Insights

Research

Educational notes on portfolio construction, risk budgets, and systematic multi-strategy investing—focused on process and evidence.

  • Portfolio Construction

    What a Diversifier Is For

    September 14, 2026

    “Diversifier” is often used as a label—bonds, gold, commodities, alternatives—as if the name were the hedge. It is more accurate to treat a diversifier as a job in a portfolio design. This note distinguishes three jobs investors routinely collapse into one word: ballast, crisis-following, and real-asset shock. Calendar 2022 is a public test of that distinction, and of why average correlation with equities is not a substitute for a job description.

  • Strategic Asset Allocation

    When an Index Isn't a Portfolio

    July 13, 2026

    Market-cap index funds are often treated as a complete portfolio by default. They are better understood as a coherent strategy for holding equity beta—with a visible risk budget. This note identifies four empirical limits of relying on market-cap passive as the whole book, and why multi-strategy systematic sleeves exist as one institutional response.