Swiss asset manager Argos investment Management claims an attempt to make value investing more objective has helped it deliver a long/short equity return that is ten percentage points above the index.
The firm is attempting to use a systematic approach to rank European stocks according to fundamental value criteria and the outlook dynamics of each stock. Drawing from behavioural finance theory, the firm is trying to eliminate human error and known investor biases from the investment process.
Using a tool developed by Paris-based research firm Equity GPS, Argos aims to rank over 1,300 European stocks daily in an objective fashion using over 200 million financial and economic data points. Argos says this allows portfolio managers to use the information rationally and remain objective in their investment choices.
The Argos European Systematic Long/Short Fund, managed by Renaud Froissart has used this approach and gained 13.02% compared to 2.87% for the HFRX Equity Hedge EUR Index since the start of 2015.
“The Equity GPS research is totally objective and exhaustive. It is a ground breaking investment-decision making tool, which tremendously enhances the ability of fund managers to exploit inefficient markets caused by biases well known to experts in behavioural finance,” says Argos chief executive officer, Jean Keller.
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