Don't put all your eggs in the same basket", this is a well-known investment principle.
With the gradual deepening of the reform of China's financial market and its closer connection with the world, there are more and more types of products, channels and even regions that ordinary residents can invest in. Residents are desperate for a purposeful, well-styled, integrated solution to find a more reliable "basket" or combination of "baskets" to achieve the purpose of placing their eggs.
As a professional investment institution, the growing uncertainty of the macro environment in recent years has also become a huge test for the company. How can we better meet the asset allocation needs of investors and find a more certain basket for investors?How should investment objectives and methods evolve?How to upgrade the style of play and strategy?How teams can collaborate effectively ......All of them have put forward higher requirements for the company.
Look for a more reliable "basket".
Domestic asset management originated at the end of the last century, and in 2004, China Everbright Bank issued the first bank wealth management plan, marking the beginning of the fast lane of the asset management industry. The initial development of the industry is relatively extensive, the number of investable products is limited, which is nothing more than two categories of separated equity and bonds, and the investment strategy is relatively simple, which can be said to be most of the eggs in the same basket.
With the rapid accumulation of residents' wealth, the demands of investors have gradually become diversified, and a single asset or a single product can no longer meet the needs of investors. The asset management industry is also undergoing self-transformation, from pure equity to fixed income+, and then to all-weather multi-asset, algorithm tools have begun to be widely used, and the variety of assets, the diversity of the market and the richness of strategies have been effectively improved.
While the asset management industry is iterating itself, the industry is ushering in rounds of supervision, high-yield trust plans have withdrawn, bank wealth management with guaranteed principal and income has become a thing of the past, black swans and gray rhinoceros incidents are frequent, and the internal and external market environment is becoming more and more complex.
In the face of a complex investment environment, is the investment goal still to pursue high odds and high elasticity, or to pay more attention to high winning rate and certainty?Is the starting point of the investment still oriented to expected returns, or is it based on a risk budget?The investment method still relies on the personal subjective ability of the manager, or does it turn to a systematic investment that combines teamwork and subjectivity with quantification?How to find certainty for customers in such an environment, and find reliable "baskets" and portfolios is a topic that every asset management institution needs to answer.
From "going it alone" to "fighting as a team".
From bonds, private to mixed assets, from special accounts, public offerings to FOF, from subjective, quantitative to risk control, from the study of individual bonds to the study of macro allocation, CEIBS has been looking for a reliable "basket" portfolio. After more than 10 years of experience in the market, based on the team's overall investment cognition and collision of thinking, combined with the company's cultural characteristics, CEIBS** has explored a "multi-asset solution".
"Multi-asset and solution" from the beginning of the naming means the division of labor and collaboration of multiple links, no longer a simple stock and debt division management, nor is it a single manager alone, but the need to form a professional tacit team.
Huang Hua, Director of Multi-Asset and Solution Investment Department, gave three major requirements for current team members: diversified background, quantitative thinking, and systematic cognition.
The first is the diversity of backgrounds. In recent years, star managers have attracted wide attention, and they are sought after by the market when their performance is booming, and once their performance declines, they will have to bear huge pressure, which is not conducive to the stability of product scale, and its disadvantages are obvious. In the multi-asset solution, each team member is involved in different fields and has their own expertise: Hua Licheng is good at large-scale asset allocation, Xu Wenxing grasps equity investment strategy, Zhang Xueming focuses on strategy development and investment research platform construction, Xiang Aixu focuses on risk control and performance attribution, and Xu Guangyu tracks overseas markets and asset allocation.
The second is quantitative thinking. Quantification is a language, a way of expression, and a way of collaborating. Find the relationship between strategies and factors through quantification, and avoid the problem that it is easy for managers to communicate with different assets. Use quantification as the language of communication within the department to improve the ability of collaboration within the department.
Finally, there is systematic cognition. There is a high degree of consensus on the systematic development of asset management business and the goal is consistent.
In accordance with such strict requirements, the multi-asset team has assembled a group of investment backbones of similar age, common goals and different experiences. Each member's work has a division of labor and overlap, a single manager does not stand in front of the stage, but more to serve a certain link in the investment process, standing behind the scenes of the "solution", and strive to achieve asset management "from a single strategy to multiple strategies, from a single manager to industrial production" transformation of the innovative work model.
Systematic investment advancement.
With the accumulation of wealth, the eggs in the hands of residents gradually become more, and for the first company, in addition to looking for a reliable "basket" combination, how to distribute eggs more effectively, whether the strategy of dividing eggs keeps pace with the times, whether it can adapt to the rhythm and changes of the market, but also tests the professionalism of the team and the tacit understanding of cooperation.
Huang Hua said that what the CEIBS multi-asset and solution team has tried is not only the "industrialization" of the production model, but also the "solutionization" of the product form, "from emphasizing individual ability to teamwork to win, on the basis of clear investment objectives, through asset allocation, multiple strategies and risk control attribution, to obtain stable and clear absolute returns, rather than blindly pursuing high returns under high volatility." ”
Specifically, the systematic investment process includes clear investment objectives, reasonable asset allocation, diversified strategic portfolios and clear performance attribution, and the entire investment decision-making process is highly standardized and disciplined. This is also the only way to systematically invest in "from a single strategy to multiple strategies, from a single manager to industrial production". Based on their respective areas of expertise, the three members of the CEIBS multi-asset team shared their views on asset allocation, equity strategy, and quantitative production.
Scientific and reasonable asset allocation is an important cornerstone of the solution. It is worth mentioning that the CEIBS multi-asset team does not use assets as the cornerstone of portfolio allocation, but uses various strategies as the cornerstone of portfolio allocation. From a strategic point of view, it actually increases the breadth of investment, so that the public offering can find as much diversification as possible in the case of a relatively limited asset class, that is, in the case of a limited "basket" portfolio, the allocation of eggs is increased as much as possible. "Asset allocation is more used to keep the lower limit, and it also provides us with an explainable, replicable and sustainable system, which becomes a bridge for managers to communicate with customers. Hua Licheng said.
So how to extract a clear and stable diversified equity strategy from the volatile market?This key step was completed by Xu Wenxing, a ** manager who has been deeply involved in equity investment for many years. He pointed out that from the perspective of business model, enterprises that can create excess returns in the long term can be divided into four categories: quality, prosperity, value and dividends, which also constitute the underlying strategy of multi-asset solutions. "When the mapping relationship is relatively sufficient and the logic is self-consistent, we can use quantitative methods to summarize and abstract the most important core variables, and summarize them into investment paradigms, investment styles, and investment frameworks, and turn them into smart betas. He admits that in a fast-changing market, it is difficult to achieve accurate style rotation with a single strategy iteration, but this problem can be solved through the negative correlation of the underlying strategy configuration.
With the logic of a subjective strategy, the next step is to produce quantitatively. This is what Zhang Xueming, the "quantitative expert" in the team, is best at. He once served as the director and partner of the investment department of an excellent private equity of 10 billion yuan, and has a good understanding of the assembly-line and factory-based private equity production model. One of the first things he did when he joined the team was to build a more efficient production model, including a strategic production platform, a performance attribution platform, and the introduction and application of new technologies. Since the private placement model does not fully match the needs of public public financial management, such as private equity is more in pursuit of short-term return maximization, short holding period, high turnover rate, black box, etc., Zhang Xueming's change is to shift from a single short-term income drive to obtain multi-dimensional long-term returnsFrom black box to transparency, subjective and quantitative are deeply integrated to achieve clearer income characteristics, and strive to achieve explainable, replicable and sustainable returns for investors.
Epilogue. With the rapid development of the market, the demands of investors are becoming more and more diverse, but the theory of "eggs" and "baskets" is still outdated. With the gradual expansion of investable products and channels, and the wide application of various fintech tools, different asset management institutions will have different thoughts and solutions. How to navigate through the fog of the market, find a clear path, realize more value for investors, and stand out from the fierce competition will be left to the test of time.
Risk Warning: **There is a risk, and you need to be cautious when investing. The above content is for informational purposes only and is not indicative of future performance and is not intended as investment advice. The views expressed herein and ** are current and subject to change. Do not quote or ** without consent.