Beyond the black box: Inside a glass-box approach to Asean investing

Systematic investing has a reputation for opacity: algorithms making calls that no one can explain. BlackRock’s systematic active equities team says that image is out of date. Its new Asean strategy, developed after conversations with MAS under the equity market development programme, is built to be seen through.

In this episode of Money Hacks, a podcast from The Business Times, Howie Lim speaks with Filip Mena Berlin, strategist on BlackRock’s systematic active equities team, about how rules-based investing works in a market that many investors overlook, and what everyday investors can take from it.

Why listen

• Why Berlin calls it a glass box, not a black box  He says the team can see exactly why a stock is held, overweighted or avoided. He walks through the three drivers it tracks: fundamentals, sentiment and macro.

• Why sentiment is the edge in Asean  Berlin explains why traditional measures such as balance sheet strength and earnings growth still carry some value here. The dimension he sees as least priced in is who else is trading and how their views are shifting.

• Why the strategy is built around diversification In July, Asian equities fell while Asean equities rose Berlin explains why he sees a local allocation, with a little over half anchored in Singapore, as a counterweight to the AI-heavy trades that dominate other regions.

• What humans still do in a machine-driven process  Berlin describes it as human with machine rather than human versus machine. People decide whether an idea makes economic sense, and the algorithm then applies it across every stock.

Lessons for DIY investors: Stay invested, hold a diversified core, add a diversifier, and keep any tactical bets to a smaller portion.

The strategy is designed as a longer-term allocation rather than a short-term trade. This conversation explains how the model works and why. Listen now.

Discover more episodes at bt.sg/podcasts. Got feedback? Email us at btpodcasts@sph.com.sg.

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Written and hosted by: Howie Lim (howielim@sph.com.sg)

With Filip Mena Berlin, strategist, systematic active equities team, BlackRock

Edited by: Howie Lim & Claressa Monteiro

Produced by: Howie Lim & Chai Pei Chieh

A podcast by BT Podcasts, The Business Times, SPH Media

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