Week in Review | 26 April 2020

Dispersion

This week marked a clear shift into the next phase of the COVID Crisis.  Reduced global demand for oil dropped oil prices negative and broke risk models across Wall Street. Upcoming earnings season should drive some dispersion in the stock market between the ‘new economy’ and ‘old economy’ companies as economic activity continues to be low. The novelty of working from home has worn off and political landscape has grown more fractured. 

The debate about the costs of reopening the economy reignited protests across the country, while Trumps’s illuminating musings have put further distance between doctors and politicians.  While the second round of PPP funding has been approved, the dispersion of policy responses on the state and local levels are frankly hard to keep up with. 

I’ve been very proud of our team’s focus throughout these past months and for the continued growth of new clients and for the value we’re providing our existing client base.  Look out for some big team and product announcements in the next two weeks.

Alternative data for COVID-19 Resource Center

We plan to add new resources each week that we have reviewed which highlight the environmental and economic impact to the U.S. and global systems.

Our New World – Mary Meeker Presentation Excellent report from Meeker on the coronavirus impact compared to the 2008 recovery and New Deal.

Where Coronavirus is Fueling More and Less Energy Use – Data provided on the electricity consumption by business during crisis.

Visualizing the occupations with the Highest COVID-19 Risk – A visualization that plots the risk impact across many occupations.

COVID-19 — Commerce Patterns – A variety of data charts that illustrate daily foot traffic by region, types of businesses and franchises during the crisis.

US Local Businesses and Hourly Workers Under Pressure – Daily updates provided on impact changes in local businesses and hourly workers and income from Homebase.

Global Pandemic Preparation – Initial findings from the pandemic experts are shared as well as a link to a pandemic simulation exercise.Our community is constantly sharing ideas for alternative data and trend information to enhance their research process and client engagement so we always welcome your suggestions.

Here are the posts most read on Portformer.com this week:

Portformer Performance During Market Correction
Week in Review – 4/20/2020 | Who’s Slacking, Who’s Adapting
Tactical Alert – Adjusting to ETF-ETN Fund Closures

Question of the Week

What is your current experience with study or mastermind groups?

Please share with us via our chatbox at Portformer or reply to this email and the information will remain confidential.

Here is a snapshot of the best articles compiled and read by our team:

The Empirical Strikes Back – A Pragmatic Framework for Selecting Investment Vehicles – White paper discussion on creating the framework for evaluating the range of investment vehicles including actively managed funds and ETFs.

Motif’s Shutdown: Tip of the Iceberg – Recent article detailing the latest closing of Motif and the precarious future of robo-advisors.

Silver Linings – Using the Crisis to Improve RIAs Health – Concise discussion from PFI Advisors on how advisors can re-focus on their profitability.

How RIAs are Addressing Tech Challenges during COVID-19 – Excellent commentary from 2 industry leaders on how to focus on tech challenges during this period.

Defined Outcome Investing with ETFs – White paper discussion providing the latest thinking to implement defined outcome investing with ETFs.

Schulte Podcast with Snappy Kraken – Excellent podcast with an advisor and digital marketing expert on how advisors can capitalize to grow their business.

If you have any difficulty accessing these articles and papers, please reach us through our website or directly at john.dibenedetto@portformer.com.

Are you using Slack or Microsoft Teams?

As we’re now immersed in remote work, I’d love to talk to more investors and advisors who started using Slack, Microsoft Teams or other collaboration tool.  Our team loves Slack as we operate faster, so I’ve adapted our API to serve Portformer Alternatives right in Slack.  If you or your team would like to be part of the Beta Release of Portformer on Slack, email me to be added to the list.

Join Slack Bot Beta

It’s important to us, and core to our values, to constantly evolve and test different perspectives with the advisor community. Invite us in as extension of your research team or to brainstorm. This is as quick as a 15 min – Zoom call.

For more real-time content updates and links, please follow us on social media at Twitter @Portformer and LinkedIn at Portformer.

Always be safe, 

John DiBenedetto and the Portformer™ Team