Archives

What do we know about the reports prepared by institutional asset owners regarding the asset management organizations they hire? A review of a new paper on the topic (and some ideas of our own).

In addition to the titled themes, some of the topics in this issue are lowball guidance, looking for truthful filings, alpha from index funds, infrastructure, subscription lending, and behavioral attribution. Plus a bunch of good questions and Goldilocks models.

Information about performance gets sliced and diced in innumerable ways. Additional quantifiable attributes of asset managers have also been studied, but other factors (ones that really matter) are difficult to analyze.

The beliefs of two successful investment firms, subscription lines, the most successful ETF launch, sovereign development funds, endowments and inflation, CFA formulas, and “sex, drugs, and spreadsheets.”

Individuals within organizations face impediments in trying to escape the established order. Similar forces are a factor for organizations, especially in the asset management business.

An excellent piece about the rise and fall of General Electric hones in on a critical factor in understanding how organizations work (or don’t work).

In this issue: the state of asset management, Two Sigma, private credit, using drugs “to produce business breakthroughs,” the double-attrition problem in wealth management, workplace culture, and much, much more.

To wrap up a long series of postings, here are some closing thoughts about the power of cultural evaluations and their importance in understanding the upheavals ahead.

The investment industry has often been referred to as “pale, male, and stale.” The latest posting in a series on social research into investment organizations dives into questions of sameness and difference.

Main sections on the equity risk premium, culture and key-man risk, AI resources, and ROIC migration. Plus: ESG, structured products, continuation funds, merger arbitrage, the end of cheap RIA capital, and much more.

Analysts operate within a web of relationships. To assess their estimates or recommendations, you need to understand the social environment in which they are produced.

The hottest stories in the investment world, plus intangible value, salesmanship, hidden leverage, lessons from Steve Cohen, Gen Z, diverse perspectives, tokenization, activists, and messy organizations.

Interviews with those involved in active management yield insights into that “community of practice,” which is at a crossroads.

This fourth in a series of postings takes a broader look at some of the precepts of anthropology as they apply to the craft of due diligence.

Great reads from around the ecosystem, including multi-manager hedge funds, family office costs, hiccups in RIA land, a new way to think about allocations, and what asset managers can’t say. And, don’t be a buckethead.