The shifting dynamics of the market are exposing the inadequacy of some conventional data, tools, and methodologies in effectively navigating the increasing risks and achieving optimal performance. This juncture calls for a pragmatic reevaluation of traditional strategies. To gain insight into this, we asked the opinion of Rocco Pellegrinelli, the visionary founder & CEO of Trendrating. Trendrating stands as a pioneering wealth tech firm, serving over 250 esteemed clients worldwide with its cutting-edge analytics and refined portfolio management tools.
Rocco Pellegrinelli’s journey from portfolio manager to the Founder and CEO of Trendrating is nothing short of remarkable. It all began with the inception of Brainpower in 1996, a venture that swiftly rose to prominence as a premier portfolio management system on a global scale. Under his stewardship, Brainpower made waves in the financial world, culminating in its public listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2000. Subsequently, Bloomberg recognized its potential and acquired the company in 2006.
Undeterred by success, Rocco embarked on a new endeavor, driven by a vision to develop a groundbreaking model for capturing price trends in listed equities. This venture entailed rigorous research and development, involving exhaustive testing of 350 indicators and thousands of combinations spanning 25 years of historical data across 20,000 securities. Through relentless dedication and the collaboration of a stellar team of experts, this pursuit bore fruit.
Today, as the head of Trendrating, Rocco leads a company renowned for its advanced analytics and cutting-edge technology in equity investing. Serving over 250 institutional clients globally, Trendrating stands at the forefront of the industry, empowering investors with actionable insights. Rocco’s achievements have not gone unnoticed, earning him accolades such as being named one of the “10 Most Inspiring CEOs to Watch” by Industry Tech Outlook in 2020, alongside recognition as one of the “10 Best Innovative Leaders” by DigiTech Insight. Furthermore, his expertise is sought after as a contributor to Nasdaq’s advisor portal, solidifying his reputation as a thought leader in the financial sector.
Stock Analysis Is Trickier Than Ever
In the past, the relationship between price trends of stock and fundamental analysis remained relatively steadfast. However, contemporary market dynamics witness a multitude of influences that can propel individual stock prices. Factors such as sentiment, social media chatter, the influx of momentum-driven investors, and the decisions made by sovereign wealth funds can drive trends independently of a company’s underlying fundamentals. Moreover, in today’s rapidly evolving economic landscape, forecasting a company’s growth and profitability has become a challenging task due to the intricate web of interrelated variables.
In light of this new market regime, it is imperative to expand the scope of analytics and tools well beyond conventional metrics and assumptions. Employing more advanced methodologies becomes essential for effectively navigating and capitalizing on the dispersion in performance across various assets.
Innovations in Asset Management Strategies
There is a significant issue of underperformance within the investment landscape. Over a 15-year timeframe, more than 70% of actively managed funds have consistently failed to surpass their respective benchmark indices across 38 out of 39 categories encompassing equity and fixed-income funds, as measured by SPIVA. So-called equity long-short funds, which try to buy stocks likely to do well and bet against names set to perform poorly, have underperformed the US stock market in nine out of the past 10 years, according to Nasdaq eVestment as reported by the Financial Times.
The prevailing approach among portfolio managers predominantly leans towards discretionary decision-making. This method, long-established and widely adopted, involves relying on human judgment and intuition to guide investment choices. Given this context, it is logical to infer that the underperformance observed within the industry is intricately linked to the discretionary decision-making process.
The Solution to Fragile Investment Strategies
Mr. Pellegrinelli says, “The initial step necessitates an unbiased and factual evaluation of the actual worth of data and the assumptions driving the discretionary decisions. Far too frequently, investors predicate their investment strategies on assumptions regarding the efficacy of certain parameters and rules in selecting stocks to Deliver alpha.
He questions these assumptions saying that, these assumptions may seem logical but some questions remain in mind: but do they really make money? Did they have the opportunity to test them across a meaningful historical window and validate the hypothesis with robust evidence? Without concrete evidence corroborating the historical efficacy of these presumptions, any investment strategy is susceptible to fragility.”
Conducting a rigorous and objective assessment of the alpha generated throughout various market cycles, spanning perhaps 10 to 15 years of historical data, can prove illuminating. Such an analysis furnishes hard data that juxtapose against the expectations rooted in assumptions. It serves as a critical sanity check for the drivers of an investment strategy, offering invaluable insights into the veritable worth of the chosen selection rules. This exercise becomes especially pertinent if the actual performance of the portfolio consistently falls short of expectations on a recurring basis.
He shares a good news for investors that advanced technology makes possible to:
- Test any fundamental, quantitative, technical parameter.
- Compare the alpha contribution.
- Explore combinations of parameters, that checking more boxes, deliver better returns.
- Discover the most effective mix of rules to outperform on a consistent basis.
- Validate and document the results of the exercise.
Better information means better decisions and better returns. Innovative analytical systems enable investors to find out the stock selection rules that best profit from the recurring performance dispersion across stocks.
Trendrating: Empowering Investors to Maximize Returns
TrendRating, empowers investors with invaluable insights into the effectiveness of various parameters and selection rules through a swift and rigorous testing and validation process, completed in just a few minutes. Discretionary managers can effortlessly evaluate numerous selection rules using a comprehensive dataset including fundamentals, quantitative metrics, and trend parameters.
Their clients gain deep understanding of the true alpha contribution of each parameter over the years, enabling them to explore and uncover the most profitable combinations by aligning factors such as robust earnings and sales growth with confirmed positive price trends. This strategic blending allows for maximizing returns by checking more boxes. For discretionary managers, Trendrating offers invaluable insights that can significantly enhance their performance. Conversely, for investors employing a systematic approach, they streamline the process of building, comparing, validating, and executing systematic strategies. The benefits include enhanced intelligence, seamless scalability, and significant time savings.
Practical Example: How Trendrating Works
Mr. Pellegrinelli elaborated on the operational procedures of Trendrating, providing insights into its working mechanisms saying, “We developed an AI-driven, multi-factor model that assigns a rating of the price trend to over 20,000 listed securities and indices. A rating of A or B confirms a positive trend, and a rating of C or D signals a negative trend. The rating can be used to validate investment ideas and to spot specific risks.”
This innovative solution enables to calculate the aggregated rating of the portfolios and serves multiple purposes. Firstly, it validates investment concepts by providing clear insights into market trends. Secondly, it effectively identifies potential risks, enabling proactive decision-making. Additionally, our solution offers the invaluable capability to calculate aggregated ratings for entire portfolios.
By harnessing the power of AI and comprehensive data analysis, our platform empowers investors with actionable intelligence to optimize their investment strategies and mitigate risks effectively.
Trendrating introduced a new element of risk control. The portfolio’s rating is based on the allocation to rising vs. falling stocks. This supports investment decisions aimed at maximizing the exposure to stocks in a bull phase and reducing the weight of stocks in a bearish price action. The higher the portfolio rating the better the chances to outperform. The lower the rating, the bigger the risk of losses. There is an obvious, high correlation between the portfolio’s rating and the performance in the following months. For example, a “B+” rating confirms that the trend exposure is safe as less than 25% of the holdings show a negative trend. On the other hand, a “C-“ rating signals that the allocation to falling stocks is in excess of 50%, presenting a high-risk structure. This innovative perspective of risk control, based on trends validation is a key contributor to a more efficient and better informed performance management for active managers.
Rocco Pellegrinelli’s Final Advice
A more challenging market cycle is raising the bar to deliver performance. The limits of traditional analytics and theories proved their weakness in 2022 and will continue to disappoint across the sequence of up-and-down waves of the new regime. Generating alpha requires smarter knowledge. We believe that many portfolio managers deserve to access more facts and intelligent data to maximize their opportunities to excel. The quality of the information impacts the quality of the investment decisions. It is time for an overdue evolution toward better solutions for professional managers and advisors, as conventional content and tools that worked during the bull trend will disappoint in the new regime. Our company is committed to supporting in the best possible way those investors that want more from a provider, are open to innovation and recognize the challenges ahead.
As market dynamics evolve and traditional strategies face increasing challenges, the need for innovative solutions becomes paramount. Through advanced analytics and cutting-edge technology, Trendrating addresses the inadequacies of conventional approaches by providing investors with actionable insights and rigorous risk management tools. As the investment landscape continues to demand smarter knowledge and more intelligent data, Trendrating stands ready to support professionals seeking to navigate market uncertainty and elevate investment performance in the face of evolving challenges. With a commitment to innovation and a dedication to empowering investors, Trendrating represents a beacon of hope in an increasingly complex financial world.
Source: Time Iconic Magazine