Benchmark Agnostic in an Era of Index Mania

It’s not that agnostics don’t care, they’re just indifferent.  They neither place faith in nor disbelief with the subject at hand. That, in a nutshell, is our view of the makeup of the S&P 500, one of the benchmarks to which we compare the performance of our strategies.  Specifically, it is the sector weightings within the S&P 500 to which we are indifferent.

“We’re bottom up investors who build our portfolios one stock at a time,” said Prospector Portfolio Manager Kevin O’Brien, CFA. “We’re aware of what the benchmark weights are, but we are not a slave to them… We want to pick the best stocks.”

This bottom-up portfolio construction can lead to significant sector under and overweights versus the S&P 500. One sector we tend to be overweight is financials, a natural area of strength where we have consistently added alpha over time.  “Over twenty-plus years we have proven we can manage the downside, even when overweight financials,” said Prospector Founder and Portfolio Manager John Gillespie.  “We’ve done this by focusing on low leverage, well capitalized companies.”

We tend to also be overweight defensive sectors such as consumer staples and healthcare. On the flip side, technology, consumer discretionary and energy tend, more often than not, to be perpetual underweights in the portfolios



Read Portfolio Manager Q&A

 

 

Sign Up To Receive Our Market Insights.

The views described herein do not constitute investment advice, are not a guarantee of future performance, and are not intended as an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase or sale of any security. Investing involves risk, including loss of principal. Investors should consider the investment objective, risks, charges and expenses of a Fund carefully before investing. Please review the offering memorandum or prospectus of a Fund for a complete discussion of the Fund’s risks which include, but are not limited to: possible loss of principal amount invested; stock market risk; value risk; interest rate risk; income risk; credit risk; foreign securities risk; currency risk and derivatives risk.

Nothing contained herein constitutes investment, legal, tax, or other advice nor should be relied upon in making an investment or other decision. Any projections, outlooks or estimates contained herein are forward looking statements based upon specific assumptions and should not be construed as indicative of any actual events that have occurred or may occur. 

This site uses cookies to enhance your website experience. By subscribing to our Market Insights, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. See our cookie policy here