FTSE RAFI Low Volatility seeks to efficiently reduce equity risk, while maintaining attractive valuations and broadly diversified market exposures.
At a Glance
Emphasizes debt-service capacity
Capitalizes on observable inefficiencies
Focuses on implementation
Equity markets can suffer uncomfortable drawdowns when stock prices deviate from fair value. Research has shown that stocks with lower volatility tend to outperform stocks with higher volatility, but solely focusing on reducing volatility can inadvertently result in a portfolio with overpriced holdings and concentrated bets.
Efficiently reduces equity risk
Low-volatility strategies have been shown to reduce equity volatility by approximately 20% relative to the broad market. The FTSE RAFI Low Volatility Index series utilizes a measure of a stock's systematic risk to select securities, ensuring an efficient reduction of overall equity risk.
Avoids overpriced low-volatility stocks
Investing in low-volatility stocks trading at high valuation multiples erodes the return benefit of low-volatility strategies. The FTSE RAFI Low Volatility Index employs a valuation screen to avoid investing in extremely expensive stocks.
Builds on the RAFI Fundamental Index approach
In selecting and weighting low-volatility securities by fundamental measures of company size, the FTSE RAFI Low Volatility Index series retains all the benefits of the Fundamental Index approach: potential for outperformance, ease of implementation, low cost, and broad diversification.