The road map to success
by Stephen Nguyen, CFA

At today’s historically low yield levels, bonds offer significantly less protection and diversification benefit compared to the past. In this new low rate environment, the traditional ‘balanced’ portfolio may no longer be balanced. We spend a lot of time deriving the optimal SAA for our clients. Our optimisation is multi-faceted and goes beyond simply maximising returns for a given amount of risk. We include a wider range of asset classes in our SAA’s to increase the naturally occurring diversification benefits and consider how those asset classes behave in combination with one another. Based on these optimisation metrics, we then generate thousands, sometimes millions, of possible portfolio combinations.

Market Snapshot

• A mixed picture as global equities returned 0.4% last week
• Global deaths from Covid-19 surpass 800K
• Brent crude fell 1.0% ending the week at $44.4 a barrel
• Gold fell -0.2% to end the week at $1940.5 an ounce

Fast forward 10 years
by Jackson Franks

Former R&B singer and now entrepreneur Akon, announced in January 2020 that his vision to develop Akon City is becoming ever closer to reality. Situated in a small coastal village in the west of Senegal, Akon City will be 100% cryptocurrency based with AKoin (a cryptocurrency established by Akon) at the centre of all transactional life. Although I don’t see the world being run on cryptocurrency anytime soon, I do believe the real estate assets we see today will look and feel very different ten years from now.

Recently, Simon Property Group, a mall operator, announced they are in talks with Amazon about turning their department-store sites into Amazon fulfilment centres.

Market Snapshot

• The S&P 500 index moved to within 0.2% of its all-time high in February
• Russia announced regulatory approval for a vaccine – the first country to do so
• Brent crude rose 0.9% ending the week at $44.8 a barrel
• Gold fell -4.4% to end the week at $1945.1 an ounce

Safe Hands for Troubled Times
by Robert White, CFA

In a world where unprecedented events seem to be happening with regular occurrence, it is more important than ever to find stewards of capital with the talent, temperament and expertise to navigate through such uncertain times. This is no easy task and recent studies have reminded us that past performance in isolation is not a sufficient guide. Here at Momentum, we believe the key lies in thorough due diligence backed by an experienced and independent research team.

Market Snapshot

• The tech rift between the US and China intensified last week.
• A positive week for markets as global equities rose 2.2%.
• Brent crude rose 2.5% ending the week at $44.4 a barrel.
• Gold rose 3.0% to $2035.5 an ounce

Spaghetti Western
by Lorenzo La Posta

“Year 1862: amid the chaos of the American Civil War, the three gunslingers Blondie, Angel Eyes and Tuco (a.k.a. the Good, the Bad and the Ugly) are competing to put their hands on a buried cache of gold, but onl– “…wait! I got it wrong. It was something like: “Year 2020: amid the chaos of a global pandemic, some industries thrive (the Good) as others go through a rough patch (the Bad), while countries, economies and societies strive to recover from their wounds (the Ugly)”. This year, the outcomes have been more extreme than most Hollywood creations. Let’s just hope there will be no sequel to this tragic period.

Market Snapshot

• The US Dollar had its worst month for a decade
• Moderna has begun its late-stage vaccine trial on 30,000 people in the US
• Brent crude fell -0.1% ending the week at $43.3 a barrel
• Gold rose 3.9% to end the week at an all-time high of $1975.9 an ounce