Regarding sector investing, Mazza says beaten-down areas such as commodities and energy could become opportunities this year if valuations become attractive.
As for smart-beta, “it continues to be of interest to investors looking for new ways to bridge the gap between passive and active management,” Mazza said. “Opportunities exist not just for low-volatility or dividend investing [smart-beta strategies], but also for more multi-factor approaches.”
He also spotlighted another potentially interesting area for 2015––the hybrid asset class of convertible bonds. “In the quest to make portfolios more resilient to rising interest rates or make equity portfolios less volatile, convertible bonds fit into an in-between area that can potentially help reduce volatility from equities and change the dynamics of historical fixed-income portfolios,” Mazza said.