Managing Editor of the Financial Analysts Journal, Heidi Raubenheimer, CFA, provides an overview of the Fourth Quarter issue of 2019.

A summary of “Corporate Governance, ESG, and Stock Returns around the World,” by Mozaffar Khan, published in the Fourth Quarter 2019 issue of the Financial Analysts Journal.

A summary of “Do Investors Consider Nonfinancial Risks When Building Portfolios?,” by David M. Blanchett, CFA, and Michael Guillemette, published in the Fourth Quarter 2019 issue of the Financial Analysts Journal.

A summary of “Optimal Timing and Tilting of Equity Factors,” by Hubert Dichtl, Wolfgang Drobetz, Harald Lohre, Carsten Rother, and Patrick Vosskamp, published in the Fourth Quarter 2019 issue of the Financial Analysts Journal.

A summary of “Optimal Currency Hedging for International Equity Portfolios,” by Jacob Boudoukh, Matthew Richardson, Ashwin Thapar, and Franklin Wang, published in the Fourth Quarter 2019 issue of the Financial Analysts Journal.

A summary of “Carry Investing on the Yield Curve,” by Martin Martens, Paul Beekhuizen, Johan Duyvesteyn, CFA, and Casper Zomerdijk, CFA, published in the Fourth Quarter 2019 issue of the Financial Analysts Journal.

A summary of “The Near-Term Forward Yield Spread as a Leading Indicator: A Less Distorted Mirror,” by Eric C. Engstrom and Steven A. Sharpe, published in the Fourth Quarter 2019 issue of the Financial Analysts Journal.

Seven research articles. The first asks, “Are Passive Funds Really Superior?” The second defends portfolio optimization, and the third article assists us in “Choosing and Using Utility Functions.” These three are followed by “Machine Learning for Stock Selection” and “The Impact of Crowding in Alternative Risk Premia Investing.” Next, we investigate “Financial Statement Anomalies in the Bond Market,” and the issue ends with the confusion provoked by the titles used by “Brokers or Investment Advisers.

A viewpoint on Crypto Asset Regulation, a Perspectives article on Spending Policy and five research articles: 1) “Revenge of the Stock Pickers,” showing how much alpha is left behind by ETFs in a sudden selloff, 2) “What Is Quality?,” an in depth investigation into quality factors, 3) a study of the market impact costs of factor strategies , 4) a demonstration of the benefit of tax management, and 5) “Trusting Clients’ Financial Risk Tolerance Survey Scores.”

Two perspective articles: SeLFIES as an antidote to financial ignorance and “Long-Horizon Predictability: A Cautionary Tale. Four research articles follow: “Missing the Mark: Mortgage Asset Valuation Accuracy and Credit Modeling”; “The Returns to Private Debt: Primary Issuances vs. Secondary Acquisitions”; “Trends’ Signal Strength and the Performance of CTAs.”; and  “Comparing Cost-Mitigation Techniques.”