Sure, among investors, passive investment strategies still can yield exposure to broad market data, according to wellington.com. 

Yet, for skilled active management, the new regime today, which is comprised of inflation and interest rates pointing north as well as an acceleration of dispersion across fixed income sectors and regions, is custom made for skilled active management, the site continued.

Considering that, among investors, the time now be just right to opportunistically position their portfolios.

Now, given the rebound of inflation’s largely a global matter, you might want to put the cookie cutter away. In Europe, inflation’s being fueled by catalysts that vary from the issue in the U.S. Distinct structural headwinds face each region – a divergence that, for investors, sparks possible opportunities.

In Europe, well, climbing inflation’s stems mainly from energy and food prices unfavorably tipping the scale. The spiraling price tags of these staples have been absorbed by businesses and consumers. Meantime, In the U.S., demand, more so, has been the impetus of recent pressures driven by inflation.

Their respective fixed income markets have priced in the duo threats of recession and sources of inflation in the euro area opposed to the U.S.

The brunt of the changes in interest rates potentially can be minimized through the active management of sensitivity to interest rates with duration positioning, according to gsam.com. Blunting sensitivity to rates changes could usher in positive returns in any rate environment.

It’s no secret that many active fund managers fail to beat their benchmarks over the long term, but investor trading activity in those funds is even worse. A Morningstar examination of investor returns in the largest active bond funds revealed self-destructive behavior by investors. According to Morningstar, investors in the 20 largest Intermediate Core Plus Bond funds, which have 10-year records, were so bad over the last ten years that they gave up more return than the Bloomberg US Aggregate index delivered. The average fund returned 2.11% annualized for the last ten years ending in August, while the Bloomberg US Aggregate index returned 1.35% return. Surprisingly, every single one of the 20 funds outperformed the index, but investors were not able to take advantage of this outperformance. Investors lost 75% of the average return the funds delivered, ending up with an 0.53% annualized return. Poor timing can account for the dismal returns for investors. Between 2021 and 2022, investors added $91 billion to the category looking for extra yield over the aggregate index. Unfortunately, this coincided with inflation which led to intermediate-term bond prices falling.

Finsum: Investors poured money into active fixed-income funds at the worst possible time, leading to massive underperformance compared to the funds.

Model portfolios? They’re making their presence felt.

Their use by advisors is one of the most significant factors now reshaping the financial product distribution terrain, according to broadridge.com.

Gaining a firm handle not only how – but why – advisors are leveraging the model portfolios yields insight into the idyllic sales approach required to lasso model driven fund and ETF assets. What’s more, its effect on the distribution strategies and subsequent profitability generated by asset managers talks with a big stick.

Within the $6.5 trillion investment advisory solutions industry, these types of models perpetually have played a key role, according to MMI.

Working from scratch, advisors can build each client portfolio in their book of business.  Not only that, using a more standardized approach, advisors, by tapping into broker/deal programs like rep-as-portfolio, can take their own models and run with them.

It doesn’t stop there. Advisors -- particularly IBDs and RIAs – have the leeway to hang onto discretion and executive models through emerging model marketplaces. 

The reason for their popularity are apparent, according to troweprice.com. Not only can they abet your ability to streamline your business, you also can pare risk. Another key attribute: they avail you the opportunity to devote more time to clients.

However, performance can vary wildly depending on the model, which can make discovering the idea fit you’re your client less than easy pickings.  

Exchange traded funds are the bomb as they play an "expanded role in portfolio construction," according to a recently released report by State Global Markets, the survey sponsor, reported pionlne.com.

Participating in the survey were 700 global institutional investors responsible for asset allocation decisions at pension funds, wealth managers, asset managers, endowments, foundations and sovereign wealth funds.

In fixed income, the outlook -- short term – is dominated by unrelenting inflation and upticks in central bank interest rates, according to ssga.com At the same time, however, investor implementation and fixed income allocations management are influenced by longer term, structural forces.   

And talk about a financial trend to swoon for. In fixed income ETFs, assets under management ballooned from $574 billion in 2017 to $1.28 trillion in 2021. Over the same time period, there was a rapid acceleration of in the number of funds -- from 278 to nearly 500.

The role of ETFs in asset allocation’s expanding to non-core sectors, the 2022 survey shows, according to the site. One example: 62% of investors who are increasing exposure to high-yield corporate credit over the next 12 months say it is likely they will use ETFs to do so, and 53% say the same for emerging-market debt.

Based on research released Monday, Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, believes that small-cap stocks have already priced in a recession and are currently de-risked. Calvasina noted that small-cap performance has been stable since January and is in a narrow trading range in comparison to large-caps. She stated, “While this doesn’t necessarily tell us that a bottom in the broader U.S. equity market is imminent, it does tell us that the equity market is behaving rationally. It has been our view for quite some time that small-caps, which underperformed large-cap dramatically in 2021, have already been de-risked and are baking in a recession.” She also pointed out the sectors that tend to perform best in the period leading up to the final rate increase in a rate-hike cycle. These include defensive sectors such as consumer staples, energy, financials, healthcare, and utilities. Calvasina wrote the sectors “tended to perform the best within the major index in the six-, three- and one-month periods before the final hikes in the past four Fed tightening cycles.”

Finsum: In a recent research note, Head RBC equity strategist Lori Calvasina believes that stable returns of small-cap stocks are due to recessionary factors already priced in.