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Overview
Overview

The Applied Global Core Equity Strategy is an unconstrained, flexible global, core equity portfolio of 30 - 60 stocks seeking to drive consistent excess returns regardless of style or regional market leadership.

Differentiators
1
A FLEXIBLE APPROACH THAT ADAPTS TO CHANGING MARKETS

Identifying changes in key market drivers is designed to help the team capture leadership changes across value, growth, and quality styles - and position the portfolio accordingly.

2
TWO SOURCES OF POTENTIAL EXCESS RETURN


The process combines 1) Quantitative and 2) Fundamental analysis (including a sustainability overlay), affording investors two distinct sources of excess return.

3
AN OVERLAY OF HUMAN JUDGEMENT


Portfolio Managers’ long-tenured experience through multiple equity market cycles serves as an important component in both style positioning and final stock selection.

Investment Approach

The fund prioritizes performance over investment rigidity

The consistency of behavioral fear/greed pushes all investment approaches to the extremes.

Avoids potential for prolonged periods of underperformance

Investment styles can go out of favor – for longer than investors’ patience duration. 

Opportunistically takes advantage of volatile markets

Dollar cost averaging1 into and out of positions and, where applicable, employing tax-swapping strategies during market corrections. 

Provides a high level of communications with investors

Multi-channel, high frequency of investor interaction.

Investment Process

1
Determined dominant

Using proprietary quantitative models, team forecasts those factors it believes will dominate markets over the next 6‐12 months.

2
Screen stocks

Stocks are ranked by their relative exposure to desired factors, which narrows the universe to the top quintile (20%) of stocks in each region.

3
Risk Decomposition

To further refine the pool, each high‐scoring stock undergoes risk decomposition analysis to assess its effect on desired and undesired exposures.

4
Conduct research

Stocks are analyzed individually, based on the idiosyncratic opportunities they offer.

5
Final Portfolio

Portfolio of high-conviction stocks is constructed. Stock weightings are determined by a stock’s exposure to desired factors, the confidence level of its idiosyncratic opportunity and its contribution to reducing intra-stock correlations within the portfolio.1

This represents how the portfolio management team generally implements its process under normal market conditions.

1The Global Core Equity portfolio typically has 30 – 60 positions. Weights and the number of securities provided are a typical range, not a maximum number. The portfolio may exceed this from time to time due to market conditions and outstanding trades.

Portfolio Managers

1Dollar Cost Averaging is a program of regular investment that cannot assure a profit or protect against a loss in a declining market. Since such a program involves continuous investments regardless of fluctuating share values, investors should consider their financial ability to continue the program though all market cycles.

RISK CONSIDERATIONS  

Diversification does not protect you against a loss in a particular market; however it allows you to spread that risk across various asset classes.

There is no assurance that a Portfolio will achieve its investment objective. Portfolios are subject to market risk, which is the possibility that the market values of securities owned by the Portfolio will decline and may therefore be less than what you paid for them. Market values can change daily due to economic and other events (e.g. natural disasters, health crises, terrorism, conflicts and social unrest) that affect markets, countries, companies or governments. It is difficult to predict the timing, duration, and potential adverse effects (e.g. portfolio liquidity) of events. Accordingly, you can lose money investing in this Portfolio. Please be aware that this Portfolio may be subject to certain additional risks. In general, equities securities’ values also fluctuate in response to activities specific to a company. Stocks of small-and medium-capitalization companies entail special risks, such as limited product lines, markets and financial resources, and greater market volatility than securities of larger, more established companies. Investments in foreign markets entail special risks such as currency, political, economic, market and liquidity risks. Illiquid securities may be more difficult to sell and value than publicly traded securities (liquidity risk). Non-diversified portfolios often invest in a more limited number of issuers. As such, changes in the financial condition or market value of a single issuer may cause greater volatility.

This communication is only intended for and will be only distributed to persons resident in jurisdictions where such distribution or availability would not be contrary to local laws or regulations.

There is no guarantee that any investment strategy will work under all market conditions, and each investor should evaluate their ability to invest for the long-term, especially during periods of downturn in the market. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

A separately managed account may not be appropriate for all investors. Separate accounts managed according to the Strategy include a number of securities and will not necessarily track the performance of any index. Please consider the investment objectives, risks and fees of the Strategy carefully before investing. A minimum asset level is required. For important information about the investment manager, please refer to Form ADV Part 2.

The views and opinions and/or analysis expressed are those of the author or the investment team as of the date of preparation of this material and are subject to change at any time without notice due to market or economic conditions and may not necessarily come to pass. Furthermore, the views will not be updated or otherwise revised to reflect information that subsequently becomes available or circumstances existing, or changes occurring, after the date of publication. The views expressed do not reflect the opinions of all investment personnel at Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) and its subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively “the Firm”), and may not be reflected in all the strategies and products that the Firm offers.

This material is a general communication, which is not impartial and all information provided has been prepared solely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute an offer or a recommendation to buy or sell any particular security or to adopt any specific investment strategy. The information herein has not been based on a consideration of any individual investor circumstances and is not investment advice, nor should it be construed in any way as tax, accounting, legal or regulatory advice. To that end, investors should seek independent legal and financial advice, including advice as to tax consequences, before making any investment decision.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

The indexes are unmanaged and do not include any expenses, fees or sales charges. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. Any index referred to herein is the intellectual property (including registered trademarks) of the applicable licensor. Any product based on an index is in no way sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by the applicable licensor and it shall not have any liability with respect thereto. The S&P 500 Index is an index that consists of 500 stocks chosen for market size, liquidity and industry group representation.

The S&P 500 Index measures the performance of the large cap segment of the U.S. equities market, covering approximately 80% of the U.S. equities market. The Index includes 500 leading companies in leading industries of the U.S. economy. The S&P Index is one of the most widely used benchmarks of U.S. equity performance.

The information presented represents how the portfolio management team generally implements its investment process under normal market conditions.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management is the asset management division of Morgan Stanley.