Introducing Equity Alpha, Powered by J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Syfe introduces Equity Alpha, a global equity portfolio designed for investors seeking consistent alpha, or excess return above the market, through disciplined, research-led stock selection. The portfolio is powered by J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM), the world’s largest active ETF manager.

At Syfe, we believe most long-term investors benefit from staying invested in global equities. But relying on purely passive investing may not always capture opportunities created by differences between company fundamentals and market prices. At the same time, traditional active strategies, dependent on stock picking typically by two to three individuals, are relatively expensive and often produce varied outcomes. Many of these funds have struggled to navigate the volatile market environment in recent years.

Equity Alpha is built to bridge that gap by combining active stock selection with diversification, risk controls, and a fee structure closer to passive investing than traditional active funds. It aims to deliver consistent alpha over time while limiting risk by remaining fairly close to global equity markets.

In this article:

Investment process

Syfe’s Equity Alpha is designed to deliver consistent outperformance through disciplined stock selection, rather than through market timing or concentrated bets.

This outperformance is generated following a research-enhanced investment process that blends active stock selection with index-aware portfolio construction:

  • Equity Alpha overweights stocks with higher expected return potential, meaning it puts more capital behind these shares than what is included in  widely-tracked global “benchmark” indices, and does the opposite (underweights) those considered overvalued.
  • Stock selection is informed by J.P. Morgan’s bottom-up, fundamental research, powered by the firm’s 360+ investment professionals covering over 2,500 stocks worldwide. This enables Equity Alpha to hold a large number of actively managed positions, lowering concentration risks.
  • To ensure consistent performance over time, Equity Alpha stays broadly “neutral” on macro, sector and style exposures (i.e. same as the benchmark).
  • As a result, Equity Alpha is disciplined, diversified, and designed to avoid the performance or exposure oscillations typical in traditional active funds.

Proven outperformance

The Equity Alpha portfolio is built with J.P. Morgan’s Research Enhanced Index (REI) ETFs, which have a 20-year track record. The strategy has generated 10.8% annualised returns over the last eight years and outperformed the benchmark by 0.5-1% over 20 years.

As with all equity strategies, there will be periods of underperformance. What differentiates this approach is a repeatable, research-led process built to improve the probability of alpha generation over full market cycles.

Why we partnered with J.P. Morgan Asset Management

To deliver this strategy, Syfe has partnered with J.P. Morgan Asset Management, the world’s largest active ETF manager.

J.P. Morgan brings:

  • A long track record of outperformance applying research-driven strategies at an institutional scale
  • One of the largest and most well-resourced global equity research teams in the industry
  • Decades of experience analysing companies across regions and market cycles

Their research-enhanced equity strategies have been refined over more than 20 years, with a consistent focus on disciplined stock selection and risk control.

By combining J.P. Morgan & Syfe’s portfolio construction expertise with institutional research capabilities, Equity Alpha gives individual investors access to an approach that was historically available only to large institutions.

Portfolio composition

Syfe’s Equity Alpha is a globally diversified equity portfolio, designed to spread exposure across countries and sectors while allowing active stock selection to drive alpha.

The portfolio’s composition reflects two key principles:

  • Broad global diversification to manage concentration risk
  • Active tilts driven primarily by stock-level research, while remaining broadly neutral to macro, sector and style exposures

The Equity Alpha portfolio is built by Syfe and powered by J.P. Morgan Asset Management, whose role is to provide insights and non-binding asset allocation guidance to Syfe in the portfolio construction process. Syfe manages and provides these portfolios to you and we take care of all your servicing and advisory needs.

Informed by J.P. Morgan’s research, Syfe may make measured, incremental adjustments over time to reflect evolving market conditions. These adjustments are designed to be small and disciplined, implemented within clear risk limits, and the portfolio is typically reviewed and rebalanced around 2–4 times per year.

Active investing, at passive costs

Equity Alpha offers research-driven active exposure at an expense ratio of about 0.2% – close to passively managed strategies and up to 85% less than conventional active funds, which could charge in excess of 1.5% of annual fees.

Whereas traditional active funds often require highly paid portfolio managers and analysts to hand-pick stocks, “smart” strategies replace much of this human capital with rules-based models.

In the case of Equity Alpha, we are replicating strategies that have been run for decades by J.P. Morgan on behalf of large institutions – in a cost-efficient manner. 

A Smarter Way to Go Active

Diversified, disciplined, and cost-effective.

^Morningstar Global Investor Experience Study: Fees and Expenses. 
+Source: S&P’s SPIVA scorecard

Disclaimers:
For Syfe’s Equity Alpha portfolio, J.P. Morgan Asset Management (“JPMAM”) provides Syfe with non-binding research insights and portfolio guidance. Investments in JPMorgan ETFs will be subject to the fees and expense ratios disclosed in the prospectus of each JPMorgan ETF. JPMAM and its affiliates provide services to and receive fees from JPMorgan ETFs.
By investing in Syfe’s Equity Alpha portfolio, you would be investing in a discretionary portfolio established, offered and managed by Syfe. There is no contractual relationship between you and JPMAM or any entity within the J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. group of companies, nor has JPMAM considered the suitability of the portfolio’s asset allocation in light of your individual financial circumstances, objectives or risk tolerance. Syfe retains full discretion over all portfolio construction, implementation and rebalancing decisions.
JPMAM is not affiliated with Syfe and makes no representations or warranties regarding the advisability of investing in any product or service offered by Syfe. This material is not issued by JPMAM, any J.P. Morgan funds or their affiliates, and has not been reviewed or approved by JPMAM. Accordingly, JPMAM and any J.P. Morgan Chase Parties take no responsibility for the accuracy of its contents and accept no liability for any statement or misstatement herein.
References to “beating the market”, “outperformance” or “alpha” reflect the portfolio’s investment objective and strategy and do not constitute a guarantee of future results. Active management involves investment judgement and may result in periods of underperformance relative to the benchmark.