Whitepapers

The publication explores the integration of biodiversity considerations in an investment process at a time of emerging nature-related risks for investors. The authors review what metrics are available to measure companies’ biodiversity impact, and describe in detail the four-step process behind the ISS STOXX Biodiversity indices and its results at a portfolio level.

Biodiversity is vital for our planet and society. With the emergence of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, investors are gaining a better understanding of biodiversity-linked risks and opportunities in their portfolios. This paper begins by exploring the current metrics available for assessing the biodiversity footprints of companies. It then describes the ISS STOXX framework for building biodiversity indices, based on three fundamental steps: “Avoid,” “Minimize,” and “Enable.”

A new Qontigo article revisits the concept of tracking error, a metric that’s gaining even more attention amid the growth of sustainable portfolios. Hamish Seegopaul, Global Head for Index Product Innovation at Qontigo, addresses some key questions, including: How should the various degrees of tracking error be interpreted? Does the metric tell us much in terms of the future? And can we control this?

This article provides a high-level refresher of what tracking error means, and how we can embed it directly into portfolio construction.

A new whitepaper from Qontigo’s research team explores the benefits of constructing an exclusions portfolio with an optimizer, which helps limit active risk and frees up capital to allocate towards sustainability or performance objectives.

Our analysis shows how an optimized sustainability index can decrease active risk and free up more of the risk budget to be allocated to the desired sustainability metric(s), making the resulting portfolio a suitable replacement for a traditional benchmark.

Since late 2021, the STOXX Emerging Markets 1500 index has shown lower forecast and realized volatility than the STOXX Global 1800, a benchmark for developed economies. Using Axioma’s Factor Risk Models, a new whitepaper from Qontigo’s Applied Research team investigates the drivers of this anomaly.

Throughout 2022 and into 2023, the EM gauge has shown lower forecast and realized volatility than the global DM benchmark. A new whitepaper investigates the drivers of this anomaly.

The recently launched STOXX Global Metaverse Index uses a sophisticated methodology to screen those companies with the most relevant patents in technologies associated with the Metaverse. This allows investors to target innovators whose products and services are likely to be leading the transition to the virtual world in the coming years. A new Qontigo whitepaper explores the index in detail.

In this paper, we explore the rationale and methodology behind the construction of the index. We start by explaining the concept of megatrends and how they can be captured through thematic indexing, using a multifaceted approach. We look as well at the index performance before concluding with an outlook on the opportunities for the Metaverse in the years to come.

ESG funds can target very different objectives and their names mean very different things. So, what, in reality, are their overall achievements when it comes to broad sustainability metrics? What active risk are investors taking on to accomplish them? And can optimization help balance sustainability and risk? A new whitepaper from Qontigo examines these matters.

In this paper, our goal is to show how sustainability ETF exposures to a number of sustainability-related factors may vary. It is eminently clear to us that investors with a view about key sustainability features cannot rely on the fund name, but instead need to do more digging into whether their fund meets the required criteria.