PERSPECTIVES
These pieces are thoughts, updates, and announcements from Counterpoint Funds’ portfolio managers, Michael Krause and Joseph Engelberg.
May 10, 2021
Do You Know Your Core Bonds’ Duration Risk?A rapid spike in interest rates to start 2021 has prompted many investors to rethink their approach to core fixed income. Today, US fiscal policy…
Read more.April 1, 2021
Rising Rates – Time To Get a Little CreativeInvestor confidence for most has been shaken in recent months amid a rise in long-term interest rates and a pullback in the tech stocks that…
Read more.March 15, 2021
ESG Stocks Are Actually Just Expensive StocksEnvironmental, social, and governance (ESG) stock investing strategies are designed to make the world a better place by investing in companies that rate highly on…
Read more.February 4, 2021
The You-Only-Live-Once (YOLO) PortfolioAs crazy as it sounds, the YOLO traders of 2020 and 2021 are not necessarily doomed. These call option – happy investors, who frequent the…
Read more.January 25, 2021
When Should You Go Risk Off“When are you going risk-off?” Investors in any sort of tactical allocation strategy want to know: What type of event, what type of environment, what…
Read more.December 11, 2020
Why You Shouldn’t Time Tax Hikes With MunisEven when you’re sure a tax hike is coming; we believe you probably should avoid making any hasty decisions about your exposure to tax exempt…
Read more.November 18, 2020
Don’t Fall off a Cliff Chasing High YieldInvestors need to understand how their strategies can handle market downturns, especially when market prices are rising despite bearish economic evidence. Tactical high yield investment…
Read more.November 18, 2020
Need a Fixed Income Boost?Investors that seek to boost investment income might consider tactical high yield strategies, as they have historically offered attractive cash flows and a strong risk-reward…
Read more.October 20, 2020
One For the TINAsWe have information for investors who are rightly skeptical of today’s bond market and tilting their portfolios toward stocks. What we’re offering is unconventional, and…
Read more.September 21, 2020
How Tactical High Yield Municipal Strategies Fit in a PortfolioWe believe investors looking to earn tax-exempt income while actively managing downside risk should consider tactical trend following strategies in high yield municipal bonds. These…
Read more.September 21, 2020
How Tactical High Yield Income Strategies Handle Rising DefaultsAn eye-catching rise in corporate default rates has investors wondering whether now is a good time to invest in high-yield corporate bonds. We believe investors…
Read more.August 26, 2020
Can you Time Risky Muni Bonds?The municipal bond asset class shocked investors in March of 2020 by delivering their sharpest drawdown in at least 5 years. In only two weeks,…
Read more.August 26, 2020
Stay Away From TINA: The Case for Bonds (and Alternatives)As interest rates hit record lows, some investors argue that bonds are no longer a useful diversification tool. Howard Lindzon of StockTwits and Ron Lagnado…
Read more.July 21, 2020
How Tactical High Yield Fits in an Investment PortfolioWhen considering an investment for inclusion in a portfolio, it can be helpful to look at a few summary statistics. Annualized Return gives a historical…
Read more.June 23, 2020
Living With COVID-19 In the Financial MarketsAfter screeching to a halt in March and April, the global economy has begun to show signs of forward progress. In day to day life,…
Read more.May 27, 2020
Why Diversifier Strategies MatterDiversifier strategies seek to strengthen portfolios by functioning as a separate asset class, distinct from stocks and bonds. They target investment returns that are traditionally…
Read more.April 2, 2020
The Investment Advisor’s Internal War: A Play in One Act[We open on the interior of an office, where a single investment professional sits at a trading station. The NARRATOR enters stage right.] Narrator: As…
Read more.March 4, 2020
Where Does Tactical High Yield Fit?The addition of tactical trend following in fixed income can greatly benefit a traditional stock-and-bond portfolio. In How To Shelter from Macro Shocks, we discussed…
Read more.October 28, 2019
Rules of Thumb and A Big Investing MistakeA common rule of thumb (or, in academic-speak, “heuristic”) is leading investors to see too much promise in too many firms. This mistake has led…
Read more.September 11, 2019
Outsmart The Crowd By Letting Your Strategy Do The WorkAmid concerns about slowing economic growth and the U.S. national debt, investors are again wondering what might happen to their portfolios in a declining interest…
Read more.August 20, 2019
How Tactical High Yield Strategies Handle Falling Interest RatesBond investors and their advisors’ attitude toward interest rate risk tends to fluctuate over time. Sometimes, it’s a major consideration – other times, not so…
Read more.July 22, 2019
Increasing the Sharpe Ratio of Your Balanced PortfolioAllocating to a trend-following strategy in high yield credit can improve both portfolio risk and return compared with traditional buy-and-hold strategies. This finding provides advisors…
Read more.April 25, 2019
The Not-So-Safe 60/40 PortfolioA 60/40 split between buy-and-hold positions in stocks and bonds is a time-honored, set-and-forget, plain-vanilla asset allocation – so much so that it’s often shorthand…
Read more.March 22, 2019
Tax Advantaged Investing with Tactical DiversificationTrend-following strategies applied to high yield corporate and municipal credit may allow investors to mitigate the downside while seeking reasonable returns. In this piece we…
Read more.February 15, 2019
The Keys to Smart Equity InvestingIn today’s hypercompetitive investment landscape, active investment managers must earn their fees by targeting genuine opportunities to outperform. To do this, managers need to use…
Read more.January 18, 2019
Vaccinate Your Bond PortfolioMarkets delivered a rough close to 2018. Risky asset prices whipsawed, and a bear market in U.S. equities may have taken hold. Investors who had…
Read more.December 18, 2018
What’s Going On With High Yield?As the year draws to a close and many investors are confronting short-term turbulence in riskier asset classes, now is a good time to evaluate…
Read more.November 19, 2018
Add A Dash Of TacticalThe life of the investment advisor is full of challenges. Robo-advisors, indexing, and other low-cost options have entered the market, and clients are increasingly prepared…
Read more.October 16, 2018
How to Shelter from Macro ShocksAmid recent sharp daily declines in broad U.S. stock indices, advisors and portfolio managers are once again preparing their clients for possible sharp declines in…
Read more.September 25, 2018
How To Invest in a Bulletproof MarketAs we head into the fourth quarter of 2018, investors have plenty to worry about. From the yield curve pointing to rising odds of a…
Read more.August 23, 2018
Bigger Isn’t Always BetterMarkets always find new ways to challenge investors. In a difficult environment for quantitative factor-driven strategies, merely having factor diversification, substantial portfolio exposure to short…
Read more.July 10, 2018
Where Factor Investing Has WorkedCounterpoint Tactical Equity and Counterpoint Long-Short Equity funds are built on confidence in the advantages of adding international names to our multifactor long-short stock portfolios.…
Read more.June 21, 2018
How Counterpoint Equity Funds Look At International StocksQuantitative portfolio decisions can seem mysterious, even to experienced investors. To illustrate how Counterpoint Tactical Equity and Counterpoint Long-Short Equity size up international stocks, we…
Read more.May 22, 2018
Slim Pickings for Active Bond ManagersImagine you’re an active bond portfolio manager. Your investors hire you to outperform an index, and you do this by buying the best bonds you…
Read more.April 24, 2018
Where Did All the Alpha Go?We all know the 2008 financial crisis completely upended Wall Street. Storied firms disappeared; Dodd Frank ushered in a new regulatory regime; and central bankers…
Read more.March 22, 2018
There’s a Bubble in Trashing (Some) Active ManagementAt the end of 2017 Warren Buffett, the most successful stock picker of the 20th century, won a $1 million bet against a hedge fund…
Read more.February 27, 2018
High Yield’s Exposure to Stock Market RiskAfter a steep drawdown and the return of volatility to U.S. stocks in recent weeks, it’s worth investigating the level of stock market risk an…
Read more.February 20, 2018
How Counterpoint Equity Funds Look At StocksA quantitative system that ranks stocks according to factors that have historically explained investment returns is not always easy to grasp in the abstract. To…
Read more.January 18, 2018
Counterpoint Tactical Income, Tactical Equity, and Long-Short Equity January 2018 Fund… Tactical Income Update Looking at the past year, 2017 has been friendly to passive indexing strategies. The S&P 500 reached new all-time highs; high yield…
Read more.January 9, 2018
Counterpoint Mutual Funds, LLC, Announces a Five-Star Morningstar RatingSAN DIEGO, CA–(Jan 9, 2018) – Counterpoint Mutual Funds, LLC, announced today Morningstar, Inc., a provider of data and research insights on a wide range…
Read more.December 15, 2017
Dealing With False Signals in Trend Following StrategiesA few weeks of bearish action for high yield indexes and related funds briefly captured market commentators’ imaginations last month. After reaching a high of…
Read more.November 27, 2017
How and When to Look for a RecessionNearly a decade after the Federal Reserve’s interventions during the Great Financial Crisis, investors have been questioning whether Fed policy has corrupted the yield curve,…
Read more.September 19, 2017
Counterpoint Tactical Income and Tactical Equity Fund September 2017 UpdateCounterpoint Tactical Income The Fund remains invested in a risk-on posture, positioned in high-yield corporate bonds. Our assessment of the high yield credit market remains…
Read more.August 23, 2017
Trend Following in High Yield: Appearances Can Be DeceivingCounterpoint Tactical Income investors have lately raised concerns about fundamental valuations in high yield corporate credit. These concerns are understandable: High yield option adjusted spreads,…
Read more.July 21, 2017
Are Factor Returns Still A Factor?As stock indices continue to soar to all-time highs and painful drawdowns remain scarce, investors have begun to question the value of active strategies. They…
Read more.June 23, 2017
Counterpoint Tactical Income June 2017 Fund Update“The investor’s chief problem – and even his worst enemy – is likely to be himself.” – Famed investor Benjamin Graham Drawdowns in portfolio value…
Read more.April 20, 2017
Do Bubbles Exist?In the Counterpoint Tactical Equity Fund, systematically choosing the right time to take on broad equity market risk is a challenge we continually strive to…
Read more.February 24, 2017
High Yield in a Rising Rate EnvironmentThe Counterpoint Tactical Income Fund is currently in a “risk on” position, allocating to high yield bond assets. Investors have lately voiced concerns about the…
Read more.January 17, 2017
January 2017 UpdateNew Year Update The Counterpoint Tactical Income Fund is currently in a risk-on position, invested in high-yield corporate credit. Morningstar ranked the Fund’s performance in…
Read more.November 28, 2016
Counterpoint Tactical Income and Tactical Equity November 2016 Fund UpdateElection macro impacts Markets have been working to price in the electoral results. The recent risk-on reaction seems to have resulted from an expected reduction…
Read more.September 15, 2016
Counterpoint Tactical Income and Tactical Equity September 2016 UpdateCounterpoint Tactical Income Fund Update The Fund remains invested in US High Yield Corporate bonds. As of September 15, the High Yield All Cash Bonds…
Read more.August 16, 2016
Counterpoint Tactical Income and Tactical Equity August 2016 UpdateCounterpoint Tactical Income Fund Update The Counterpoint Tactical Income Fund remains invested in US High Yield Corporate bonds. As of August 16, the BofA Merrill…
Read more.June 22, 2016
Counterpoint Tactical Income and Tactical Equity June 2016 Fund UpdateCounterpoint Tactical Income Fund Update The Fund remains invested in high yield credit. As of June 21, the BofA Merrill Lynch High Yield Bond Master…
Read more.April 16, 2016
Counterpoint Tactical Income and Tactical Equity April 2016 Fund UpdateCounterpoint Tactical Income Fund Update The Fund is currently positioned in a “risk-on” manner, holding exposure to high yield bonds. The high yield market began…
Read more.February 23, 2016
The Buy and Hold ReligionIn investing, the following commandments are the religious truths governing the cult of Buy and Hold. If your belief wavers, you risk committing moral blasphemy:…
Read more.January 19, 2016
Is “Smart” Money Smart?Investors pay professional money managers because of managers’ reputation for identifying and exploiting mispriced assets in an effort to beat the market. However, recent evidence…
Read more.Mutual Funds involve risk including the possible loss of principal. Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the funds managed by Counterpoint Mutual Funds. This and other important information about the funds is available in their prospectuses, which can be obtained at counterpointmutualfunds.com or by calling 844-273-8637. The prospectuses should be read carefully before investing. The Counterpoint Mutual Funds fund family is distributed by Northern Lights Distributors, LLC member FINRA/SIPC. To reach the Counterpoint sales team, please refer to our contact page.
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