GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Know the
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Know the Flows…
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Company Overview EPFR Global delivers a complete and transparent picture of institutional and individual investor flows driving global markets. Strategists, traders, and investors use EPFR flow and allocation data to gain the most current, global view of changing investor demand manager positioning. Trading and allocation strategies leverage EPFR historical and current data to improve returns and manage risk. • Series sourced through direct relationships with fund managers and administrators • The universe covers over $17 trillion in globally domiciled funds. • EPFR flows are available at either the asset class aggregate, fund group, investment manager, individual fund and share class levels to support the most granular and informed insights. • Comprehensive, transparent, and robust daily, weekly, monthly updates available T+1 in addition to historical time series. 1
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Users of EPFR Data Banking and Brokerage Government/Central Banks Ø Strategists Ø Capital Markets Ø Research Analysts Ø Regulators Ø Monetary Authorities Types of usage: ü Proprietary trading ü Directional calls for clients ü Targeting sales efforts ü Market analysis Types of usage: ü Cross-border flow analysis ü Flows impact on currency as well as local equity/debt markets Asset Managers Hedge Funds Ø Fund Managers Ø Portfolio Analysts Ø Marketing and Product Development Ø Global Macro/EM/Discretionary Ø Quantitative Investors Types of usage: ü Factor in investment process ü Competitive analysis, product dev ü Asset allocation ü Quantitative analysis Types of usage: ü Momentum trading ü Liquidity analysis ü Market timing 2
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Uses of EPFR Global Data Market Timing • Foreign investor flows can be a useful leading indicator – especially at the country level and particularly in Emerging Markets • Investors use flows relative strength to help time entry/exit to individual countries Momentum Indicators • Country allocation data - global fund manager positioning provides additional data as a momentum signal and is often used in multi-factor models Directional Signals • Country and sector flows can be leading indicators of broader market direction. Relative strength of flows to favored countries/sectors vs out of favor countries/sectors helps managers decide when to get in or out. Asset Allocation & Benchmarking • Allocators will cross-check their own analysis with investor sentiment based on flows/positioning • Portfolio managers can compare their allocations with their peers for performance analysis Measuring Risk • Monitoring flows into asset classes provide a useful signal of investor risk appetite. Similarly, fund manager positioning (for example cash positions) indicate changing fund manager risk appetite 3
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA GLOBAL EPFR Global Key Data Sets Derived Datasets Core Datasets (based on data sourced directly from managers or administrators) (based on flows and allocations data) Fund Flows Fund Allocations Country & Sector Flows The amount of cash flowing into and out of funds worldwide. Fund manager allocations at month-end across the countries or sectors they invest in. Distribution of fund flows by country or sector. Combines data from fund flows and fund allocations. ü Equity/Bond Fund Flows Daily/Weekly/Monthly ü Country Weightings – Monthly * also includes AUM, Performance ü Sector / Industry Weightings – Monthly ü Equity / Bond Fund Holdings – Monthly ü Country/Sector/Industry Flows Daily/Weekly/Monthly ü Regional packages available Daily/Weekly/Monthly 4
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Fund Flows Overview Leverage the transparency of the EPFR universe and the granular breakdown of flows Asset Class Breakdown • Geographic investment focus • Style/sector • Bond categories Investor Types Differentiation Fund Flows The amount of The amount cash flowing of cash into and out of flowing into funds worldand out of wide. funds worldwide. • Institutional vs Retail • US Domiciled vs Non-US Domiciled Fund Types Differentiation • Dedicated Country Funds vs Global, GEM, and Regional Mandates • Mutual funds vs ETFs • Active vs Passive What are Fund Flows? ü Calculates “Net Flows” (investor contributions/redemptions) for individual funds and then add these up by asset class ü Net Flow calculations exclude portfolio performance and currency fluctuations ü Includes funds registered globally not just those domiciled in the US ü Updated daily/weekly/monthly 5
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Fund Flows: Asset class breakdown Highly granulated flow data for more than 100 country, regional, sector and asset class categories (includes Global & US ) 6
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Fund Flows: Drill down to detail view ………………………………………. …… 7 7
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Fund Flows: Investor types differentiation US equity fund flows since January‘ 10 All investor types US Institutional Investors Non-US investors in US equity US Retail investors • Only US institutional investors were the main buyers ‘at the bottom’ • US Retail investors missed the big US Equity rally between Q 2/2010 and Q 1/2011. • Non-US investors (US equity funds domiciled ex US) stayed away in Q 2/Q 3 2010 8
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Fund Flows: The Big Picture Total Aggregate Equity, Fixed Income, and Money Market Fund Flows Recent flows are still largely in favor of Fixed Income funds, although the overall flight from equities has temporarily reversed course Global cross-asset allocation Developed vs. Emerging Market Equity Flows Until the recent rally, investors have shown a lack of confidence in equity markets, as flows continue to remain in the red over the past year Developed vs. Emerging Market Fixed Income Flows Demand for Emerging vs. Developed Market debt has skyrocketed this year as investors search for favorable yields 9
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Fund Flows: Practitioner examples and investment signals Global cross-asset allocation Flows provide additional information useful in the asset allocation process, including: • Future performance of equities vs bonds (using 4 week flows to risky assets vs mm) • Regional equity allocation • Sector allocation within fixed income Comparing strength of flows across regions as a ‘liquidity pulse’ Relative value Equity Trading Rule • The Liquidity Pulse compares the size of the current flow to a country or region (4 -week average flows as % of assets) with the average size of the flow in the last 13 weeks. • The relative size of the flows is given as standard deviation from the mean. Most powerful on a cross-sectional (regional) basis. Excess flows are shown to cause predictable and investable inflection points. The rule is based on 4 week total overall flows for GEM equity funds: • Outflow total greater than or equal to - $8 bn ‘buy’ signal • Inflows greater than or equal to $6. 5 bn ‘sell’ signal 10
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Practitioner Example: Global risk indicator Best call: On May 6 th 2010 – Bof. A backtesting indicates that GFSI would have flashed "sell. ” Risk assets sold off over the next 30 days, as equities corrected 5. 5%, commodities fell 8. 1% and HY bonds lost 2. 6% Chart 4 shows a backtested chart of the GFSI sell indicator and the performance of major asset classes. The GFSI would have warned of a major correction in risk assets on 6 th May 2010. Source: Bof. A Merrill Lynch Global Research, EPFR Global, Bloomberg; indexed to 100 in Oct’ 09 11
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Practitioner Example: Global cross-asset allocation Chart 10: End-of-month ‘best-of-two’ strategy for global equities vs global bonds based on the four-week average fund flows as a percentage of Au. M into risk assets and money market funds Chart 10 shows that the results of the monthly ‘best-of-two’ strategy for global equities and global bonds are similarly convincing. The strategy would have generated an excess return of roughly 8 pp per year before costs, and total return was more than twice the benchmark return with lower volatility. The strategy therefore clearly dominates the equally-weighted benchmark. Using money market returns as risk-free rate, the strategy has had a Sharpe ratio of 1. 3 since 2004, while the benchmark only had a Sharpe ratio of 0. 2. On average, funds would have to be switched between global equities and global bonds three times per year; so even including transaction costs, a significant excess return would have been earned. These results clearly suggest that the direction of flows into or out of risk assets and into or out of money market funds contains information about future performance of equities versus bonds. Source: EPFR, Datastream, Commerzbank Corporates & Markets 12
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Practitioner Example: Credit research analysis US Credit Outlook Support from the deep The ‘hidden force’ supporting asset prices is, of course, the flood of liquidity from the Fed. In his most recent testimony and elsewhere, Bernanke has deemed the fact that “equity prices have risen significantly, volatility in the equity market has fallen, [and] corporate bond spreads have narrowed” as evidence “that the Federal Reserve’s recent actions have been effective. ” By holding interest rates on cash at zero even as the economy has continued to recover, the Fed has left investors scrambling for return wherever they can find it. Much of the rally has been justified by the recovery in the economy, of course. Yet the fall in yields to their lowest levels since the 1960 s, the simultaneous rally in gold and recent sell-off in the dollar, leave us thinking that this is about more than just fundamentals. In some ways the fund flows speak louder than the actual market movements: investors have been selling cash assets to buy almost anything else. In 2010, much of this liquidity was making its way into EM; now that investors are growing nervous about political stability, it has again been channeled into US and developed markets (Figure 5). Even IG at 3% starts to look interesting when cash deposits and money market funds are yielding virtually nothing. Source: Citi Investment Research and Analysis, EPFR 13
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Country & Sector Allocations Overview Momentum Indicators • Using overall country weights against benchmark as a momentum signal Benchmarking • Comparing country/sector/cash positions with peer group Market Timing Fund Allocations Fund manager allocations at month-end across the countries or sectors they invest in. What are Fund Allocations? ü Monthly data reported by managers or • Tracking the ‘smart money’ – how funds get in/out at the optimal time administrators (based on holdings, fund factsheets) ü Fund level detail includes total fund assets, % weight in cash, % weight by country ü Includes funds registered globally not just US 14
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Country Allocations: Overview Actual country and regional weightings (in % of AUM) 15 15
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Country Allocations: Relative Country Weights Non-ETF Global Equity Fund Active Weights vs. MSCI ACWI ETF Americas Europe & Middle East Pacific Asia EMEA Latin America 16
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Country & Sector Flows Overview Derived data based on Fund Flows and Fund Allocations Country Fund or Sector Flows Allocations Updated daily, weekly, monthly Distribution of fund Fund manager allocations at flows by country or month-end across sector. Combines the countries or data from fund sectors they invest flows and fund in. allocations Unique high frequency view of cross border portfolio flows – driving valuations in FX, Equity, Bonds. What are Country Flows/Sector Flows ? ü EPFR multiplies the most recently Measures relative strength of flows at a Sector or Country level available Fund group allocations (to a country or sector) x Flows into that Fund Group - to estimate overall flows at a country or sector level. ü Allows users to analyze flows by fund group, ETF vs MF, and by domicile ü Includes funds registered globally not just those domiciled in the US ü EPFR also tracks flows to dedicated Sector Funds, as an alternative measure of demand for individual sectors 17
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Practitioner Examples: Sector Flows Cumulative 52 Week Flows Consumer Discretionary Consumer Stapes Energy Financials Healthcare Industrials Weekly Flows (% Au. M) Cumulative Sector Flows are still in the red for the most part, with the Materials sector being the only exception IT Telecom Materials Utilities 18
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Practitioner Examples: Global Country Allocation Model Utilizing Flows in Multi-Factor Asset Allocation Global Country Selection Model In this report, we demonstrate how utilizing EPFR Country Flows alongside standard investment factors add value to country allocation strategies Backtests using EPFR Fund Allocations and Fund Flows as factors in a global country selection model yield convincing results Investment factors • Active Country Flow compares one country to the cross sectional average • Active Investor Spread uses EPFR country allocations data to measure active, speculative investor activity in emerging markets Model Features • Provides an interactive environment for portfolio managers to backtest strategies with EPFR Fund Flow & Allocations data • Create custom country portfolios • Adjustable factor weightings and strategy parameters allow for a high level of adaptability 19
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA New research based on EPFR Global data Dec 2010 Oxford-MAN paper (Journal of Finance candidate) • What is the impact of fund liquidations (outflows) to equity valuations in emerging markets where foreign funds have big positions – and how can investors can use this information in their investment decisions FTSE - EPFR EM Fund Flows Index • Launched December 2010 the index uses weekly country flows data to improve country allocation and outperform the FTSE EM index Global Financial Stress Index • This new (Q 4 2010) Bof. A Merrill index measures global investor risk appetite analyzing daily flows to EM equity, High Yield bond, and Money Market funds Country / Sector / Regional allocation models, FX trading • EPFR is developing a suite a investment strategies to aid clients in the utilization of fund flow and allocations data directly in the investment process 20
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Sample Clients "The flow data from EPFR has proved to be a useful source of added value in some quantitative models of equity markets we have constructed. It provides an extra dimension of information to that available from the typical equity market databases used by quants and so affords an edge in performance over much of the competition. " Dr. Stephen Rees Head of Investment Process Research Schroders, London Sell Side Buy Side Government/Media “Emerging market mutual funds' country allocations appear to contain information on future equity returns beyond that contained in standard valuation and momentum indicators. ” Analyst Global Asset Allocation Research Team Salomon Smith Barney “I find the EPFR Global Country Weightings Report to be an invaluable tool in helping me track my competitors' regional and country allocations on a monthly basis. The Report is timely and very comprehensive. “ Brad Aham Portfolio Manager State Street Global Advisors 21
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA Company History 1994 1995 -1999 • EPFR Global founded Cambridge, Massachusetts USA • EPFR Global launches Russia Portfolio, Central Europe Portfolio and Brazil Portfolio: publications serving more than 600 institutional investor clients worldwide. 2000 • EPFR Global launches Research and Analysis Services, providing independent research services for investment management firms. 2001 • EPFR Global acquires Emerging Market Funds Research, Inc. , a database of global equity and fixed income funds. 2001 -2007 • EPFR Global expands fund database by four-fold to more than 15, 000 equity and fixed income funds with $10 trillion in assets. Client base expanded by nearly 10 -fold and includes leading institutional investors, global equity and fixed income analysts, strategists, investment managers, hedge funds, central bankers. 2008 • EPFR Global launches new Web Interface, new Country Flows data set, and Web Services for automated data delivery in trading and investment models. 2009 • EPFR Global launches delivery with Haver Analytics to provide weekly and monthly international fund flows data for equities, bonds and money markets. 2010 • EPFR Global acquired by Informa PLC 22
GLOBAL FUND FLOWS AND ALLOCATIONS DATA GLOBAL Key Contacts Dwight Ingalsbe Managing Director/Co-Founder Tel: (+1 -617) 864 -4999 ext. 26 Email: ingalsbe@epfr. com Brad Durham Managing Director/Co-Founder Tel: (+1 -617) 864 -4999 ext. 24 Email: durham@epfr. com Ian Wilson Managing Director, Fund Data Tel: (+1 -804) 217 -8653 Email: ian. wilson@epfr. com Simon Ringrose Managing Director, Sales Tel: (+1 -617) 864 -4999 ext. 30 Email: simon. ringrose@epfr. com Cameron Brandt Director, Research Tel: (+1 -617) 864 -4999 ext. 22 Email: brandt@epfr. com Patrick Paradiso Sales (Latin America) Tel: (+1 -917) 543 -6181 Email: patrick. paradiso@epfr. com Jean-Claude Moos Sales Executive Tel: (+1 -212) 907 -5814 Email: jcmoos@epfr. com Rikolv Hatlehol-Desai Sales Director (EMEA) Tel: (+44) 7766 805657 Email: rikolv@epfr. com Bin Peng Sales Director (North China) Tel: (+86) 10 6562 5321 Email: bin. peng@epfr. com Robert Sheridan Business Development Manager, Asia Tel: (+65) 8484 1094 Email: robert. sheridan@epfr. com Young-il Sunwoo Sales (Korea) Tel: (+821) 9608 -0101 Email: yisunwoo@dreamwiz. com Todd Willits Manager, Client Services Tel: (+1 -617) 864 -4999 ext. 27 Email: todd@epfr. com 23
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