FYI: This week we sit down with Jeremy Schwartz, the director of research at WisdomTree. He is responsible for the equity index construction process and oversees research across the WisdomTree family. Prior to joining WisdomTree, Jeremy was head research assistant to Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel, and helped with the research and the writing of “Stocks for the Long Run” and “The Future for Investors.” He also hosts the Wharton Business Radio program “Behind the Markets” on SiriusXM 111, and is a member of the CFA Society of Philadelphia.
Schwartz tells of how meeting Siegel changed his career path, leading him towards newer forms of indexings and ETFs. Professor Siegel, a perennial favorite of Wharton students, steered Schwartz towards his current role researching how to bring new investment concepts to investors.
He also tells several delightful tales about Siegel and the professor’s best friend — and polar opposite — professor Bob Shiller of Yale.
Schwartz discusses how currency hedging in the ETF space has taken off, especially in Japan and to some degree in the Eurozone. Original, their Dividend-Weighted Japan fund was not especially popular. His great insight for overseas investors was that they were essentially making a double decker bet: stocks + currency. By hedging the Yen, investors were allowed to make a stock bet without currency impacting the performance. WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (DXJ) became the first currency hedged ETF.
Regards,
Ted
http://ritholtz.com/2017/12/mib-jeremy-schwartz-wisdom-tree/WisdomTree Website:
https://www.wisdomtree.com/
