Anticipate the Alpha Opportunity

The debt load continues to remain elevated with over $1 trillion in loans outstanding, negatively impacting debt to equity ratios. This obviously matters in a rising rate environment. Rising rates will continue to challenge small cap companies as 31 percent of their total debt outstanding is floating-rate compared to just 9 percent for larger companies. Net debt in the Russell 2000 is higher than it was in 2007, and financial leverage now needs to be front and center as asset allocators think about portfolio positioning in 2019 and beyond.