Real Assets

Feeling Energetic About Natural Resources Shares Amid an Oil Rout

The current decline in oil prices may offer long-term return opportunities for patient investors that can tolerate volatility Current oil prices appear sufficiently low as to encourage production declines over time as drilling activity wanes, even absent shutting-in of existing wells. The time required to move from production growth to production decline may be shorter…

Is the Decline in Commodity Prices a Negative for Emerging Markets?

No, the fall is a net benefit. Falling commodity prices create more divergent emerging markets conditions, generally benefitting net commodity consumers at the expense of net commodity producers. Among emerging markets, net commodity importers are largely Asian, while exporters are more concentrated in Europe, Latin America, South Africa, and the Middle East. Historical relationships between…

Oil Prices Can’t Find Their Footing, Even Amid Geopolitical Turmoil

Imagine that during a single year, the following events all took place: a country that produces 13% of the world’s oil became engaged in armed conflict; the United States and other nations fought a self-declared caliphate looking to quickly spread its influence in the oil-rich Middle East; and a nation that produces 3% of the…

Befriend the Trend: An Overview of Managed Futures Investing

Executive Summary Managed futures refers to a subset of investment strategies that actively trade global fixed income, currency, commodity, and equity markets via futures and forward contracts. Approximately 70% of the capital deployed within managed futures programs is attributable to trend following strategies. Trend following is synonymous with momentum investing and is based on the…

Banks Pulling Out of Commodities … But for How Long?

The trickle of banks leaving the commodity space has become a veritable flood. Over the past six months some of the biggest global banks have announced plans to either dramatically scale back operations or exit the physical trading business entirely, leaving the space increasingly in the hands of specialized merchant banks—e.g., Mercuria and Tudor Pickering—and…

The Global Overhang (According to Goldilocks): Too Much, Too Little, or Just Right

Today’s estimated global overhang is $909 billion net of fees, with US private equity, European private equity, and real estate the primary contributors. With capital appearing to be deployed at a slower pace than historically, the overhang is larger than expected. Too much overhang and the pressure to put capital to work before it expires…

Investing in Infrastructure

The options within public and private infrastructure investing have widened substantially over the last decade. This report provides an overview of infrastructure—including the characteristics of the asset class, the risks of investing, historical performance, current trends, and implementation considerations—and summarizes the attractions of and considerations for an investment in various infrastructure segments.

U.S. Real Estate and REIT Investing

A look at the growth of the 2006 U.S. real estate and REIT markets. Report covers private real estate, public real estate securities, the various property sectors (office, apartment, retail, industrial, and hotel), as well as provides strategy suggestions for investors in the real estate market.

Asian REITs Investing

This report focuses on the listed Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) markets in Asia, especially the larger such markets of Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The discussion also expands to include the smaller markets in Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, and the larger Asia Pacific region which includes Australia’s LPT market.