Insights

INVESTED: July Edition

Good morning! Discover the latest trends and insights in this month’s Invested newsletter! Viewpoint Investment Partners Co-Founder Mac Van Wielingen shares powerful takeaways from his recent Business Council of Alberta speech. Learn how to maximize your multi-year donations with insights from the Viewpoint Foundation. Plus, explore Canada’s shifting economy in this month’s Trend Watch, as […]

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From the Desk of Our CIO

Gold Rush 2024: Geopolitical Shifts Provoke Central Bank Buying

  While it hasn’t had the splashiest of headlines like cocoa, coffee, or copper this year, gold has been putting together a solid rally over the course of 2024, with front-month roll-adjusted futures up +19.1% to July 17th. One of the most interesting things about the rally has been that it’s happening at the same […]

Frexit Fears Spark Investor Anxiety

Global equity markets have powered higher for the first half of 2024, gaining ground on strong margin growth and the prospect of declining inflationary pressures. The U.S. equity market has been a stand-out, increasing by +19.8% in CAD terms, brushing off geopolitical concerns and any uncertainty around the upcoming U.S. election in November. While election […]

Dairy Dilemma: Bird Flu Outbreak Sends Milk Markets into a Churn

If you thought the current macroeconomic landscape wasn’t interesting enough (e.g., ongoing geopolitical conflicts, election uncertainty, etc.), we can now add an influenza outbreak to the 2024 bingo card. In late March of this year, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) detected an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI H5N1), known informally as […]
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Research Roundup

Unlocking the Potential of Direct Commodities in Real Asset Funds

In the ever-evolving landscape of real asset investments, fund managers seek strategies to enhance portfolio resilience and performance. A compelling opportunity lies in the strategic allocation to direct commodities. This approach offers several advantages that align closely with the objectives of real asset funds, particularly those aiming for robust inflation protection, liquidity management, and diversification. […]
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Invested Newsletter

INVESTED: July Edition

Good morning! Discover the latest trends and insights in this month’s Invested newsletter! Viewpoint Investment Partners Co-Founder Mac Van Wielingen shares powerful takeaways from his recent Business Council of Alberta speech. Learn how to maximize your multi-year donations with insights from the Viewpoint Foundation. Plus, explore Canada’s shifting economy in this month’s Trend Watch, as […]

INVESTED: June Edition

Dive into the latest trends and insights in this month’s Invested newsletter! Viewpoint CCO Paula Sexsmith explores Canada’s T+1 settlement rule, while trust-based philanthropy is revolutionizing charitable giving. We also explore shifts in Canada’s financial and energy sectors and gain insights from Viewpoint CIO Scott Smith on the risk parity framework. Happy reading! VIEWPOINT SPOTLIGHT […]

INVESTED: May Edition

Explore the latest philanthropic trends, energy developments, and economic insights in this month’s Invested newsletter, featuring thought-provoking articles on the challenges of “biznification” in charity, the impact of the first TMX oil shipment, the shifting value of the Canadian dollar, and high-stakes developments in U.S.-China trade relations. Happy reading! VIEWPOINT SPOTLIGHT SCOTT SMITH FEATURED IN CANADIAN FAMILY […]
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News & Insights

Nurturing Responsible Wealth Inheritors

One of the great challenges that all parents face is how to raise independent, self-sufficient, motivated kids. This concern can be exacerbated among families of affluence, as inherited wealth comes with its own opportunities, challenges, and pitfalls. For individuals who have created wealth through entrepreneurial endeavours, hard work, and risk taking, the fear of how […]

Unraveling Market Mysteries One Equation at a Time

Using Greek letters, numbers, and equations to describe the world is strange. Before I embarked on a near decade-long academic pursuit in the field of theoretical physics, I distinctly remember thinking about this peculiarity while sitting in my high school physics class staring at Newton’s laws of kinematics. It really is strange that we have […]

Election Economics: Fiscal Frenzy & Market Musings

Much of the focus in financial markets over the past few months has been on the Federal Reserve and forecasts for when they will start to cut interest rates. At Viewpoint, we’ve been keenly interested in the interplay between monetary and fiscal policy, and the implications on the health of the economy. With election year […]
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Research Notes

Risk Parity & Pension Portfolios: A Perfect Match

Geek Level: Read Time: The Speed Read: Growth sleeves within a pension’s asset-liability framework are built with the intention of improving funded status, but depending on the path of different macroeconomic drivers, these portfolios can lead to adverse outcomes due to risk mismatches. Key risks in future pension liabilities include growth (both wage and economic), […]

Make Sure the Free Lunch Isn’t Moldy

Speed Read: The concept of diversification has a long history and is often considered “the only free lunch” in investing. The benefits of diversification are well studied in academic literature, but in practice, correlations between traditional assets like stocks and bonds can change, affecting the effectiveness of diversification. The correlation between U.S. stocks and U.S. […]

“Peeky” Blinders

When individuals have uncertainty about a specific product or idea, they will often look to what their peer group is doing to help them decide. Social proof is a behavioural bias that can lead to decision making errors. By embracing a process-driven research flow to guard against behavioural biases and data peeking, Viewpoint can distinguish between true and false alpha.
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White Paper

Revisiting Shrinkage: Covariance Matrix Estimation in the Modern Age

One of the great truisms in modelling is "garbage in, garbage out." In few places is that more important than in financial modelling.
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