THE WisdomTree BLOG
President Mario Draghi took a bold stance at the latest ECB press conference, announcing the timeframe for ending the asset purchase programme and providing guidance on interest rate hikes. After the Italian political turmoil, it seems like the most politically unbiased stance possible from the ECB.
On the second of this blog series on the US dollar, we talk about the three main influence factors to take in consideration when evaluating this currency’s movements, and the ever present potential for surprises.
Populism strikes again in Italy. Incensed at the state of the nation, half of voters in the recent general election opted for the two largest protest parties. Now that a government has been formed, what can investors expect from Italy’s strange bedfellows?
Uncertainty around trade tensions are back to the fore again. Now that the US tariffs on steel and aluminium products are in effect, we are likely to see retaliatory tariffs on US imports by the EU and Canada. While performance of the industrial metals complex has so far been subdued in 2018, we still believe fundamentals remain intact for most metals. And given their procyclical nature, industrial metals stand to benefit, as we enter the late phase of the expansion cycle.
Brent oil price is retreating after rises, triggering a question across the market: has the OPEC overdone it with their supply curbs? Their strategy to reduce global inventories was successful, but is it now time for the cartel to reap the rewards before the US eats away at the group’s market share?
The return of volatility in 2018 underpinned by geopolitical risks has led to a remarkable turnaround in the trend of ETP flows in the first half of 2018. Investors sought out emerging market debt ETPs at a torrential pace as the fundamental story behind emerging markets remain supportive.
Although the environment of elevated geopolitical risk is normally associated with higher gold prices, recently very little of that anxiety has been expressed in gold. In this blog and accompanying full report, we present our new base, bull and bear case gold price forecasts.
The 2018 price gains staged by wheat, corn and soybeans display a turnaround in the grains market that has been plagued by weak prices. In its first outlook for the 2018/19 cycle, the US Department of Agriculture has set a positive tone for the grains market as inventory projections moved in line with analyst estimates.
Nitesh Shah
Director, Research
Nitesh is a Commodities Strategist at ETF Securities. Nitesh has 13 years of experience as an economist and strategist, covering a wide range of markets and asset classes. Prior to joining ETF Securities, Nitesh was an economist covering the European structured finance markets at Moody’s Investors Service and was a member of Moody’s global macroeconomics team. Before that he was an economist at the Pension Protection Fund and an equity strategist at Decision Economics. He started his career at HSBC Investment Bank. Nitesh holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and a Master of Arts in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University (USA).
Christopher Gannatti
Head of Research
Christopher Gannatti began at WisdomTree as a Research Analyst in December 2010, working directly with Jeremy Schwartz, CFA®, Director of Research. He is involved in creating and communicating WisdomTree’s thoughts on the markets, as well as analysing existing strategies and developing new approaches. Christopher came to WisdomTree from Lord Abbett, where he worked for four and a half years as a Regional Consultant. He received his MBA in Quantitative Finance, Accounting, and Economics from NYU’s Stern School of Business in 2010, and he received his bachelor’s degree from Colgate University in Economics in 2006. Christopher is a holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Aneeka Gupta
Associate Director of Research
Aneeka Gupta is Associate Director of Research at WisdomTree. Prior to the acquisition of ETF Securities in April 2018, Aneeka worked as an Equity & Commodities Strategist at the company. Aneeka has 10 years of experience working as a Research Analyst across a wide range of asset classes. In her current role she is responsible for conducting analysis for all in-house commodity and macro publications and assisting the sales team with client queries around products and markets.
Prior to ETF Securities, Aneeka worked as an Equity Sales Trader at Sunrise Brokers across US and Pan European Exchanges. Before that she worked as an Equity Derivatives Sales Manager at Mashreq Bank in Dubai.
Aneeka holds a Bsc in Mathematics from the University of Delhi and a Masters in Mathematics from Oxford University and is also a CFA Charterholder.
Prior to ETF Securities, Aneeka worked as an Equity Sales Trader at Sunrise Brokers across US and Pan European Exchanges. Before that she worked as an Equity Derivatives Sales Manager at Mashreq Bank in Dubai.
Aneeka holds a Bsc in Mathematics from the University of Delhi and a Masters in Mathematics from Oxford University and is also a CFA Charterholder.
Nick Leung
Research Analyst
Nick Leung is a Research Analyst for WisdomTree in Europe. He is responsible for macroeconomic commentary and analysis, formulating investment strategies and trade ideas, as well as the maintenance of research collateral. Prior to joining in 2015, Nick was at Source, having completed his Master’s Degree at Imperial College London. During this time he was also involved in an ice-cream entrepreneurship project with Unilever. Nick holds a BA in Economics from the University of Nottingham.
Jason Guthrie
Director of Capital Markets
Jason Guthrie is Director of Capital Markets for WisdomTree in Europe. Guthrie is responsible for ensuring smooth trade execution across WisdomTree’s UCITS ETFs and Boost ETPs throughout Europe, Israel and Latin America. Prior to joining WisdomTree, Guthrie worked at Deutsche Bank within its ETF Capital Markets group. Before Deutsche Bank, he worked at Macquarie Bank as an Investment Executive based in Sydney, Australia. Jason holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) from Macquarie University in Sydney.
Jesper Koll
WisdomTree's Head of Japan
Jesper Koll was appointed Chief Executive Officer of WisdomTree Japan on July 1, 2015. Over the past two decades Jesper has been consistently ranked as one of the top Japan strategists/economists, working as Chief Strategist and Head of Research for major U.S. investment banks J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch. His analysis and insights have earned him a position on several Japanese government advisory committees and Jesper is also one of the few non-Japanese members of the Keizai Doyukai, the Japan Association of Corporate Executives. He has written two books in Japanese, Towards a New Japanese Golden Age and The End of Heisei Deflation. After arriving in Japan in 1986 Jesper initially worked as an aide to a Member of Parliament. Jesper has a Masters degree from the School of Advanced and International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and was a research fellow at both Tokyo University and Kyoto University. He is a graduate of the Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific.
Florian Ginez
Research Analyst
Florian Ginez is a Research Analyst for WisdomTree in Europe. He is responsible for market analysis, formulating investment and hedging strategies, trade ideas, as well as the development of products collateral and automating research processes. He also works closely with WisdomTree’s Quantitative Group on data analytics. Florian joined WisdomTree in 2016 after he started his career as an Assistant Portfolio Manager at Amaïka Asset Management in Paris, researching factor investing. Florian holds a Master’s degree from Reims Management School.
Vania Pang
Capital Markets and Investment Solutions, Index and Quantitative Investment, ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management (International) Company Limited
Ms. Pang is responsible for Capital Markets and Investment Solutions functions of the Index and Quantitative Investment department at the ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management (International) Company Limited. From 2012 to 2016, Ms. Pang was the Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development, Asia Coal Limited, where she led the strategic mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and investor relations management. Prior to that, she was the Associate Director, Business Development of Crown One Asset Management Company Limited, responsible for sales and marketing of fund products. Between 2007 and 2008, Ms. Pang was Assistant Manager, Public Distribution Hong Kong (Equity Derivatives and Private Investor Product Sales) of RBS, handling sales and marketing of listed equity derivatives products. Before joining RBS, she was an anchor and reporter with the Cable TV and Hong Kong Economic Journal.
Ms. Pang holds a M.Sc. in Development Finance from The University of Manchester, a M.A. in Journalism and a B.A. in Business Administration from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Ms. Pang holds a M.Sc. in Development Finance from The University of Manchester, a M.A. in Journalism and a B.A. in Business Administration from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Jack Jiang
Senior ETF Specialist, Index and Quantitative Investment, ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management (International) Company Limited
Mr. Jiang joined ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management (International) Company Limited as Senior ETF Specialist of Index and Quantitative Investment Department in November 2017. Before joining ICBC CS (International), Mr. Jiang was Director, Head of China in the client coverage team of S&P Dow Jones Indices, where he led the effort on sales and marketing in China. Prior to that, he was the head of the sales team of Dow Jones Newswire in China. Mr. Jiang had also worked for Platts, another subsidiary of S&P Global as Head of Beijing office. Mr. Jiang holds double degree, a Bachelor degree of Economy in International Economy and Business, and a Bachelor degree of Science in Automobile Engineering, with a minor degree in Computer Science, from Beijing Polytechnic University.