Risk management

Read more about the article eToro Post – Adding US Dollar Index (DXY) Exposure to an All Seasons Portfolio

eToro Post – Adding US Dollar Index (DXY) Exposure to an All Seasons Portfolio

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  • Reading time:22 mins read

Interest rate risk and sentiment risk (periods of risk off behaviour) are two risks that are typically difficult to hedge. These risks have characterized the first nine months of 2022, so if we could find some asset that could help offset losses in stocks and bonds during these periods, that would be great.

Therefore, with this post, we look at an alternative investment that could provide at least some protection against rising rates, and one of them could be to go long the United States Dollar. In this article, we will be looking at an index giving broad exposure to the dollar, what benefits it adds to a diversified portfolio, and how a retail investor can add this exposure to a portfolio.

We review the UUP ETF (Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund) and its underlying exposure to the US Dollar Index ("DXY"), what it is, and why it might be a good diversifier.

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Read more about the article Insights – Interest Rate Risk and Asset Correlations with Future Cash Rate Expectations

Insights – Interest Rate Risk and Asset Correlations with Future Cash Rate Expectations

"Is the All Seasons Portfolio strategy not working anymore?"

With an annual drawdown for such portfolios almost as bad as for the stock market YTD (S&P 500 currently being down 16% since 1 January, having briefly been below -20%), I am not surprised that I have been hearing this question more and more recently. Is this a bug or a feature?

The first seven months of 2022 can be illustrated by two major themes in terms of financial markets: a) significant underperformance of major asset classes such as stocks and bonds, and b) rising rates.

The latter constitutes one of two undiversifiable risks for investors, as when the cah rate rises, that impacts asset prices as returns of risky assets always compete with the return of cash.

In this article, we explore interest rate risk and how most major asset classes have correlated with the future cash rate expectations over the first seven months of 2022. We try to answer the question on if the All Seasons Portfolio strategy is broken, or if the playing field has been reset and that we can expect better performance ahead.

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Read more about the article eToro Post – Different Types of Inflation and Assets That Hedge Against Each

eToro Post – Different Types of Inflation and Assets That Hedge Against Each

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  • Reading time:15 mins read

Surely you have not missed the talks about inflation the past year. Even from the Fed and Yellen, the sentiment about inflation has changed from “not a problem” to “transitory” to “longer than first expected” and now to “good for the economy”.

While the price of risk assets, such as stocks, may also inflate due to the rise in inflation, they are not rising as much in real terms.

Rising inflation, and especially inflation that is higher than expected, is harmful to most common portfolios that comprise of stocks, or a combination of the two like the 60/40 Portfolio. Both stock and bonds are assets that perform well in times of low or decreasing inflation, and will lag in times when inflation rises.

It is thus vital to have a portfolio which also includes inflation hedges to mitigate the risk of unexpected inflation prints.

In this post, we will be looking at different types of inflation - as inflation can manifest in different ways - and how you can protect your wealth against each of them with different assets.

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