The quality factor: Why resilience matters
March 12, 2026
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2 min
Gateway market perspective
Market volatility experts from Gateway Investment Advisers, specialists in options-based investment strategies, examine key volatility trends each month and risk management ideas to help investors stay invested for the long run.
The quality factor: Why resilience matters
- Quality stocks have delivered superior risk-adjusted returns across nearly three decades, outperforming a majority of the most well-known factors such as value, growth, or high dividend.
- 2025-s underperformance of quality may not have been a surprise after witnessing the speculative growth around artificial intelligence and the future of technology during the year.
- Gateway’s quantitative approach to quality investing combines systematic factor optimization with broad market exposure and income generation through the use of index options.
Key takeaway
So far, 2026 has come with elevated valuations, evolving monetary policy, and heightened uncertainty. The durability offered by quality investing may be the resilience that investors need in their portfolios. Quality may sit out on shorter-term speculative races, but for investors focused on growth over the long-term, it may offer something increasingly rare: sustainable edge based on financial fundamentals rather than market narratives.
