Harry Markowitz by Yves Choueifaty

The afternoons of June 10th and 11th 2019 were amongst the most exciting times I have ever had in my professional life.

“I am what I read”.

This was the second sentence that Harry Markowitz said when welcoming me last June into his office in San Diego before inviting me to explore his library.

Please watch this second video of the encounter between Yves Choueifaty, and Nobel Prize Dr.Harry Markowitz:

Videos available in french and german

 

Fore more information and Yves’ personal feedback, please read our website Back to Markowitz

We are pleased to announce that TOBAM has been awarded “Emerging Markets Manager of the Year” at the 7th annual Pensions Age Awards on 27th of February 2020 in London at Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square.

This award adds to the strong recognition of TOBAM’s Emerging Market strategy which has also been previously awarded last May 2019 at the prestigious UK Pensions Award 2019 ( Click here ).

The main achievements that were outlined in TOBAM’s award entry were TOBAM’s commitment to the sustainability , the performance of the Anti-Benchmark® Emerging Markets strategy (outperforming the benchmark whilst reducing volatility) and the significant research capabilities of TOBAM. The entry notably highlighted how the Emerging Market strategy is a solution for investors looking to diversify away from the highly concentrated indices (MSCI EM’s top 5 (mainly IT stocks) represents close to 20% of the index, the same weight than the bottom 817 stocks).

The Pensions Age Awards are acknowledged as one of the  most prestigious accolades in the pensions industry. The Awards recognize the achievements and credit those who have contributed in a multitude of ways to the pensions industry over the past year.

The awards are rigorously judged by a panel of Managing Directors, Policy Leads, trustees and Partners who are highly regarded in the industry.

The Emerging markets category was extremely competitive. Other shortlisted firms included Artisan Partners, Ashmore Investment Management, Hermes Investment Management, HSBC Global Asset Management, Neuberger Berman, PGIM Fixed Income and Vontobel Asset Management.

As a part of the Emerging Market strategy, TOBAM believes that fundamental rights are a principal source of economic growth and supports Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders through a unique donation mechanism.

(Source: https://www.pensionsage.com/awards/ )

Disclaimer: These awards are not indicative of TOBAM’s future performance.

Dr. Tatjana Puhan joins TOBAM as Managing Director, Deputy Chief Investment Officer

Working with TOBAM President and CIO Yves Choueifaty, Dr. Puhan will lead investment teams and contribute to the development of TOBAM’s established Maximum Diversification® strategies across equities, multi-asset and fixed income asset classes. She will work closely with TOBAM’s Trading and Research teams to further develop the company’s strategic and research agenda. Tatjana will also support TOBAM’s product development and engagement with clients and intermediaries.

Dr. Puhan joins TOBAM from Swiss Life Asset Managers where she was Head of Equity and Asset Allocation. In this role, she was responsible for a number of the company’s flagship strategies, most notably its investment solutions utilising systematic and proprietary quantitative approaches, as well as contributing to Swiss Life Asset Managers’ asset allocation and equity research initiatives.

Dr. Puhan, who has more than 15 years’ investment experience, also brings a strong academic and research background.

Dr. Puhan holds a Master’s degree in Finance and Business Administration from the University of Hamburg, and gained her Ph.D. in Finance from the Swiss Financial Institute at the University of Zurich, with research fellow appointments at the University of Zurich, Kellogg Business School (Northwestern University) and the University of Hamburg. She is a lecturer in finance at the University of Mannheim and an associated researcher of the Hamburg Financial Research Center.

Commenting on the appointment, Yves Choueifaty, President and CIO at TOBAM, said: “Tatjana brings substantial knowledge to this role, with her experience in leading and developing research-driven systematic and quantitative investment strategies particularly aligned with TOBAM’s core activities. We are delighted to welcome her to the TOBAM team and believe her experience will prove invaluable to TOBAM’s research, product engineering and business development efforts.”

Dr. Tatjana Puhan added: “TOBAM has an excellent reputation for its delivery of innovative investment strategies, research and ability to meet the needs of some of the world’s most sophisticated institutional investors. I am excited to join such a talented team, particularly at a time when there is clear demand for the type of diversification-based solutions that TOBAM offers.”

Having the opportunity to discuss TOBAM’s approach, diversification and other topics with Harry Markowitz, the father of Modern Portfolio Theory in his office in San Diego, was a very moving experience for Yves Choueifaty, TOBAM’s founder and CEO.

Watch the video:

New strategies backed by major Swiss institutional investor

TOBAM is proud to announce the launch of its Anti-Benchmark® Switzerland Equity Strategy. The fund was launched in August 2019 with CHF75million in seed investment by a Swiss pension fund.

The new strategy applies the Anti-Benchmark approach to the Swiss equity market, offering investors with an innovative solution that maximizes diversification and mitigates concentration risk embedded in cap-weighted benchmarks.

Passive investment in Swiss equities is heavily biased towards few stocks: Nestle (22.6%), Novartis (14.5%) and Roche (14.2%) – making up 51% of the SPI index*. TOBAM’s Anti-Benchmark strategy represents a unique approach for investors looking for a core exposure to the Swiss market while avoiding structural biases.

TOBAM’s patented Maximum Diversification® approach is designed to offer a neutral allocation to all the effective independent risk factors available to each market and aims to deliver the equity risk premium to investors.

Applied to the Swiss market, such a strategy would enable investors to grasp the opportunities present within the Swiss equity universe by offering a well-diversified exposure. A diversified portfolio is typically expected to outperform the market cap-weighted index with less risk over a full market cycle.

The Paris-based asset manager has also launched an Anti-Benchmark® World ex-Switzerland strategy in October, seeded by a Swiss institutional investor for CHF90 million.
These two strategies complement TOBAM’s extensive list of equity strategies, which include the firm’s flagship funds AB ACWI Equity, AB Emerging Markets Equity and the AB Euro Equity, amongst others.

Christophe Roehri, Deputy CEO of TOBAM, said: “We see great potential for our strategy in the Swiss equity market. The equity landscape is dominated by a handful of major holdings, which makes for a highly concentrated market. That makes our Anti-Benchmark approach particularly appealing for investors looking to explore the untapped opportunity and diversity of the Swiss economy”.

Joe Kiwan, Product Specialist, Swiss Market Representative of TOBAM said: “TOBAM is proud to continue serving sophisticated Swiss investors, Swiss pension funds were among our first clients over 10 years ago. We now have an equity offering which is compelling for Swiss pensions: Switzerland and World ex-Switzerland is a typical split in their equity asset allocation.”