Global equity investing is undergoing a structural shift, with capital increasingly allocated across countries and regions rather than individual securities. This evolution raises an important question: Can country allocation be approached systematically, with the same rigor as stock-level factor investing? This session presents a research-driven framework for country investing, extending established equity factors—such as value, momentum, size, and reversal—to the country level. Drawing on academic literature and empirical evidence, the discussion highlights how country-level return patterns can be modeled and used to support disciplined allocation decisions. The session also addresses the limitations of traditional approaches, which are often either purely statistical or highly discretionary. It introduces a structured perspective on integrating macroeconomic information into the investment process, enabling a more comprehensive interpretation of global market dynamics. Overall, the webinar provides a conceptual and practical framework for global equity allocation, linking factor-based insights with macroeconomic context in a systematic and transparent manner.
Our presenter is, Sailesh S. Radha, the founder of Borealis Global Advisory and the pioneer of the Medium-Term Country Yield Forecast (CY-M), a sophisticated yield measure developed from a modified application of Shiller’s PE in international settings. He independently authored “A Prognostic Yield Measure for Country Selection in the Medium-Term” and “Using Shiller’s PE Using CAPE to Forecast Country Returns for Designing an International Country Rotation Portfolio”, which were published in the Journal of Index Investing and Journal of Portfolio Management, respectively. A key player during the European debt crises, Sailesh worked with Yardeni Research Inc. to develop advanced analytics, tools, and erudition to evaluate the government balance sheets of the enormously debt-ridden Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain that were on the brink of default bringing into prominence the GIIPS countries.