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Our embedded traders work alongside portfolio managers and analysts to constantly assess market structures, liquidity and execution. These functions seek to help enable operational alpha by reducing risks, minimizing transaction costs and taking advantage of price differentials. To support our analysis, we gather and evaluate uniquely curated datasets. Below is the outcome of one such analysis:

The rise of electronic trading in liquid foreign exchange (FX) markets has delivered significant advantages to asset managers, with enhanced price transparency being one of the most notable. Greater transparency helps improve price discovery, enabling more accurate measurement of transaction costs and allowing asset managers to better attribute those costs to specific market events. A recent example of this is the detention of a prominent political opposition leader in Turkey on March 19, 2025, which triggered volatility in the Turkish lira. This event serves as a timely case study of how political shocks can impact transaction costs in the FX market.

Several oil-producing nations are undergoing a transformative shift, moving from a market dominated by the oil majors to one where large segments of the industry are led by local companies. This trend is creating substantial growth opportunities for local independent oil companies and helping boost the domestic economies of these nations.

In a world where uncertainty outweighs certainty, EM credit spreads have defied expectations, grinding tighter despite persistent macro risks. Since mid-2022, spreads have steadily narrowed, recently reaching their tightest levels since February 2020—just weeks before the global COVID-19 sell-off. While EM debt benchmarks have ridden the wave of broad credit spread tightening, their market-cap-weighted methodology has resulted in a significant allocation to low-spread securities, leaving the benchmarks with one foot in and one foot out of the party.

Our embedded traders work alongside portfolio managers and analysts to constantly assess market structures, liquidity and execution. These functions seek to help enable operational alpha by reducing risks, minimizing transaction costs and taking advantage of price differentials. To support our analysis, we gather and evaluate uniquely curated datasets. Below is the outcome of one such analysis:

Transaction costs in foreign exchange can be a significant drag on emerging markets debt portfolios if not carefully managed. As a result, foreign exchange trade execution strategy becomes a vital component of such portfolios. One key decision in minimizing transaction costs is determining the optimal time of day for execution. Unlike exchange-traded markets, the foreign exchange market operates 24 hours a day without official opening or closing times, making timing decisions dependent on the analysis of transaction costs.

Our embedded traders work alongside portfolio managers and analysts to constantly assess market structures, liquidity and execution. These functions seek to help enable operational alpha by reducing risks, minimizing transaction costs and taking advantage of price differentials. To support our analysis, we gather and evaluate uniquely curated datasets. Below is the outcome of one such analysis:

The rise of electronic trading in liquid foreign exchange markets has brought significant benefits to asset managers, including enhanced price discovery, faster trading execution, and improved trade processing efficiency. However, one often overlooked advantage is the benefit of skewed prices offered by liquidity providers. We aimed to quantify the value of this skew and assess its impact on emerging market currencies. 

Donald Trump’s and the Republican party’s sweeping victories in November signal a strong mandate for meaningful change that will influence the global economy and geopolitics for 2025 and beyond. While exact details of Trump’s policies remain unknown, the former president has made the direction of political change clear in several key areas:

Investors often allocate to emerging markets debt to capture compelling stories of growth, reform and opportunity in developing economies. Yet, all too often, these carefully chosen EM exposures are overshadowed by movements in US Treasury yields. It’s a frustrating reality that can significantly amplify volatility in the asset class’s returns, and recent weeks have offered a reminder of just how powerful this effect can be.

In March 2024, Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and President Bassirou Diomaye Faye were elected with a promise of radical change. Their campaign, which centered on social justice and national sovereignty, resonated with a population facing high living costs and rising unemployment. Following his inauguration in April, President Faye initiated a comprehensive review of the country’s financial situation. The findings, released in late September, raised significant concerns, and suggest that Senegal’s fiscal health may be more precarious than previously believed.

Sri Lanka’s September presidential election was a watershed moment. The left-leaning political outsider, Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD), was elected as the 9th President of Sri Lanka. AKD’s rise reflects the electorate’s desire for change, following the 2022 crisis which doubled the poverty rate and shrunk the middle class. His platform appealed to voters by promising to curb corruption and provide tax relief, but also antagonized markets by proposing fiscally irresponsible tax exemptions and challenging Eurobond restructuring negotiations – raising serious concerns about economic stability.

Policy makers, government officials and members of the emerging markets debt investment community descended on Washington DC last week for the fall IMF meetings. Over the course of the week, the EMsights team conducted over 100 meetings and actively engaged in conversations with a diverse array of representatives and leaders.