Archives

A couple of recent events get headline attention, but there also are items on due diligence, total shareholder returns, advisor-sold investments, big drawdowns in bonds, and a dozen other topics.

A five-part description of an investment strategy offers a self-examination process for asset managers — and a way for allocators to classify and evaluate them.

It’s a new day in the ecosystem. This issue covers changes on the site, plus AI everywhere, portfolio management in PE, ESG returns, the evolving world of ETFs, SEC examinations, diverse managers, hedge funds, a flashback to 2008 (and more).

Investment recommendations, even those presented with a high degree of confidence, can easily go wrong. What factors affect whether someone reverses their previous recommendation or sticks with it?

In addition to the headline topics, there are items on AI in asset management, investing as science/art/practice, a research tip, hedge funds, investment philosophy, annual letters, politics, changing factor results, and more.

Readings on opening up the due diligence process, finding alpha from asymmetry, market anniversaries, the R&D factor, five ways of thinking about China, a history of the VIX, narrow perspectives, and much more.

Across the history of the Central Intelligence Agency, there have been efforts to understand and take advantage of lessons learned in practice. Maintaining that commitment should be a goal for investment organizations too.

A thoughtful paper offers perspective on the changing nature of performance persistence in alternative investments and some recommendations for changing manager selection practices.

Quite a mix of topics in this edition: the Yale model, portfolio optimization, asset management success, machine learning attribution, investment conferences, correlations, and Santa (a little early).

Complexity is found across an organization, from investment strategies and vehicles to due diligence, communication, operations, technology, and regulatory considerations. There are ripple effects among them.

It may be the August lull, but peek inside for articles on Goldman Sachs, AI investing, ideas from “Twitter,” multi-manager hedge funds, private credit, moats, macro illusions, investment networks, how many managers you should have, and still more.

Among the many topics in this issue: the single decision facing asset managers (and how they should meet allocators), a short history of the bond market, partisan portfolios, private debt, target-date funds, and innovation opportunities.

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.