INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
New York: Cash isn’t only a safe place to invest, it now offers a better risk-adjusted return than equities, according to JPMorgan Asset
Management.
That was highlighted by the firm’s multi-asset strategy team, with $260 billion under management, which upgraded its
recommendation on US cash to overweight for 2019
For the first time in a decade, investors can get a lot more from safe, liquid securities than from the SP 500 Index, adjusted for
volatility, they argued.
“Our cash and duration overweights really distill down to overweights in US cash and Treasuries, where ex-ante
Sharpe ratios are now well ahead of those for US stocks for the first time in a decade,” according to John Bilton, head of global
multiasset strategy at JPMorgan Asset Management
A Sharpe ratio is a measure of an asset’s performance relative to its volatility.
The team said it’s preparing “for an environment of
slowing earnings growth and rising macroeconomic risks” that will weigh on equities, and has led the group to de-risk its portfolios.
If
they are right, being boring may turn out to be the key to success next year, just like in 2018
US Treasury bills were poised to end the year with the highest risk-adjusted returns of the world’s biggest assets, according to data
