Enhanced Index at 10: what a decade of disciplined investing has taught us

To mark the milestone, we sat down with fund manager Ross Olusanya to reflect on the lessons learned, the improvements made, and the opportunities ahead for the next decade.

1. Ten years is a big milestone. How does it feel looking back at a decade of Enhanced Index?

It’s a great moment of reflection. When we launched EI, the goal was simple: offer investors a cost‑efficient way to access core equity markets, but with a disciplined, multi‑factor engine designed to add steady excess return. The blend of Value, Quality and Momentum has always been at the heart of that approach.

Looking back, we’ve experienced every kind of market environment – the good, the bad and the unexpected. Hitting the decade mark confirms that our systematic, multi‑factor approach holds up in the real world, not just in research. It shows the process works and has the resilience you need to manage money for clients over the long run.

2. What stands out most about the last decade?

How different each period has been. We’ve had a growth boom, COVID, rapid rate hikes, inflation returning, Value revivals, geopolitical shocks – you name it. A clear takeaway from all of that is that no single investing style wins all the time, and that’s exactly why our balanced blend of Value, Quality and Momentum has been so important.

3. What hasn’t changed in your approach over the years?

Our core beliefs. We’ve always focused on long‑term drivers of equity returns, kept the process disciplined, and controlled risk tightly. The philosophy has remained resolute.

4. And what has changed?

We have continually improved our process:

Our factor definitions are richer. We’ve expanded and refined how we measure Quality and Momentum. For example, our Quality factor builds on the profitability, financial‑strength and accounting‑quality metrics we already used but now organises them into a broader and better‑balanced set of themes. This gives us a more complete and region‑specific picture of what Quality really means.

Our portfolio construction tools are far more advanced than they were at launch. Indeed, we’ve built our own proprietary risk model, which results in better alpha capture and more control of our risk budget.

Our risk controls are sharper and more dynamic. We manage unintended exposures more actively, especially around major macro or geopolitical events, ensuring the portfolio returns remain aligned with the intended factor mix.

And we now have a more than 10 years of analytics and feedback to learn from. A decade of attribution, testing, and process review means we now have an “F1‑style” performance feedback loop that simply didn’t exist when we started.

In short: the engine is the same – but it’s had 10 years of upgrades.

5. What have been the biggest lessons from a decade of running this strategy?

We learned four key lessons:

Diversification works – We’ve seen periods where Value struggled (e.g., 2020), times when Momentum dominated, and times when Quality was the main stabiliser. Having all three in the fund has consistently proven its worth.

Implementation matters – You can have great signals, but without the right risk controls, turnover management and portfolio construction, you won’t deliver them in a real fund. And that’s what matters for clients. Over the decade we’ve had to refine these elements continuously.

History rhymes but doesn’t repeat, so you must continually evolve – Factor definitions that worked in 2016 don’t automatically work in 2026. Our updates to Quality, Momentum and the multi‑factor signal are direct responses to these shifts.

As we currently see with the Middle East, macro and geopolitical risks have become more prevalent and persistent over the last five years – You need a robust and systematic process to deal with these risks or they can wipe out all your alpha.

6. How would you sum up the performance story?

Over 10 years, the big story is progress. We’ve always aimed for steady, diversified excess returns – but the last five years have been particularly strong, and that’s not a coincidence. A lot of that improvement reflects the work we’ve done on the process: introducing our proprietary risk model, refining factor definitions, and managing risk more dynamically.

For us, the takeaway is clear: a robust philosophy, combined with a process that keeps improving, can potentially deliver better outcomes over time.

7. How have clients been using Enhanced Index over the years?

What started as a ‘smart passive’ idea has grown into a core building block for many advisers. People now use EI to upgrade passive exposure, balance concentrated active positions and bring more stability and style diversification into portfolios – all while delivering strong value for money. As the track record has grown, so has investor confidence in using it more widely.

8. What are you most proud of?

That the strategy has done what we said it would do – and done it through strikingly different markets. Team discipline has also been key: sticking to the evidence, improving the process, and never losing sight of the long‑term journey we are on.

9. What excites you about the next 10 years?

There’s a lot to look forward to. Deeper data, experimenting with machine learning and other AI tools, better optimisation tools, and continued growth in the multi-factor systematic investing space. But the heart of what we do remains the same: delivering market-like risk with a reliable, systematic source of added return.

10. In one line, what does this anniversary mean?

That our approach has earned its place – over a decade of real-world evidence showing that disciplined, diversified factor investing works.

The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, and investors may get back less than the amount invested. Past performance is not a guide for future results.