BNY Mellon’s ETF strategist Matt Camuso told NYSE’s Judy Shaw at Exchange 2023 that “with all the volatility we saw last year,” the asset manager is having “a lot of client conversations… around risk.” So, Camuso explained that it makes sense that investors “want to know what types of solutions” they can build into their portfolios with the ETF wrapper to help them navigate this volatility.
Speaking on “ETF Leaders, Powered by the New York Stock Exchange,” one solution that Camuso recommended to help navigate through the uncertainty is the BNY Mellon Concentrated International ETF (BKCI), an actively managed ETF overseen by BNY Mellon IM affiliate Walter Scott. BKCI consists of “25 to 30 stocks within the international universe that Walter Scott finds attractive” for their “ability to adapt, evolve, and innovate — to not only survive but thrive throughout market cycles,” according to Camuso.
“This is a true bottoms-up built stock selection process,” he said, adding that Walter Scott wants to see companies with “high profitability, strong earnings, and persistent growth.”
The two main risks that BNY Mellon’s clients are talking about, according to Camuso, “are inflation and interest rates.” Another topic of discussion is that the “two metrics to look out for are operating margin… and then net debt to equity.” So, BNY Mellon IM’s ETF strategist said that if one were to look under the hood of BKCI, “there’s a significant improvement on both operating margin as well as net debt to equity.” Plus, looking at 2022 as a whole, Camuso said that “BKCI actually provided drawdown protection of 390 basis points relative to the MSCI EAFE Growth Index.”
So, Camuso argued that the fund is “helping clients navigate a very volatile market through a very experienced active process.”
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