More than 63% of active emerging markets equity managers underperformed the MSCI Emerging Markets Index gross of fees in 2018, marking the third consecutive year of underperformance. This chart book is our annual summary of the absolute and relative performance of managers that report to our database. This is a companion piece to the US, global ex US, and global equity manager performance chart books already published.
While we have advised a gradual approach to investing in China, today we believe that investors should take a systematic and comprehensive approach, overweighting Chinese assets relative to their index weights. Looking past the uncertainty and negativity, investors will find a large investment opportunity set, a robust universe of public and private managers, and appealing public equity valuations.
This chart book presents representative long-only and hedge fund manager performance for fourth quarter 2018. The median US Core Bonds manager posted the highest median return for fourth quarter 2018, returning 1.4%. The median Cash Management manager posted the best returns for the one-year period ending December 31, 2018, with a return of 2.0%. The median US Small-Cap Growth Equity manager posted the lowest median return for fourth quarter 2018 (-20.4%). The median Global ex US Small-Cap manager suffered the worst performance (-19.1%) for the one-year period.
This chart book presents representative long-only and hedge fund manager performance for third quarter 2018.
Neither. The emerging markets equity managers that we respect and follow closely have not become meaningfully more aggressive; however, many have used the volatile market conditions to do some bargain hunting, upgrade portfolios, and modestly shrink their cash balances.
This chart book presents representative long-only and hedge fund manager performance for second quarter 2018. The median US Small-Cap Growth manager posted the highest median return for both second quarter 2018 (8.7%) and the one-year period ending June 30, 2018 (25.4%). The median Emerging and Frontier Markets Equity manager posted the lowest median return for second quarter 2018, returning -8.6%, and the median Emerging Markets Debt manager suffered the worst performance for the one-year period ending June 30, 2018 (-1.6%).
Solid fundamentals in most countries should limit the damage.
This chart book presents representative long-only and hedge fund manager performance for first quarter 2018. The median Global ex US Bonds manager posted the highest median return for first quarter 2018, returning 3.5%. Global ex US Small-Cap Equity managers posted the best returns for the one-year period ending March 31, 2018, with a median return of 26.4%. The median US REITs manager posted the lowest median return for both first quarter 2018 (-6.5%) and for the one-year period ending March 31, 2018 (-1.1%).
Despite exceptional overall returns, more than 55% of active emerging markets equity managers underperformed the MSCI Emerging Markets Index gross of fees in 2017, marking the first time since 2009 that the majority have underperformed in back-to-back years. This chart book is our annual summary of the absolute and relative performance of managers that report to our database.
This chart book presents representative long-only and hedge fund manager performance for fourth quarter 2017. The median US Growth Equity ex Small-Cap manager posted the highest median return for fourth quarter 2017, returning 6.8%. Emerging & Frontier Markets Equity managers posted the best returns for the one-year period ending December 31, 2017, with a median return of 36.8%. The median US Intermediate-Term Bonds manager posted the lowest median return for fourth quarter 2017 (0.0%), while the median Cash Management return was lowest for the one-year period ending December 31, 2017 (1.1%).