The Magnificent Who?
A Former Star Wall Street Strategist Argues that Lots of Assets Are on Sale, from Small caps to Energy Firms. Look Beyond the "Magnificent Seven," He Says.
Richard Bernstein
When he was in his early 50s, Richard Bernstein, now 65 years old, made a big career pivot. A successful Wall Street strategist at Merrill Lynch, Bernstein was widely respected and known for his penetrating analysis of the markets. Why throw all of that away?
Bernstein, who goes by Rich, saw an opening where he could draw on all of his knowledge and experience and apply it to money management. He founded RBA, or Richard Bernstein Advisors, in 2009. The New York-based firm, which takes a macro approach and doesn’t pick individual stocks, now oversees about $15 billion.
“We know nothing about Coke vs. Pepsi or Merck vs. Pfizer. That’s not our expertise,” he tells Income Matters Today. “But we might have a view on global beverages or global pharmaceuticals.”
As Morningstar observes about the Richard Bernstein Equity Strategy Fund (ticker: ERBAX), “The team eschews individual stock picking, instead using a quantitative tool to help select baskets of stocks in developed markets and a few emerging markets, though the team typically invests in exchange-traded funds for most of its emerging-markets exposure.”
As of Sept. 30, RBA’s Global Risk-Balanced Moderate ETF Strategy had these allocations: 25.5% to U.S. stocks, 20.9% to non-U.S. stocks, 48.7% to U.S. fixed income (bonds), 2.6% to cash, and 2.5% to commodities.
IMT spoke to Bernstein this week about various market topics, including his thoughts on income investing. The link to our interview is below:
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