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Once again skeptics are challenging the notion that the 60/40 portfolio still works. Some fundamental misunderstandings around what constitutes an optimized approach to comprehensive portfolio management continue to fuel the negative narrative. With very low interest rates raising doubt about the fixed income component of 60/40, riskier alternatives are touted as a solution to ...

Interest rates affect your portfolio through all asset classes, but may do so in different ways. Investors have been on edge about rising interest rates lately, but sensitivity to interest rates has long been a concern of serious investors (along with all other aspects of portfolio risk), regardless of current news cycles.  Duration is the standard statistic used to describe t ...

Thoughtful long-term investors often invest in fixed stock/bond ratio asset allocations such as a 60/40 portfolio. Fixed target risk portfolios, typical of many sophisticated institutions, are often considered most reliable for meeting long-term investment objectives. Given recent news, some advisors and clients have been concerned about the possibility of rising interest rates ...

The new year rang in good news on multiple fronts. A greater-than-expected fiscal stimulus and faster-than-anticipated vaccine rollout pushed U.S. stocks higher during the first quarter of 2021. The New Frontier Global Equity Index (NFGEI) 100/0 returned 6% for the quarter, 0.8% higher than ACWI IMI index. The New Frontier U.S. Equity Index (NFDEI) 100/0 was up 7%, outperformin ...

Global markets found themselves in tumult in 2020, and many investors struggled to keep pace with rapid dislocations in economic conditions and risk sentiment. Where others may have floundered, New Frontier succeeded – with both our optimized method of building diversified portfolios across the range of risk tolerance profiles, and our statistical rebalance test that signals wh ...

Capital markets are known to react strongly to breaking news. Often the impact of such events does not meaningfully reach portfolios in which institutions and individuals typically invest.  So where can investors turn for real-time information on risk-targeted portfolios’ reaction to market events?  New Frontier’s family of optimized indices are designed to provide transparency ...

A Strong Quarter for New Frontier Strategies Despite the uptick in market volatility in early September, markets continued their upward momentum in Q3, extending their rapid rebound from March. While the U.S. economy improved significantly in Q3, investors continue to face several serious risks. In late September, confirmed COVID-19 cases were rising worldwide, and the pandemi ...

In 2019, markets were relatively calm, the economy was strong, and the stock market was at all-time highs. March 2020 brought an abrupt turn with the global pandemic outbreak as the VIX reached historically high levels. Remarkably, Q2 brought the quickest recovery from the fastest drawdown in Q1 in history...

Noted economist Frank Knight formalized a distinction among various types of risk associated with uncertainty. He defined three levels of uncertainty. The first is the type associated with a roulette wheel- where it is not possible to know the final outcome, yet one can reliably define the probability of an event’s occurrence. The second type of uncertainty is associated with s ...

On April 3, 2020, New Frontier Chief Investment Officer Robert Michaud sat down with Money Life host Chuck Jaffe to discuss how New Frontier approaches optimality in a time of tremendous uncertainty in the market. You can listen to the interview in its entirety using the player above, and below is a partial transcript of Robert's responses with timestamps for reference. 1:30 P ...