Astor Investment’s senior managing director Bryan Novak spoke to VettaFi at the Exchange Conference back in February. He discussed a variety of topics in the video, emphasizing both the current environment and looking back to the lessons learned in 2022.
Speaking to what his firm does, Novak said, “We didn’t want to recreate the wheel. There’s a lot of great products already existing in the marketplace. We just wanted to solve some problems simply for advisors managing risks, whether it be equity, credit, fixed income.”
Today’s Challenging Environment, According to Astor
“We think there is opportunity in the certain parts of the credit market,” Novak said, noting that equities have some challenges due to interest rates. There are also obstacles with lingering inflation. “For risk assets, we think it’s going to be a challenging environment, but there are opportunities in some of the higher-quality credit areas.”
20/20 Hindsight on 2022
Novak is proud of how his firm performed last year despite challenging markets. He highlighted how it benefitted from its specific approach. “2022 was a movement back to an interest rate regime that most investors that have been around for [only] the last 10 to 15 years aren’t familiar with,” Novak said. He emphasized that zero interest rates are actually unusual in the broader scope of history. Novak praised the model his team uses for learning and adapting.
For more news, information, and analysis, visit the ETF Strategist Channel.