to the WisdomTree blog on topics related to the capital markets, liquidity, structure and best execution. Zach received a B.A. from Bucknell University in Political Science and was Captain of the Bucknell Tennis Team.
David Abner
Head of Europe
David Abner is WisdomTree's Head of Europe. Prior to joining WisdomTree in 2008, David spent two years as a Managing Director and the head of ETF Trading Americas at BNP Paribas. David started his career at Bear Stearns & Co. in 1992. David holds an MS in Management and a BA in Economics from Stony Brook University on Long Island. He is the author of The ETF Handbook (Wiley, 2010) and The Visual Guide to ETFs (Bloomberg, summer 2012).
Christopher Carrano
Investment Analyst
Christopher Carrano is an investment analyst at WisdomTree. He works under Luciano Siracusano, WisdomTree’s Chief Investment Strategist, assisting with market and editorial research. Christopher first joined WisdomTree in April of 2014, and later rejoined the company in September of 2015 after spending time abroad. Prior to WisdomTree, Christopher was an investment consulting intern at Mercer where he monitored and analyzed the investments, and investment managers, of retirement plans and endowments. He graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Economics in 2014.
Joseph Tenaglia
Asset Allocation Strategist
Joseph Tenaglia joined WisdomTree as an Asset Allocation Strategist in July 2016. He is responsible for building model portfolios and creating custom solutions for WisdomTree’s clients. Within the research team, Joseph maintains a particular focus on emerging markets. Prior to joining WisdomTree, Joseph worked at Emerging Global Advisors as an Emerging Markets Portfolio Specialist, where he sat on the firm’s Investment Strategy team, oversaw capital markets, and maintained relationships with client home office research and due diligence teams. He started his career at BNY Mellon as a Regional Consultant and also worked as an analyst on the national accounts team. Joseph graduated in 2009 from Boston College. Joseph is a holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Jeff Weniger, CFA
Asset Allocation Strategist
Jeff Weniger, CFA serves as Asset Allocation Strategist at WisdomTree. Jeff has a background in fundamental, economic and behavioral analysis for strategic and tactical asset allocation. Prior to joining WisdomTree, he was Director, Senior Strategist with BMO from 2006 to 2017, serving on the Asset Allocation Committee and co-managing the firm’s ETF model portfolios. Jeff has a B.S. in Finance from the University of Florida and an MBA from Notre Dame. He is a CFA charter holder and an active member of the CFA Society of Chicago and the CFA Institute since 2006. He has appeared in various financial publications such as Barron’s and the Wall Street Journal and makes regular appearances on Canada’s Business News Network (BNN) and Wharton Business Radio.
Matt Wagner
Research Analyst
Matt Wagner joined WisdomTree in May 2017 as a Research Analyst. He works under Christopher Gannatti, Associate Director of Research, where he is responsible for research on WisdomTree’s products and views on the market. He started his career at Morgan Stanley, working as an analyst in Treasury Capital Markets from 2015 to 2017 where he focused on unsecured funding planning, execution and risk management. Matt graduated from Boston College in 2015 with a B.A. in International Studies with a concentration in Economics.
Josh Russell
PhD, CFA
Josh Russell joined WisdomTree as a Quantitative Equity Strategist in 2015. He leads the firm’s quantitative group. Prior to joining WisdomTree, Josh created and rebalanced equity indexes for a boutique RIA. In 2012 he earned a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The University of California, Santa Barbara. He also holds Master’s Degrees in Economics and Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering. Josh is a holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
What Happens When Interest Rates Rise?
With December 16 marking the last opportunity for the Federal Reserve (Fed) to raise interest rates in 2015, market participants now put the odds of a Fed rate hike in December at nearly 80%—up from the 32% probability given to a rate hike just three months ago in September.
For Mario Draghi and the ECB, Deflation Is a Moving Target
The euro area and the United States are comparable in numerous ways, including population and relative economic size. Since the financial crisis, they have also shared a common goal of escaping from the jaws of a balance sheet recession, as deleveraging has posed a headwind to economic growth on both continents.
The Smart Beta Rally That Many Investors Missed in 2015
One of the big trends in the exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry has been this year’s flow of new money into developed world equity ETFs, both unhedged and currency hedged. WisdomTree estimates that nearly $100 billion of this year’s $171 billion in ETF industry inflows cascaded into these funds through the end of October.
Equity Returns in Open Election Years
Next year’s “open election,” where there is no incumbent in the race, may present a new obstacle for the stock market to overcome. With grassroots voters in each party coalescing around nontraditional candidates, not only are the early poll results a signal of wider discontent in the electorate, they also widen the possible policy outcomes that could follow next November’s elections.
Is the Correction Over?
Back on July 20, with U.S. stock indexes not far from their yearly highs, I said on CNBC that I expected the market to become choppier over the next three months. I pointed out that with the S&P 500 Index trading at nearly 19 times—and corporate earnings unlikely to advance in the second half of the year—the market would need to digest not just the slowdown in China but also the uncertainty that would accompany a pending Federal Reserve rate hike.