WoWE’s public markets portfolio consists of single name securities and mutual funds, carefully selected using our gender intersectional investment approach and optimized for both financial and impact returns.
The single name security portfolio is constructed using Ethos ESG’s Direct Indexing Optimizer. Its objective is to track the performance of the MSCI ACWI Index within the 2% deviation band. Its holdings are selected through a monthly optimization that looks to minimize the deviation from the benchmark while selecting companies that rate highly on Gender Equality metrics and excluding those that are engaged in harmful industries and practices, specifically fossil fuels, deforestation, tobacco, weapons, prisons, and alcohol. We use this portfolio to continuously learn and collect insights to build the gender intersectional investing field and inform the development of new gender-focused products and strategies. Every month, we rebalance the portfolio which allows us to test the materiality of certain causes and screens on creating an optimal portfolio. So far, we have found that there is limited marginal value in adding additional causes and screens beyond those we already include in our process.
The objective of our mutual fund portfolio is driving financial returns while maximizing exposure to gender intersectional assets. We have built a diversified portfolio across sectors, geographies, and managers. We rebalance this portfolio on a quarterly basis to ensure alignment to our investment thesis.