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The devil is in the timing
15 March 2021

The devil is in the timing

Market Insights
Former US President Harry Truman once pleaded “give me a one-handed economist”, having tired of his advisers proclaiming “on the one hand, this” but “on the other hand, that”. The investor debate on whether rising bond yields and, potentially, higher inflation (however transitory) are signs of recovery and reflation or, rather, a market setback as central banks may tighten policy, feels a bit like this.
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Optimal portfolios in a low yield world
08 March 2021

Optimal portfolios in a low yield world

Market Insights
The third piece in a series exploring our approach to strategic asset allocation takes a closer look at our expected evolution for eurozone government bond yields and the role they play in optimising the risk and return balance in well- diversified portfolios.
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Liquid markets
08 March 2021

Liquid markets

Market Insights
Martial artist and movie star Bruce Lee famously summarised his philosophy as “be water”. He meant that adaptability is a key skill (“be formless, shapeless, like water”) and that the same thing can have different effects depending on how sudden, fast the movement is (“water can flow or it can crash”). The rise in bond yields is just like this.
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Emerging issues
01 March 2021

Emerging issues

Market Insights
Our scorecards for emerging markets highlight where fundamentals are resilient and where they’re not. These measures are especially important if bond yields overshoot their forecasts.
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It takes two to tango
01 March 2021

It takes two to tango

Market Insights
Back in the 1990s, investors worried about a potential spike in bond yields if Bill Clinton pushed through with his plan of economic stimulus. James Carville, his adviser, joked that, rather than as the next US president or a baseball player, he wanted to be reincarnated as the bond market, because “you can intimidate everybody”.
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Philip Tremble named Group Chief Risk Officer at Quintet Private Bank
25 February 2021

Philip Tremble named Group Chief Risk Officer at Quintet Private Bank

Leading risk management professional to bring decades of global experience and industry insight to new role at Quintet
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It's all SPAC-tacular
22 February 2021

It's all SPAC-tacular

Market Insights
The most popular questions these days aren’t so much about what’s going on in the macro space. They’re about things ranging from the rise of SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, to cryptocurrencies and the role of retail trading. Pockets of investors seem to worry that ‘excessive exuberance’ could create instability in the marketplace.
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It's not rocket science
15 February 2021

It's not rocket science

Market Insights
The case for cyclical improvement, by now, is widely shared in the marketplace. But, in one respect, our outlook is more optimistic: we see a compelling case for structural improvement over the longer horizon too. For much of the past couple of decades the impact of innovation has underwhelmed many forecasters.
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Earnings season: beating expectations again
15 February 2021

Earnings season: beating expectations again

Market Insights
The fourth-quarter earnings season highlighted once again that consensus expectations for corporate profits have been too conservative as the world adapts to and slowly emerges from the pandemic.
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European bank debt: where are the opportunities?
08 February 2021

European bank debt: where are the opportunities?

Market Insights
There are potentially attractive yields on offer for fixed income investors in selected parts of the European financial bond market.
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The numbers game
08 February 2021

The numbers game

Market Insights
There’s an old riddle about a lily pad in a pond: the lily pad doubles in size every day and after 30 days it completely covers the pond; on what day does the lily pad cover half the pond? If you answered without really thinking about it, you probably answered “day 15”. Our mind tends to think linearly: if the lily pad covers the entire pond in 30 days than it must cover half of it in 15 days.
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Henrik Drusebjerg named Head of Nordic Investment Strategy at Quintet
03 February 2021

Henrik Drusebjerg named Head of Nordic Investment Strategy at Quintet

Leading Copenhagen-based investment strategist to assume new role at Denmark’s newest private bank
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Strategy primer: sustainable leaders
01 February 2021

Strategy primer: sustainable leaders

ESG
Quintet’s sustainable investing philosophy comprises a toolkit of approaches and dedicated assets. In this primer we deep dive into the leader approach – the most popular sustainable investing strategy.
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Inflation superheroes
01 February 2021

Inflation superheroes

Market Insights
The ripple effects of the GameStop saga and the short squeeze on hedge funds show how interconnected markets are. If they’re like webs of investors, central banks are the spiders at their centres. By declaring that they’ll allow inflation overshoots to make up for past misses, central banks are trying to push inflation expectations significantly higher. We see two risks.
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Big government
25 January 2021

Big government

Market Insights
Governments that want their debt burdens to diminish must follow one of three broadly defined paths. First, they can try to pay back the loans. Second, they can decide not to pay, or agree with creditors to pay less than they owe. Third, they can wait it out, rolling over their debts while hoping that they shrink relative to the economy over time.
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The point of bitcoin
18 January 2021

The point of bitcoin

Invest differently
How should investors think about cryptocurrencies in general and bitcoin in particular? Are they an alternative form of money, an asset such as a commodity, an emerging technology or perhaps a speculative bubble?
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The eternal zero
18 January 2021

The eternal zero

Market Insights
The most famous quote from The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa is, of course, “everything needs to change, so everything can stay the same”. The novel chronicles the changes in Sicilian society during the Risorgimento. While the context is very different, our Counterpoint 2021 tells a story of change and continuity too.
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Eli Leenaars appointed Group Chief Operating Officer at Quintet Private Bank
12 January 2021

Eli Leenaars appointed Group Chief Operating Officer at Quintet Private Bank

Highly experienced financial services professional to join private banking group’s leadership team
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Spring is coming
11 January 2021

Spring is coming

Market Insights
Why do we have economic forecasts? To make weather forecasts look good. The joke is an old one. But, with normal life thrown off course by Covid-19, investors might be forgiven for taking economists’ advice with a pinch of salt and scrutinising the latest rain alerts instead. With lockdowns still in place, moving around, gathering together and many other activities remain constrained.
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The early-cycle playbook
07 January 2021

The early-cycle playbook

Market Insights
There are two types of forecasters: those who don’t know and those who don’t know they don’t know. Making predictions about how tomorrow may differ from today is obviously tricky. The thing is that there are so many cross-currents that, when one has it all figured it out, something else happens.
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