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Global Invested Capital Market

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The concept of a world market portfolio features prominently in many financial theories and models and serves as an important foundation of our asset allocation work for our clients. The world market portfolio is the collection of all assets available to investors in proportion to their relative market value. Therefore, information about the market portfolio:

  • Describes the aggregate portfolio of all investors
  • Describes the investment opportunity set
  • Can serve as a neutral or starting point when establishing long-term asset allocation policies based on circumstances and objectives (e.g., risk, liquidity, time horizon), or views driven by information that is better than everyone else’s (e.g., long-term capital market forecasts, medium-term views)
  • Can serve as a benchmark for strategic asset allocation

In this paper, we estimate how the global market has allocated its collective wealth among competing investment opportunities from a U.S.-based investor point of view. As such, all the estimates are quoted in U.S. dollars. By definition, finance theory assumes that the market portfolio consists of both traded and non-traded assets (human capital, durable consumer goods, etc.). However, it is difficult to construct a good proxy for the market portfolio in the real world that captures all sources of assets. Therefore, we exclude categories like human capital and consumer goods and focus on measuring the values of the capital market securities that make up the opportunity set faced by most investors.

To learn more about the global capital invested market, download the full whitepaper above. 


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This document has been produced by the Investment Policy Services Team of Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting, a division of Aon plc, and is appropriate solely for institutional investors. Nothing in this document should be treated as an authoritative statement of the law on any particular aspect or in any specific case. It should not be taken as financial advice, and action should not be taken as a result of this document alone. Consultants will be pleased to answer questions on its contents but cannot give individual financial advice. Individuals are recommended to seek independent financial advice specific to their own personal circumstances. The information contained herein is given as of the date hereof and does not purport to give information as of any other date. The delivery at any time shall not, under any circumstances, create any implication that there has been a change in the information set forth herein since the date hereof or any obligation to update or provide amendments hereto. The information contained herein is derived from proprietary and nonproprietary sources deemed by Aon to be reliable and are not necessarily allinclusive.

The opinions referenced are as of the date of publication and are subject to change due to changes in the market or economic conditions and may not necessarily come to pass. Information contained herein is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice.

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