Enthusiasm for market-cap weighted indexing rests on market efficiency. Occasionally systemic asset bubbles or excesses in individual company valuations can challenge that efficiency. Matt Wagner raises the question: should indexes screen on fundamentals for inclusion, and for weighting?

With U.S. and China trade negotiations front and center, some investors are questioning whether they should have exposure to China in their portfolio. Rethinking exposure to state-owned enterprises within China can be one method that may actually enhance returns while keeping volatility under control.

How indexes for emerging markets are constructed matters, especially when the news cycle is dominated by Washington-Beijing relations. Read how emerging market investors can protect their portfolios by avoiding Chinese state-owned enterprises.

WisdomTree was the first to package an ex-state-owned enterprises approach into rules-based ETFs. But we were far from the first to identify the negative impact of the state-ownership structure on shareholders. Matt Wagner discusses the recent commentary.

Investing in emerging markets can have daunting levels of risk. Yet many investors continue putting their emerging markets allocation into one cap-weighted product, hoping it pays off without much damage. Instead, we suggest that our diversified emerging markets barbell approach has the potential to give investors the yield, volatility mitigation and returns they are looking for.

Through the first six months of the year, emerging markets have lagged most developed markets, despite entering the year poised for a rally and then falling during May’s sell-off. In light of this volatility, we believe a dividend-weighted approach to emerging market small-cap equities strikes an intriguing balance between return potential and volatility mitigation.