Why dont investment styles play a role in IMI strategies?
A. Creating an investment discipline that has a distinct investment style, such as value, growth or momentum, invariably subjects it to periods of underperformance. As the preference of investors oscillates between value, growth and momentum, one or more of the stylistic strategies go out of favor. Each time a strategy goes out of favor the investors risk losing money. By creating strategies that do not have a distinct style, but incorporate the best of all styles, we are able to assure that a certain number of strategy components remain in favor the majority of the time. That way, we are able to minimize the number of periods when our strategy is out of favor and create a much more consistent investment approach.
