EM PM, Ecstrat

Emad Mostaque

EM PM

Ecstrat

Ecstrat is a consultancy advising on asset allocation between global equity markets, with a focus on the intersection of governments, geopolitics, governance and markets.
 
Over the past few years and more especially since the Great Financial Crisis (GFC), investors have become more focused on short-term market movements and real-time returns and have consequently neglected the analysis of the underlying structural themes that underpin longer term performance.
​
More specifically we believe that the evolution of governance-based relationships between investors, controlling shareholders, labour and the state is one of the primary determinants of both relative and absolute performance between individual equity markets.
 
We will endeavour to provide investors with some of the context surrounding governance-related issues which encompass many different disciplines including history, economics and political science, as well as the financial metrics which are the most obvious manifestation of the structural characteristics of each market.
 
We will pay particular attention to the shifts and potential inflection points for governance in individual markets as these are often the best lead indicators for both economic and market performance.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ol><li>Align yourself with the Qatar government, $200bn in GDP, $200bn in assets for 200,000 civilians who own 96% of the stock market. Qatar Investment Fund, a $200m closed end fund listed in London run by Qatar Insurance giving you exposure to the Qatar index at a discount to NAV. Returned over 20% last year (dollar pegged) despite oil prices halving, will likely return double digits over the next 7-10 years annually. </li><li>Buy Iran as soon as it opens, currently under 6x PE with double digit dividends. I believe an Iran deal is likely in the next few months. One of the funds I advise hopes to have an easy to access listed fund to make things easier once SWIFT sanctions are removed </li><li>Buy oil for delivery in 2 years either direct or through options. You may not make as much as spot, but if I (and more importantly T Boone Pickens) are right, it should offer 20%+ return at the least with minimal downside risk unless someone decides to spend hundreds of billions in exploration or the world economy completely collapses. Buy Brent as the Brent-WTI spread will gap out into the middle of the year on Cushing inventory build due to the contango in the curve. </li></ol>

Align yourself with the Qatar government, $200bn in GDP, $200bn in assets for 200,000 civilians who own 96% of the stock market. Qatar Investment Fund, a $200m closed end fund listed in London run by Qatar Insurance giving you exposure to the Qatar index at a discount to NAV. Returned over 20% last year (dollar pegged) despite oil prices halving, will likely return double digits over the next 7-10 years annually. Buy Iran as soon as it opens, currently under 6x PE with double digit dividends. I believe an Iran deal is likely in the next few months. One of the funds I advise hopes to have an easy to access listed fund to make things easier once SWIFT sanctions are removed Buy oil for delivery in 2 years either direct or through options. You may not make as much as spot, but if I (and more importantly T Boone Pickens) are right, it should offer 20%+ return at the least with minimal downside risk unless someone decides to spend hundreds of billions in exploration or the world economy completely collapses. Buy Brent as the Brent-WTI spread will gap out into the middle of the year on Cushing inventory build due to the contango in the curve. 

Macro Strategist, Saxo Capital Markets

Kay Van-Petersen

Macro Strategist

Saxo Capital Markets

<ul><li>With CHF last at 0.9033, we are +5% (unlevered) on the cross since the Fri Jan 16th call where it closed at 0.8587. I continue to believe and feel this is a big trade for the year, I am a lot more relaxed now that we are on the other side of the ECB and Greek election and think we are north of 1.02-1.05 in the 2nd half of the year </li><li>The size of ECB QE is not priced in – There is massive European Equities Upside!&nbsp;The case here is simple, we’ve just come out of a greater than anticipated QE from the ECB, that is open ended and set to run until Sep 2016.&nbsp;Whilst the market was more likely thinking we’d get a Euros 500-700bn handle, we got over a trillion euros worth, with a lot fewer parameters or caps than would have been expected by those pesky conservative Bundesbankers – who keep wanting to turn off the taps (I know I know, how dare they). </li></ul>

With CHF last at 0.9033, we are +5% (unlevered) on the cross since the Fri Jan 16th call where it closed at 0.8587. I continue to believe and feel this is a big trade for the year, I am a lot more relaxed now that we are on the other side of the ECB and Greek election and think we are north of 1.02-1.05 in the 2nd half of the year The size of ECB QE is not priced in – There is massive European Equities Upside!&nbsp;The case here is simple, we’ve just come out of a greater than anticipated QE from the ECB, that is open ended and set to run until Sep 2016.&nbsp;Whilst the market was more likely thinking we’d get a Euros 500-700bn handle, we got over a trillion euros worth, with a lot fewer parameters or caps than would have been expected by those pesky conservative Bundesbankers – who keep wanting to turn off the taps (I know I know, how dare they). 

The size of ECB QE is not priced in – Massive European Equities Upside

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Quantitative Analysis

<ul>
<li>Financials Exchanges have hit record highs in Global fund ownership, with 58% of global funds invested and 49% ahead of the MSCI ACWI index.</li>
<li>CME Group and London Stock Exchange lead momentum, both reaching record ownership after strong inflows through 2023–2024.</li>
<li>Despite growth, ownership breadth remains shallow, with only a few stocks widely held, leaving room for further expansion in positioning.</li>
</ul>


Financials Exchanges have hit record highs in Global fund ownership, with 58% of global funds invested and 49% ahead of the MSCI ACWI index.
CME Group and London Stock Exchange lead momentum, both reaching record ownership after strong inflows through 2023–2024.
Despite growth, ownership breadth remains shallow, with only a few stocks widely held, leaving room for further expansion in positioning.


Global Financial Exchanges: A Sector on the Rise

Director, Head of Research, Smartkarma

Pranav Rao

Director, Head of Research

Smartkarma

Smartkarma unites the fragmented investment industry, connecting institutional investors, independent research providers, and corporates within a single network.

Research Reinvented

Equity Capital Markets

National Securities Depository / Equity Capital Markets

<ul>
<li>Welcome to Curator’s Cut, a fortnightly roundup of standout themes from the 1,200+ insights published in the past two weeks on Smartkarma</li>
<li>In this cut, we review the rally in Chinese healthcare in 2025, track some updates in financial markets infrastructure companies, and see how Korean equities have done since end-May</li>
<li>Want to dig deeper? Comment or message with the themes you’d like to see highlighted next</li>
</ul>


Welcome to Curator’s Cut, a fortnightly roundup of standout themes from the 1,200+ insights published in the past two weeks on Smartkarma
In this cut, we review the rally in Chinese healthcare in 2025, track some updates in financial markets infrastructure companies, and see how Korean equities have done since end-May
Want to dig deeper? Comment or message with the themes you’d like to see highlighted next


Curator's Cut: China Healthcare Rally, Financial Market Infra Moves & Korea’s Equity Upswing

Independent research on the U.S. markets, Baptista Research

Baptista Research

Independent research on the U.S. markets

Baptista Research is an independent financial research house focused on the U.S. markets. We provide equity research as well as credit research reports on the top-listed U.S. companies with most of our focus on technology, consumer goods and services, automobiles, industrials, oil and gas, pharma, and healthcare. Our research has served more than 3000 institutional investors including mutual funds, hedge funds, banks, family offices, and various buy-side firms. We operate a research subscription service where institutions, as well as retail investors, can have priority access to all our research. We also have a wide distribution of our research reports across some of the top global financial platforms. Apart from equity research and credit research, we also provide advisory services with respect to mergers & acquisitions (M&A), private equity/ venture capital fundraising, valuation reports, and investment management services for corporates.
Baptista Research is owned and managed by Ishan Majumdar, an ex-Venture Capitalist/ Investment Banker, a Chartered Accountant, and a Masters’ degree holder in Management from HEC Paris. Ishan has nearly a decade of experience in Mergers and Acquisitions, Leveraged Buyouts (LBOs), Venture Capital Investing, Corporate Strategy, and Valuation in front-office roles at the likes of BNP Paribas CIB, Credit Agricole CIB, Groupe Danone, and TIW Private Equity. He has worked on and closed multiple acquisition deals, leveraged buyouts, and start-up investment transactions.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>CME Group Inc. demonstrated strong performance in the second quarter of 2025, characterized by recordbreaking trading volumes and financial results.</li><li>The average daily volume (ADV) exceeded 30 million contracts for the first time in the company's history, representing a 16% increase over the same period last year.</li><li>This broad-based growth was observed across all six asset classes, with notable records in interest rates, agricultural commodities, and metals, reflecting a heightened demand for risk management solutions amidst global macroeconomic uncertainties.</li></ul>

CME Group Inc. demonstrated strong performance in the second quarter of 2025, characterized by recordbreaking trading volumes and financial results.The average daily volume (ADV) exceeded 30 million contracts for the first time in the company's history, representing a 16% increase over the same period last year.This broad-based growth was observed across all six asset classes, with notable records in interest rates, agricultural commodities, and metals, reflecting a heightened demand for risk management solutions amidst global macroeconomic uncertainties.

CME Group Adds 90,000 Retail Traders—Is a Futures Trading Boom Just Getting Started?

United States

CME Group Inc. operates a derivatives exchange that trades futures contracts and options on futures, interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities.  The Exchange brings together buyers and sellers of derivatives products on its trading floors, electronic trading platform, and through privately negotiated transactions that it clears.

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CME Group (CME US)

Islam, Terror, Politics and Oil - Part 1

Align yourself with the Qatar government, $200bn in GDP, $200bn in assets for 200,000 civilians who own 96% of the stock market. Qatar Investment...

Emad Mostaque

The size of ECB QE is not priced in – Massive European Equities Upside

With CHF last at 0.9033, we are +5% (unlevered) on the cross since the Fri Jan 16th call where it closed at 0.8587. I continue to believe and...

Kay Van-Petersen

Global Financial Exchanges: A Sector on the Rise

Financials Exchanges are at record exposure levels, led by CME and LSE. Momentum is strong, but breadth is shallow, with few stocks widely...

Steven Holden

Curator's Cut: China Healthcare Rally, Financial Market Infra Moves & Korea’s Equity Upswing

This Curator's Cut issue shows what's contributed to the Chinese healthcare sector's performance YTD, looks at some exchanges and depositories,...

Pranav Rao

CME Group Adds 90,000 Retail Traders—Is a Futures Trading Boom Just Getting Started?

CME Group Inc. demonstrated strong performance in the second quarter of 2025, characterized by recordbreaking trading volumes and financial...

Baptista Research

Price Gauge

52-week Range

Market Cap (USDm)

P/E

Dividend (Yield)

Islam, Terror, Politics and Oil - Part 1

Align yourself with the Qatar government, $200bn in GDP, $200bn in assets for 200,000 civilians who own 96% of the stock market. Qatar Investment...

Emad Mostaque

The size of ECB QE is not priced in – Massive European Equities Upside

With CHF last at 0.9033, we are +5% (unlevered) on the cross since the Fri Jan 16th call where it closed at 0.8587. I continue to believe and...

Kay Van-Petersen

Global Financial Exchanges: A Sector on the Rise

Financials Exchanges are at record exposure levels, led by CME and LSE. Momentum is strong, but breadth is shallow, with few stocks widely...

Steven Holden

Curator's Cut: China Healthcare Rally, Financial Market Infra Moves & Korea’s Equity Upswing

This ​Curator's Cut issue shows what's contributed to the Chinese healthcare sector's performance YTD, looks at some exchanges and depositories,...

Pranav Rao

CME Group Adds 90,000 Retail Traders—Is a Futures Trading Boom Just Getting Started?

CME Group Inc. demonstrated strong performance in the second quarter of 2025, characterized by recordbreaking trading volumes and financial...

Baptista Research

This Curator's Cut issue shows what's contributed to the Chinese healthcare sector's performance YTD, looks at some exchanges and depositories,...