Diversification
Aeon believes that diversifying across varying asset types helps to improve risk-adjusted returns. The firm also believes that the interplay of diversified assets provides clues into general market risks.
Aeon has a systematic process to construct highly diversified portfolios across and within asset classes, such as stocks, currencies, and commodities. The firm has also developed a proprietary indicator based on the relative performance of portfolio constituents which seeks to detect overall market risks. When significant, wide-spread risks are signaled, Aeon lowers the portfolio’s market exposure. This feature was particularly useful in 2008.
The potential benefits of diversification are three-fold. First, casting a wider net increases one’s chance of capturing large directional moves. Second, spreading risks around decreases the likelihood that any one position will significantly harm returns. Third, using diversified portfolios to determine tipping points can provide an opportunity to lower market exposure before epic crashes, such as those of 1987, 2000 and 2008.