• The Institutional Investor Holdings Indicator, Institutional Investor Risk Appetite Indicator and State Street S&P Global Institutional Investor Carbon Indicator will provide unique insights into institutional investor allocation trends
• With more than two decades of experience building flow indicators based on data and analytics, State Street makes new suite of Indicators broadly available to media, policymakers and investors at large for the first time

State Street Corporation announced the launch of three publicly available data-driven indicators that will provide unprecedented insight into the aggregate portfolio allocation trends of some of the world’s largest institutional investors. The Institutional Investor Holdings Indicator, Institutional Investor Risk Appetite Indicator and the State Street S&P Global Institutional Investor Carbon Indicator, powered by S&P Global Sustainble1, will draw on the aggregated and anonymized dataset underlying the assets State Street services to offer investors, as well as other stakeholders, a rigorous, fact-based alternative to unscientific polls and surveys as a means to gauge institutional investor sentiment.

These three new tools will harness the power of State Street’s more than $37 trillion of assets under custody and administration¹ to provide a top-down look into the historically opaque perspective of institutional investors. The indicators are highly aggregated and anonymized to protect the confidentiality of investors. As an essential partner to the investors influencing financial markets, these indicators bolster State Street’s leading position as a provider of data-driven market research and flow analytics to its clients and other important stakeholders. The indicators will be made available on Insights [globalmarkets.statestreet.com], the research platform of State Street’s markets business.

• The Institutional Investor Holdings Indicator tracks the aggregate holdings of institutional investors across three asset classes: stocks, bonds and cash. Shifts in asset allocations convey information about how investors view the economy and their outlook for markets. When investors are bullish on markets, they tend to hold more stocks; when they are bearish, they tend to hold more cash and bonds. The Holdings Indicator is calculated daily and will be released monthly.
• Institutional Investor Risk Appetite Indicator is based on flows—buying and selling activity—rather than portfolio positions. It reveals whether investors, in aggregate, are buying or selling risky assets. For example, selling less risky bond or stock investments to buy riskier ones would drive up this score. While the Holdings Indicator tells us about current positioning, the Risk Appetite Indicator tells us about the direction of travel. The Risk Appetite Indicator is calculated daily and will be released monthly.
• The State Street S&P Global Institutional Investor Carbon Indicator tracks the overall exposure of institutional investor portfolio holdings to carbon emissions. Leveraging aggregated and anonymized custody and accounting data from State Street, together carbon emissions data from S&P Global powered by S&P Global Sustainble1, the indicator will show how institutional investors are managing their exposure to carbon risk, and what is driving shifts in these exposures. The Carbon Indicator will be released annually.

“In global markets, understanding how the world’s largest pools of capital are moving can help investors identify headwinds and tailwinds that will impact their portfolios both short and long-term,” said Anthony Bisegna, head of State Street Global Markets. “For two decades, our clients have looked to us for data-driven flow research to help them manage assets. Today, we’re pleased to make these three bellwethers available to the media, policymakers and investors at large.”

The State Street Institutional Investor Indicators are an essential tool for anyone seeking to understand how some of the world’s largest investors are reacting to market conditions and other macroeconomic considerations.

“We have built a market-leading position in macro, quantitative and flow research drawing on our exclusive academic partnerships and data science capabilities,” said Will Kinlaw, head of Research at State Street Global Markets. “Our clients expect us to provide actionable insights from the collective, aggregated and anonymized data that State Street holds on their behalf.”

Source: State Street