Investment Capabilities
Fixed Income
Core Fixed Income Strategy
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Core Fixed Income Strategy |
Investment Capabilities
Fixed Income
Core Fixed Income Strategy
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The team believes that markets can be inefficient and by performing rigorous analysis the team can position portfolios appropriately to add value over time. Bond prices reflect market forecasts for a variety of factors, such as economic growth, inflation, monetary policy, credit risk, and prepayment risk; yet markets tend to be poor forecasters of future events, especially when the implied market forecasts are out of line relative to historic trends. The team seeks to identify these mispricings and position client portfolios to exploit the value inherent in these opportunities.
The team believes that successful portfolio management depends on four factors:
Customization |
The team delivers fixed income expertise in a customized, solutions-based approach that optimizes the application of the team's global resources to the investment objectives of the individual client. The team is client-centric in all aspects of the relationship. |
Right-Sized |
As a mid-sized asset manager, the team has the depth and breadth of resources to provide our clients with options ranging from highly customized strategies to standardized fund options. The team benefits from a collaborative structure based on small team of sector specialists enabling the team to confidently implement investment themes across portfolios. |
Extensive Resources of a Global Firm |
MSIM has a cohesive team of fixed income specialists in New York, London, Singapore and Tokyo who can identify opportunities to capture returns in all major markets worldwide. They bring together an impressive range of market experience, intellectual rigour and academic achievements. |
Intensive Risk Management |
At the strategy level, the team integrates daily monitoring that ensures compliance with guidelines and quantifies portfolio risk exposures. At the firm level, the risk management team operates independently of the business functions. |
1 | Macro Analysis: |
The team seeks to determine what themes are driving asset prices across rates, countries and currencies and to evaluate the investment opportunity set based on a thematic investment thesis. The top-down process uses a combination of fundamental and quantitative analysis to identify and evaluate these investment opportunities. |
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2 | Asset Allocation: |
The Asset Allocation team is led by Michael Kushma, the CIO of the Global Fixed Income team and is comprised of the heads of each research group. The team seeks to first, identify areas where implied market forecasts are out of line relative to historic trends and second, to identify the catalyst for the market to adjust. Internal debate is a key feature of our investing philosophy, ensuring investment ideas are tested thoroughly. The team debates relative value across sectors and determine broad strategy targets. |
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3 | Research: |
The team's approach to fixed income investing uses a disciplined investment process and a commitment to research. Research is conducted by dedicated teams specializing in a particular niche of the fixed income market. The research teams use in-depth fundamental analysis, complemented by quantitative tools, to generate bottom-up investment ideas and are responsible for security selection. |
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4 | Portfolio Construction and Risk Management: |
Portfolio managers are responsible for implementing the investment strategies. They work to construct each portfolio in a way that conforms to individual client/strategy guidelines and objectives, while staying true to the broad strategy targets that are set by the Asset Allocation team. The portfolio managers achieve these targets by working with the research analysts to fill the sector buckets with bottom-up security selection ideas. The team views risk management as an integral part of our investment process. Based on this belief, they seek to protect their portfolios from a variety of risks through diversification, credit risk protection, and liquidity with the goal that no single risk dominates the portfolio. |
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5 | Trading: |
All fixed income trades are executed by centralized Global Fixed Income trading desk. Central dealing segregates the trading function away from the decision making process, and allows the portfolio managers to focus on managing the portfolio. This procedural separation helps ensure that all accounts are structured according to the parameters established by the team. |
Effective October 31, 2022, Jim Caron no longer serves as Portfolio Manager. Effective December 1, 2023, Tim Robey, Stella Ma, Vishal Khanduja, and Brian Ellis were added as Portfolio Managers on the Strategy, and Neil Stone, Greg Finck, and Joseph Mehlman are no longer serving as Portfolio Managers.