An intriguing piece of data hit our inbox this week as Investment Metrics has analysed which factors drove the relatively strong stock market performance in July.
After crunching the numbers they found that while the MSCI All Countries World index returned 3 per cent, the asset class that offered the best return was high beta funds, while value funds delivered a premium return relative to the market.
Breaking it down by asset class, within US equities, it was value, volatility and sales growth that outperformed, while the European equity market was driven by the value and volatility factors to the same extent.
Investing in the volatility factor means buying stocks with a share price that is more volatile than the market average.
For the FTSE 100, value stocks outperformed the wider market, but also outperformed by a greater margin than that factor did in Europe or the US, while the volatility factor outperformed to the same extent in the UK as in other developed markets.
