Hedge fund memos

Question

I am trying to gain some new ways of thinking about the markets via the memos published by funds or individual investors/economists. In particular, I have found insights by BlackRock very informative.

Besides this, what sites have the best insights about global macro or finance? Is there also a place that consolidates the top memos? Open to suggestions!

Answer 1

Here is my list of good research published by hedge funds / asset managers that are easily accessible.

AQR: https://www.aqr.com/Insights/Research/

Two Sigma: https://www.twosigma.com/insights/type/research/

Bridgewater: https://www.bridgewater.com/research-and-insights (they also have a famous daily newsletter that's not generally accessible)

Lord Abbett https://www.lordabbett.com/en/perspectives/weekly-fixed-income-update.html (click on "perspectives" for more sections)

GSAM: https://www.gsam.com/content/gsam/us/en/advisors/market-insights/gsam-insights/fixed-income-macro-views/global-fixed-income-weekly.html

Wellington: https://www.wellington.com/en/insights-asset-class/fixed-income/

PGIM: https://www.pgim.com/thought-leadership

Pimco: https://www.pimco.com/en-us/insights/

State Street: https://www.statestreet.com/ideas/publications.html

Blackstone: https://www.blackstone.com/insights/

Rayond James: https://www.raymondjames.com/commentary-and-insights/economy-policy/

Charles Schwab: https://www.schwab.com/resource-center/insights/category/fixed-income

TIAA Nuveen: https://www.nuveen.com/en-us/thinking

The sell side sometimes publishes excellent research, but generally don't make it freely available. (You have to have a relationship or pay for it) Generally only a few articles are freely available.

Citi GPS: https://www.citivelocity.com/citigps/

JPMorgan: https://www.jpmorgan.com/global/insights

Morgan Stanley: https://www.morganstanley.com/im/en-us/institutional-investor/insights.html

Wells Fargo: https://www.wellsfargo.com/investment-institute/weekly-market-commentary/

Answer 2

I am not sure following funds' or advisors' white papers is a so great idea since they may be biased to promote one vision on the way the markets operate. For instance, remember that Blackrock has been vocal about the need for a standardisation of corporate bonds few years ago (see FT in 2014). It is (in my opinion) a good direction, nevertheless it is certain that more standardisation reduces the cost of operation for such large asset managers.

A good option is

• select a subset of publications written by researchers from funds that are published in academic peer-reviewed journals (not journals owned by publishers with funds as main clients; I am talking about really standard, classical publishers like Wiley, Springer or World Scientific)
• look at papers published by public or independent agencies, like the ESMA, the IMF, etc.

For good entry points on the authors' side, I would suggest to follow academic papers written by Andrea Frazzini (AQR), Jean-Philippe Bouchaud (CFM), or Thierry Roncalli (Amundi). On organisations' side, ESMA Risk Dashboards are commenting the state of the market, yearly IMF Global Financial Stability Reports are great (you can read previous years reports since topics are different each time), Bank for International Settlements (BIS) quarterly reports are nice too.