Man Numeric, the quantitative investment arm of Man Group, says macro themes and nation subsets are outdated, with ever-increasing volumes of data from emerging markets now seen as key to peer-beating returns instead, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Ori Ben-Akiva, director of portfolio management at Boston-based Man Numeric, says the firm’s core emerging market funds are largely ditching the traditional country-by-country approach when it comes to trading portfolios and building investment themes.
Instead, its strategies are now trawling social media accounts, e-commerce websites and other sources to inform choices from around 5,000 developing-nation companies.
The number of models the firm uses in emerging markets has tripled over the past five years.
