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While April may be the official month of financial literacy, investors should commit to staying informed all year round. Whether dealing with terms like meme stocks (stocks that typically trade on hype instead of fundamentals) or older ones like tracking error, there can be plenty of confusion around the language of investing. For both new and expe...

The Biden administration has unveiled a new $2 trillion infrastructure and economic recovery plan, the American Jobs Plan, which is designed to simultaneously revitalize the country’s infrastructure and combat climate change. The Plan will also give municipal investors an opportunity to focus on environmental or “green” proje...

For many investors, the desire to own commodities stems from the asset class’s inflation-hedging or portfolio-diversifying characteristics. While the most common way to get commodity exposure is by investing in a portfolio of commodity futures, many investors believe that owning a portfolio of natural resource stocks is an easier solution. Ho...

Investors occasionally look to their municipal bond portfolio for loss-harvesting opportunities that reduce the impact of capital gains taxes on portfolio returns. Learn how an active tax-loss management strategy ensures year-round performance, maximizes tax alpha, and minimizes costs.

What’s behind lower volatility forecasts: COVID-19 optimism or something more foreseeable? We take a deep dive into the numbers.

Screens and integration are essential yet distinct ESG incorporation techniques. Both are used to enhance the portfolio’s overall ESG characteristics but are quite different in terms of implementation and outcomes. The concepts are interconnected and lead to consequential decisions that can affect the performance of an investment portfolio, a...

The tailwinds that greeted commodities in 2021 have moderated, but they are not gone. Faced with strong economic growth and high inflation, the market expects the Fed to run down its balance sheet and begin hiking interest rates. In addition, a shift in consumer habits has left most commodity markets priced for a deficit, which may require an exten...

The ESG-labeled bond issuance has been significantly growing and is likely to persist, along with investor interest in this segment of the fixed income markets. What can responsible investors in this market expect in the year to come? Sustainable bonds should play an increasingly important role.

Investors may be familiar with the many different ways the sale of a stock can be taxed, but the complexity of the code means there are optimal and suboptimal ways of navigating it. Using the five basic tools for building a comprehensive tax-management strategy is key to delivering highly tax-efficient investment performance.

Investors have shown renewed interest in President Biden's twin infrastructure proposals—the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan—and what they will mean for their portfolios. With a focus on the tax changes that more directly affect equity investors, the road ahead should have fewer dangerous curves than some init...

Amid low interest rates and volatile asset values, high-net-worth individuals are taking a fresh look at a powerful wealth transfer tool—grantor-retained annuity trusts, or GRATs. When GRATs are used correctly, they can reduce estate taxes and allow grantors to gift assets free of tax.

Commodity investors have historically recognized a link between the strength of the U.S. dollar and the prices of commodities. Specifically, as the dollar strengthens against other major currencies, commodity prices generally tend to fall, and vice versa. A further examination is provided on why this may be the case, and whether it’s true at ...

When it comes to an investment strategy, it is important to consider the tracking error (TE) as it allows investors to quickly get a sense of how much deviation from a stated benchmark they could expect. This guide offers a brief explanation of the TE concept and descibes how it can be used to establish benchmark-relative performance expectati...

Investors have been building bond portfolios using a laddered strategy since the early 1900s. Even in a flat or rising rate environment, a ladder’s total return can materially exceed its starting yield through the phenomenon of roll-down. The benefits of roll-down relate directly to the shape of the yield curve. To demonstrate how roll-down w...

When in the pursuit of enhanced risk-adjusted returns, investors with strong convictions are often drawn to factor investing—tilting portfolios toward a particular factor like value, low volatility, or dividend yield. While it may seem counterintuitive, a factor portfolio’s tracking error is a useful tool for ensuring they’re not ...