BONDS / FIXED INCOME

Monthly Commentary: Global Allocation Fund

Nov 19, 2024

A flexible multi-asset strategy to seek better outcomes

It takes an experienced and well-resourced team to seek out the most attractive investment opportunities around the world while managing volatility. BlackRock Global Allocation Fund seeks returns competitive with global stocks over market cycles but with less risk.

Performance and positioning update

  • The fund outperformed its benchmark as equity and bond markets retraced prior months gains.
  • Moderate equity overweight, via secular growth companies with consistent profitability. Modest underweight to duration with bulk of bond exposure in spread assets. Cash, gold-related and derivatives as risk mitigants.

View fund commentary

The fund has historically outperformed global stocks with less volatility

ga monthly

 

Source: BlackRock, Bloomberg, as of 10/31/24. Performance is based on a hypothetical investment of $10,000 in the fund and the FTSE World Index made the first month post inception (2/3/89). *Volatility for the same period, which is represented by annualized standard deviation, was 9.97% for the fund and 15.33% for global stocks. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Index performance is shown for illustrative purposes only. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.

Rick Rieder
Rick Rieder
Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income and Head of the Global Allocation Team
Rick Rieder, Senior Managing Director, is BlackRock's Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income, Head of the Fundamental Fixed Income business and Head of the Global Allocation Investment Team.
Russ Koesterich
Russ Koesterich
Portfolio Manager,
BlackRock Global Allocation Team
Russ Koesterich, CFA, JD, Managing Director and portfolio manager, is a member of the Global Allocation team. Mr. Koesterich's service with the firm dates back to 2005, including his years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009.
Kate Moore
Kate Moore
Head of Thematic Strategy,
BlackRock Global Allocation Team
Kate Moore, Managing Director, is a member of the Global Allocation investment team and Head of Thematic Strategy. Her investment mandate includes identifying opportunities to exploit structural change, policy evolution, and dislocations across global industries. She is a member of the Human Capital Committee.

I’m up at 3:45 every morning. I want to know where all the markets are. I work out for an hour then the day really gets going.

I’m Rick Rieder, Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income at BlackRock.

So my job is investing money for clients trying to generate returns using fixed income assets within portfolios. From being in this business for 35 years, you learn you got to be thoughtful, you got to innovate, you got to be different, and then apply that to the experience you have and the research that you’re doing.

Education for me is literally the foundation of everything. I’m chairman of the board of North Star Academy. It’s over 14 charter schools, serving 6,000 kids in the city of Newark. We started an internship program to bring high school kids in to help them with not just understanding markets, the economy, finance, but also understanding how you interface in business. We’re helping to change the future of thousands of underserved kids.

It gives you a real boost to see the difference you can make.

There’s a lot to do in a day, but when you start to see what you can get done, I think it’s safe to say that I won’t look back and wish I had slept more.

Meet Rick Rieder: Morningstar’s 2023 Outstanding Portfolio Manager

Rick Rieder, Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income, has been awarded the 2023 Morningstar Award for Investing Excellence, Outstanding Portfolio Manager. Rick Rieder’s consistent approach to managing strategies like Strategic Income Opportunities, Total Return, Global Allocation and more have helped funds deliver long-term success.

Explore fixed income Explore fixed income

RELATED RESOURCES

Stay ahead of the markets

Uncover expert insights from BlackRock’s strategists and portfolio managers. Get the latest on the global economy, geopolitics, retirement, and other timely investment ideas.
Explore all insights Explore all insights

KEEP EXPLORING

Weekly market commentary Weekly market commentary
Education hub Education hub
The Bid podcast The Bid podcast

Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Investment returns and principal values may fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. All returns assume reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. Current performance may be lower or higher than that shown. Refer to blackrock.com for most recent month-end performance.

To obtain more information on the fund, including the Morningstar time period ratings and standardized average annual total returns as of the most recent calendar quarter and current month-end, please visit Global Allocation Fund.

The Morningstar RatingTM for funds, or "star rating," is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods.