Steven Malin & team J.P. Morgan
The buy side says: “Steve and his team regularly provide succinct, topical, focused and meaningful research.”
Steven Malin and his Hong Kong–based crew of two at J.P. Morgan are No. 1 for a third year running. “There is a tendency sometimes for quant research to be too theoretical without application, but Steve and his team avoid this pitfall,” observes one portfolio manager. The strategists’ current advice to clients: “From an alpha perspective focus on earnings but manage beta exposure very tightly,” Malin says. “If we look historically, we see that earnings-revision-based strategies have traditionally thrived in this kind of environment — especially in Asia.” He further notes that “the last eight months have been unprecedented — at least in the last 20 years — in the degree to which beta and volatility have been driving stock returns.” Although the moves have been abnormally sharp, investors can still manage them through a careful and disciplined approach to portfolio construction — an especially important concern while markets continue to wrestle with global macro questions whose outcomes remain unclear, such as the U.S. recovery, a slowdown in China and European credit issues, Malin adds. The 39-year-old joined J.P. Morgan in Sydney in 2003 and moved to Hong Kong four years ago. Previously, he spent four years as an analyst at Credit Suisse after working for several years as a software consultant. Malin holds a graduate certificate in applied finance from the Securities Institute of Australia. — Carolyn Koo
