BMO Capital is Increasing Return in an Increasing Volatility Stock Market Environment

October 29, 2019

David Corris, CFA, is Head of Disciplined Equities and Portfolio Manager, Disciplined Equities at BMO Global Asset Management.

Mr. Corris heads the BMO Disciplined Equity Team and is responsible for equity portfolio management and research. He joined the company in 2008. Mr. Corris began his investment management career in 1999 and was a quantitative equity portfolio manager/researcher at Northern Trust Global Investments and a quantitative equity research analyst at Citigroup Asset Management.

He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in mathematics and quantitative economics from the University of Wisconsin.

In his exclusive 2,394 word interview, only in the Wall Street Transcript, Mr. Corris reveals the secret to his market beating equity investment returns.

“We see that volatility has been rising slightly in the last few months, and we expect there to be elevated levels of volatility going forward.

We think the drivers of that volatility include a market near all-time highs, an economic recovery that many people think is nearing late cycle, increased political volatility, especially as we lead up to the elections, and volatility potentially from Federal Reserve policy and interest rate changes.

All of those conditions could lead to more volatility going forward.”

One example for a safe haven in this rising volatility environment is an auto parts supplier:

“One example of a company that we own is AutoZone (NYSE:AZO). The majority of AutoZone’s business is reselling auto parts directly to consumers.

They are a stable company that has consistently outperformed their estimates, and their business model helps explain why we think they’re low risk. Their business of selling to consumers is fairly stable because there’s always demand for auto parts replacements.

And in some ways, it can be countercyclical, because when the economy has a downturn, consumers may choose to buy fewer new cars and instead service their existing cars.”

Get all the other methods being employed by this expert professionals portfolio management in the entire exclusive 2,394 word interview, only in the Wall Street Transcript.