Hartford Multifactor Emerging Markets ETF

ROAM

Market cap $106M

At the same time developed markets have been generating policy and macro noise, emerging markets have been quietly outperforming. The inextricable relationship between the direction of U.S. monetary policy and emerging market risk assets remains powerful, but this time the rally is not just about the Fed.

Emerging markets equity returns have been driven by extreme mega-cap concentration, with index breadth collapsing to historic lows and masking weakness across much of the opportunity set. This concentration has distorted relative results for active managers, particularly those constrained by diversification rules or broad benchmarks, as small-cap underperformance and index construction limit flexibility.

Emerging markets continued to expand at a solid pace midway into the first quarter of 2024, supported by broad-based expansion across both manufacturing and service sectors.

Emerging markets have the potential to offer outsized returns, but many investors are understandably wary of the volatility of the asset class. Investors can navigate volatility in emerging markets by looking beyond traditional cap-weighted funds.