Liquid Alternative Investiments
Starting Early: The Growing Need for Financial Literacy in the United States
Nov 22nd, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Alternative Investments in Context, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.Dr. Greg Filbeck, CFA, FRM, CAIA, CIPM, PRM Investors are increasingly looking toward the private markets as an output for their investment dollars to increase risk-adjusted performance. Historically, such direct investment required an investor to qualify as an accredited investor. Recently, guidelines to qualify as an accredited investor have broadenedRead More
Regulatory Bread and Circuses
Aug 31st, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, What about beta?, Other Issues in Private Investments, Business News, Private Investments, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.By Bill Kelly, CAIA Association CEO Pictured above is the bust and the borrowed line of Juvenal, a Roman poet from the late first century. His cynical reference to bread and circuses was simply to say: feed and entertain the masses and they will forget what they wanted in the first place. The announcement this week from the SEC regarding their final ruling on amendments to the definition ofRead More
Do You Know Your ABZ’s?
Aug 10th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, What about beta?, Other Issues in Private Investments, Smart Beta, Institutional Asset Management, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Private InvestmentsBy Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association Perhaps the most prescient definition of alpha is simply undiscovered beta, and if you look at this idea through the quinquagenarian endowment model, you might just see the point. In the good old days, investment performance and alpha were one in the same. Along cameRead More
Will the DOL Decision on Private Equity Impact the Democratization of Alternative Investments?
Aug 4th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Private Equity, Newly Added, Asset allocation, Equity Types of Private Equity, Asset Allocation Models, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Private Investments, Allocating to A.I.By Rashad Kurbanov, CEO & Co-Founder at iownit capital and markets Alternative investments have been around for decades and have been a part of institutional investment portfolios for the majority of the time. Institutional investors have increasingly allocated their investment capital to these investments with an expectation that they willRead More
Understanding the Limitations of Liquid Alternatives
Jul 30th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Hedge Fund Strategies, Newly Added, Alternative Mutual Funds, 130/30, Liquid Alts, Alternative Investments in Context, Smart Beta, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Allocating to A.I.By Shana Sissel, CAIA, Spotlight Asset Group More than a decade ago the world of alternative investments witnessed hedge-fund-inspired Investment Act of 1940 (40 Act) funds appear on the scene. Much like their private alternative counterparts, liquid alternatives offer valuable diversification benefits within traditional portfolios, but it’s important to keepRead More
FINANCIAL RETURNS IN REWARD-BASED CROWDFUNDING
Jul 5th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Venture capital, Crowdfunding, Angel investing, Other Issues in Private Investments, Alternative Investments in Context, Emerging Alternative Investments, Private Investments, Other Topics in A.I.By Victoria Dobrynskaya, PhD, associate professor of Finance at National Research University Higher School of Economics Investments in reward-based crowdfunding campaigns give backers a variety of benefits, such as enjoyment in participating in a creation of a new product, being a part of a similar-minded community, altruistic pleasure of helpingRead More
The Allusivity Premium
Jun 22nd, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, What about beta?, Liquid Alts, Alternative Investments in Context, Smart Beta, Institutional Asset Management, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Other Topics in A.I.By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association Since this What About Beta column started about two years and almost 75 entries ago, the goal has always been to take a CAIA article, a relevant news story, or an industry trend and amplify it, replete with an occasional catchy title, and maybeRead More
A Target Date for Target Dates
Jun 8th, 2020 | Filed under: Consultants, Retail Investing, Private Equity, Newly Added, Alternative Mutual Funds, Asset allocation, Equity Types of Private Equity, What about beta?, Asset Allocation Models, Other Issues in Private Investments, Institutional Asset Management, Private Investments, Allocating to A.I.By Aaron Filbeck, CAIA, CFA, CIPM | Associate Director, Content Development at CAIA Association While every retirement plan participant has unique life and planning circumstances, they generally (and almost evenly) split into two broad categories regarding investment philosophies: the do-it-yourself crowd and the do-it-for-me crowd. The do-it-yourself crowd typically followsRead More
ETFs, Systemic Risks, and a Real-Time Test
May 5th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Liquid Alts, ETFs, The A.I. Industry, Liquid Alternative InvestimentsETFs are one of the routes by which once alternative and elite-access-only strategies have become democratized or gone retail. As a result of this trend, we have synthetic ETFs, smart beta ETFs, leveraged ETFs, and inverse ETFs. A recent study study provides some reassurance about concerns that have motivated kickbackRead More
Peeling Back the Wrapper of Hedge Fund Strategies
Apr 13th, 2020 | Filed under: CAPM / Alpha Theory, Hedge Fund Strategies, Alpha & Beta, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Alpha Strategies, Event-Driven Hedge Funds, CAIA Alternative Viewpoints, Liquid Alts, Institutional Asset Management, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Hedge Funds, Relative Value Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.By Aaron Filbeck, CAIA, CFA, CIPM, Associate Director, Content Development at CAIA Association During CAIA Association’s most recent Virtual Chapter event, Keith and I (virtually) sat down with Chris Tidmore, CFA, CPA at The Vanguard Group to discuss Vanguard’s recent whitepaper, “The Wrapper Matters: Comparing Liquid Alternatives to Hedge Funds”Read More
Where has all the diversification gone?
Apr 7th, 2020 | Filed under: Newly Added, Liquid Alts, The A.I. Industry, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.By Beth Anne Byrne and Kara O’Halloran, FS Investments Warren Buffett’s famous quote reads “You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out”. The tide is most certainly out now, and many portfolios have been exposed. The historic bull market has ended, and with it theRead More
ESG ETFs: A Warning About Opacity
Mar 15th, 2020 | Filed under: Newly Added, Liquid Alts, ESG, ETFs, The A.I. Industry, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Other Topics in A.I.A recent paper by two legal scholars warns of the absence of transparency, of the opacity, that investors may face in ESG funds and ESG exchange-traded funds. “Buyer Beware: Variation and Opacity in ESG ad ESG Index Funds,” is the work of Dana Brackman Reiser and Anne M. Tucker, whoRead More
3 Threats to Hedge Funds
Mar 8th, 2020 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Hedge Fund Regulation, Hedge Fund Strategies, Newly Added, Regulatory Environment, Liquid Alts, The A.I. Industry, Fees, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Allocating to A.I.A recent paper by a scholar at Tilburg University and a market participant at Robeco outlines the difficulties that the hedge fund industry has faced over the last decade. These problems arose, at least in part, from the democratization of alternative investing. There are three important challenges to the hedgeRead More
ESG vs Low-Carbon Investing
Mar 1st, 2020 | Filed under: Newly Added, Liquid Alts, ESG, ETFs, The A.I. Industry, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.By Nicolas Rabener of FactorResearch @FactorResearch INTRODUCTION Investors seeking exposure to global equities with a low carbon footprint could consider the iShares MSCI ACWI Low Carbon ETF (CRBN) or SPDR MSCI ACWI Low Carbon ETF (LOWC). CRBN has $500 million of assets under management, compared with $90 million for LOWC.Read More
Wall Street Tackles Sustainable Development Goals
Feb 25th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Socially responsible investing, ESG, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, SRI and Clean Energy, Other Topics in A.I.In 2015 the United Nations defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals [no poverty, no hunger, health & well-being, etc.] along with 169 targets that were devised to allow for quantitative measurement of progress. It also set 2030 as the bull’s eye for the attainment of the goals. Since governments alone areRead More
Avoiding Silver Bullets
Feb 24th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, What about beta?, Liquid Alts, Smart Beta, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.By Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM – Associate Director, Content Development at CAIA Association Whether it’s that some retail versions of alternative investments have not lived up to their private counterparts, or that retail investors may be last in the buffet line for private placements, there are several arguments againstRead More
Alpha Comes in Waves
Feb 20th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Alternative Beta & Hedge Fund Replication, Smart Beta, The A.I. Industry, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Commodities, Structure of the Hedge Funds Industry, Allocating to A.I.The brief history of replication funds may already be divided into three waves, the third of which is still in formation. The first wave was about democratization: putting hedge fund strategies in the hands of people who cannot meet the accreditation requirements to invest in hedge funds proper, or ofRead More
Making Your Portfolio About #Goals
Feb 13th, 2020 | Filed under: Performance, Analytics & Metrics, Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, Benchmarking & Performance Attribution, CAIA Alternative Viewpoints, High-net-worth investors, Asset Allocation Models, Endowments & Foundations, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Real Estate Equity Investments, Family Offices, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Private InvestmentsBy Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, Associate Director, Content Development at CAIA Association Central Issue of the Paper If you’re a social media junkie, you have probably seen “#goals” in your timeline. In most cases, the hashtag is referring to an attractive couple or an aesthetically pleasing plate of food.Read More
The Case for ESG as a Performance Additive
Feb 4th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, ESG, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Other Topics in A.I.Sustainability-sensitive investing has a net positive impact on performance, according to a paper released by Robeco. According to the paper written by Chris Berkouwer, a Robeco equity analyst, ESG was responsible for 20% of the outperformance of a Robeco fund over a period of three years. His findings are presentedRead More
Leery Funk’s Open Letter to Sovereign Leaders
Jan 27th, 2020 | Filed under: Consultants, Retail Investing, Private Equity, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, The Global Economy & Currencies, What about beta?, Alternative Investments in Context, Endowments & Foundations, Economics, Climate change, Institutional Asset Management, Macroeconomics, Private Investments, Finance & EconomicsBy Bill Kelly, CAIA Association CEO In the interest of brevity, I am going to skip the salutation and get right to the heart of the matter. As my name implies, I am Leery of the lofty promises that depend on solving our long-term problems and I do remain inRead More
Hope May Not Be a Strategy…But Neither is a 60/40
Jan 21st, 2020 | Filed under: Consultants, Retail Investing, Alpha & Beta, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Risk management, Asset allocation, What about beta?, Asset Allocation Models, Alternative Investments in Context, Institutional Asset Management, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Allocating to A.I.By Guest Contributor Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, Associate Director, Content Development The death of the 60/40 may be a welcome change for multi-asset investors who understand that exposure to risk premia is perhaps a far better long-term investment strategy. Diversification remains an important facet of asset allocation, but weRead More
How to Evaluate Smart Beta ETFs
Dec 8th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, ETFs, Smart Beta, The A.I. Industry, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.By Nicolas Rabener of FactorResearch (@FactorResearch) Beta is like ice cream and comes in many flavors. Broadly we can categorize it into the following four types: Plain beta: Market capitalization-weighted benchmark indices like the S&P 500 or FTSE 100. Smart beta: Indices with tilts to factors backed by academic andRead More
Democratization Without Education
Nov 18th, 2019 | Filed under: Consultants, Retail Investing, Private Equity, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, What about beta?, High-net-worth investors, Asset Allocation Models, Other Issues in Private Investments, Alternative Investments in Context, Endowments & Foundations, Institutional Asset Management, Family Offices, Private Investments, Allocating to A.I.By Bill Kelly, CAIA Association CEO The American history buffs out there will know that we are just a few short weeks away from the 246th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Back in 1773, the British government was deep in debt and decided the very best course was toRead More
Spoti-sly
Sep 30th, 2019 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Private Equity, Newly Added, Venture capital, Equity Types of Private Equity, What about beta?, Business News, Private InvestmentsBy Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association How do you turn a millennial into a capitalist? Sell her SNAP in the post-IPO market. A little hindsight here shows how ridiculous this all looked. The initial sellers of the shares were the founders and their VCs (just under 30% of the offering),Read More
Negative Interest Rates: A Reason to Invest in Hedge Funds?
Sep 9th, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, CTA, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Alpha Strategies, Event-Driven Hedge Funds, Liquid Alts, The A.I. Industry, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Allocating to A.I.Negative interest rate policy—that is, central bank arrangements that seek to inspire spending by punishing savings, not merely in real but in nominal terms—have spread in recent years among the developed economies, and are now in use in Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, and the Eurozone. Denmark got the ball rolling inRead More
Zebras Are Reactionaries
Sep 9th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, Asset Managers, Alpha Strategies, What about beta?, Smart Beta, The A.I. Industry, Hedge Funds, Risk Management & Operations, Allocating to A.I.Someone told me that it’s all happening At the Zoo. In this case, it was Paul Simon in his 1967 title song where he anthropomorphizes the animals he sees in the Central Park Zoo. Some are deemed to be honest, some kindly but dumb, and some insincere or skeptical, and,Read More
PORTFOLIO PROTECTION VIA MANAGED FUTURES LIQUID ALTS?
Sep 8th, 2019 | Filed under: Commodities, Hedge Fund Strategies, CTA, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, Alternative Mutual Funds, Liquid Alts, ETFs, The A.I. Industry, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Commodities, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.By Nicolas Rabener of FactorResearch (@FactorResearch) INTRODUCTION The mafia and the hedge fund industry share some characteristics. Both are powerful, non-transparent, and create little value for society. Naturally the mafia is a criminal organization while the only “criminal” element of hedge funds are the high fees they are charging forRead More
Whatfore Art Thou Use of Alt-data?
Aug 26th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, Alternative data, What about beta?, Smart Beta, The A.I. Industry, Allocating to A.I.Shakespeare’s Juliet once famously asked “what’s in a name?” If you know the play, she was talking about roses and how they would smell as sweet, even if they had an alternative name. Would her modern-day self not ask the same about data? And what makes today’s alt-data different fromRead More
Anticipating Buyout Deals: A Prospective New Model on an Old Strategy
Aug 22nd, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Risk management, Event-Driven Hedge Funds, Risk Metrics and Measurement, Smart Beta, The A.I. Industry, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Hedge Funds, Risk Management & OperationsMilind Sharma and Aravind Ganesan have developed what they call the QMIT Leveraged Buyout Model—a trading strategy—based on anticipating announcements of LBOs based on QMIT’s factor library. Sharma is the CEO of QMIT, QuantZ Machine Intelligence Technologies. QMIT is itself a spin-off from QuantZ Capital, which is a stat arbRead More
QUANT STRATEGIES: THEORY VS. REALITY
Aug 11th, 2019 | Filed under: Algorithmic and high-frequency trading, Hedge Fund Strategies, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Smart Beta, The A.I. Industry, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Other Topics in A.I.By Nicolas Rabener of FactorResearch (@FactorResearch) INTRODUCTION When pitching an investment product with a backtested history the frequent response from potential investors is that they have never seen a bad backtest. Naturally this is true as there is no point in marketing a strategy with a poor backtest as investorsRead More
SOS
Jul 1st, 2019 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, What about beta?, Asset Allocation Models, Alternative Investments in Context, Institutional Asset Management, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association Ask someone of a certain generation to name the most common worldwide distress signal, and they will likely come back with SOS. No surprise then that this same signal, borne from the Morse code, turns 111 years old on this date in history. MostRead More
Mind the Gap: The Unforeseen Consequences of Smart Beta
Jun 27th, 2019 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Alpha & Beta, Newly Added, Liquid Alts, ETFs, Smart Beta, The A.I. Industry, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Other Topics in A.I.A new paper by Sean Markowicz, a strategist at Schroders, looks into the possibility that fund flows into the assets generically called smart beta are having detrimental consequences for the financial system. It also sheds some light on investors’ bad timing regarding ETFs. The assets at issue are, according toRead More
What Do Owners Think of Smart Beta Strategies?
Jun 23rd, 2019 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Liquid Alts, Smart Beta, The A.I. Industry, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Other Topics in A.I.FTSE Russell has posted its sixth annual survey of global asset owners’ views of smart beta. Smart beta is a strategy that uses indexes, but that is not traditionally cap-weighted, that is, one where the construction of the index itself incorporates the investment strategy, capturing investment factors or market inefficiencies.Read More
A HORSE RACE OF LIQUID ALTERNATIVES
Jun 13th, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, CTA, Investing in Commodities, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Liquid Alts, ETFs, The A.I. Industry, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Commodities, Other Topics in A.I.By Nicolas Rabener of FactorResearch (@FactorResearch) INTRODUCTION Investing is challenging as it is complex and complicated, which requires continuous learning and updating of mental frameworks. Conflicts and contradictions are found everywhere. For example, data from the mutual fund industry shows that most funds fail to outperform their benchmarks, but investors inRead More
HEDGE FUND ETFS: BETTER THAN THE ORIGINALS
May 12th, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Retail Investing, Hedge Fund Strategies, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Event-Driven Hedge Funds, Alternative Investments in Context, ETFs, The A.I. Industry, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Hedge Funds, Relative Value Hedge Funds, Allocating to A.I.By Nicolas Rabener of FactorResearch (@FactorResearch) INTRODUCTION As Amazon has been decimating large parts of the retail industry over the last two decades, ETFs have done the equivalent to the mutual fund industry in the financial world. Today ETFs are covering nearly all areas of the markets, no matter howRead More
Smart Beta and Tail Events
Feb 5th, 2019 | Filed under: Financial Economics Theory, Newly Added, Business News, Smart Beta, The A.I. Industry, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Finance & Economics, Other Topics in A.I.A sound “portfolio optimization strategy” is one that takes into consideration how its assets are behaving in the bad times, those that represent the left-side tail of the bell curve. This is not all that novel an idea, but Maria Kartsakli and Felix Schlumpf, Zurich Insurance Company executives, give itRead More
Risks & Rewards: The Future of Finance in Blockchain
Jan 6th, 2019 | Filed under: Newly Added, Risk management, Technology, Operations, Digital currencies, ETFs, Smart Beta, The A.I. Industry, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Emerging Alternative Investments, Risk Management & Operations, Other Topics in A.I.A new article by Dave Dowsett and Heather Wied, both of Invesco, looks at blockchains and the way this new technology, precisely as it divorces itself from its original significance as a feature of the cryptocurrencies, is ready to transform finance. Dowsett and Wied contend that blockchain “offers the possibilityRead More
ETF Arbitrage and Its Consequences
Jan 1st, 2019 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Alternative Investments in Context, ETFs, The A.I. Industry, Emerging Alternative Investments, Other Topics in A.I.A new paper by Ilias Filippou and two other scholars looks at ETF arbitrage. This is a trading strategy that plays off of discrepancies between the value of the exchange-traded funds on the one hand and the value of their underlying stocks on the other. ETF arb is not new,Read More
Canadian Mutual Funds Readying to Launch Liquid Alternatives
Nov 18th, 2018 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Alternative Mutual Funds, Liquid Alts, Smart Beta, The A.I. Industry, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Sales & Marketing in the AI Industry, Other Topics in A.I.Scotiabank recently released what it calls a “high-level guide for mutual fund companies interested in launching liquid alternative products.” The creation of this guide was stimulated by a reform of the regulations of the Canadian Securities Administrators, aimed at making liquid alternatives more readily available to investors in Canada. OnRead More
Active Management, the Business Cycle, and the Silk Road
Jul 31st, 2018 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Alpha & Beta, Newly Added, The Global Economy & Currencies, Macroeconomics, Allocating to A.I., Finance & Economics, Other Topics in A.I.LPL Financial’s 2018 Forum Conference for investors took place in Boston this week, Sunday through Tuesday. This is an annual event that brings together thousands of advisors and program managers to discuss industry issues and new products. LPL is an independent broker-dealer headquartered in Boston, with offices in Fort Mill,Read More
AIMA’s Vision Statement from Hedge Fund Industry Leaders
Apr 22nd, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Alternative Investments in Context, The A.I. Industry, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Other Topics in A.I.Some of the leading figures in the alt investment industry have put their dignified heads together and created a vision statement, called “Perspectives: Industry Leaders on the Future of the Hedge Fund Industry.” The gist of the paper is that firms in the industry are quickly adapting to contemporary conditionsRead More
DON’T FEAR THE ROBO!
Apr 20th, 2018 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly AddedBy Diane Harrison Technology advances have infiltrated every corner of finance, including the world of wealth management. While few can argue with the positives of automated, algorithm-based portfolio management platforms, the advent of the cost-efficient, dispassionate robo-advisor has struck fear into the heart of many a financial advisor and fundRead More
Robeco Researcher on Factor Premiums and ETFs
Mar 6th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, ETFs, Smart Beta, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.David Blitz has recently discussed the concern in some quarters that factor premiums may disappear as they are arbitraged away by exchange-traded funds. Blitz, the head of quantitative equity research at Robeco Asset Management, says that such a concern is not justified, because “the exposures of ETFs that may beRead More
SSGA on Smart Beta
Feb 8th, 2018 | Filed under: Alpha & Beta, Newly Added, Liquid Alts, Smart Beta, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.State Street Global Advisers has put out a “Complete Guide to Smart Beta.” A preface by Lynn S. Blake explains that the focus of the paper is not on equity products but on “exciting new developments in the fixed income world.” Within that space, multi-factor strategies will proliferate going forward.Read More
State Street Forecasts on Smart Beta
Dec 12th, 2017 | Filed under: Alpha & Beta, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Smart Beta, Institutional Asset Management, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Allocating to A.I., Finance & Economics, Other Topics in A.I.State Street Global Advisors has a new paper out that seeks to help State Street clients “refine their own strategic asset allocation” especially insofar as their portfolios include smart beta investments, by explaining how State Street forecasts returns, and where the forecasts as to some of the factor returns standRead More
Lazard Research on Smart Beta
Nov 5th, 2017 | Filed under: Due Diligence Process, Financial Economics Theory, Newly Added, Behavioral finance, Smart Beta, Risk Management & Operations, Finance & Economics, Other Topics in A.I.Jason Williams, senior vice president at Lazard Asset Management, has written a white paper on the “six sins of smart beta.” First: what is smart beta? Academic studies indicate anomalies in the markets that somehow don’t get arbitraged away. These become identified as “factors” and indexes can be designed soRead More
Can We All Participate in The Next Unicorn?
Aug 28th, 2017 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Crowdfunding, The A.I. Industry, Emerging Alternative Investments, Other Topics in A.I.Excerpted from the Alternative Investment Analyst Review, Volume 6, Issue 1 The Alternative Investment Analyst Review is the official publication of the CAIA Association. Access to the most current issue is an exclusive benefit of CAIA Membership while archived issues are available to the public in the Perspectives section atRead More
KPMG: Alternative Investment Industry Deal Momentum Continues
Aug 1st, 2017 | Filed under: Newly Added, Regulatory Environment, Liquid Alts, The A.I. Industry, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Other Topics in A.I.The auditing giant KPMG says in a recent report on merger and acquisition activity in the alternative asset management world that there was a dip in activity in this space in 2015, that there was a rebound “to more normalized levels” in 2016, and that the momentum off of thatRead More
What They’re Saying About Smart Beta, Tactics, and Strategy
Jun 13th, 2017 | Filed under: Newly Added, Liquid Alts, Smart Beta, Liquid Alternative Investiments, SRI and Clean Energy, Other Topics in A.I.For four years now, FTSE Russell has surveyed global institutions, asking about their interest in smart beta indexes and about their allocations to investable products based on same. The 2017 survey results are in. The new survey finds (as did the earlier ones) that risk reduction, return enhancement, and improvedRead More
Lawsuit in California, Survey in Europe: On ETF Managers and Investors
Jun 4th, 2017 | Filed under: Newly Added, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Sales & Marketing in the AI Industry, Other Topics in A.I.Late last year a California state court found that the plaintiffs in a class action suit stated a cause of action when they alleged that the defendant, iShares Trust, had failed to disclose the material risk of using market or stop loss orders in connection with ETFs. This spring theRead More