BofA “Poorest Environment For Active Managers In History” As BTD No Longer Works

Just as Moody’s lowered its outlook for asset managers to negative, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is calling the current scenario the “poorest environment for active managers in history.”

“Markets remain fragile as a dearth of alpha drives low conviction and investor crowding against a backdrop of failing trading liquidity,” the bank said in a research note on derivatives outlook for 2017.

As 2016 winds down, BofA considers the market “incredibly difficult to trade,” too, as market behavior remains historically unusual, measured by volatility. A few U.S. large cap active equity managers have outperformed their benchmarks, but hedge funds have made their largest drawdowns in history, relative to risks. Such a scenario...