Alpha Hunters
Panayiotis Lambropoulos: The View from a Public Pension Manager’s Office
Nov 11th, 2018 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Operations and Risk Management, Due Diligence Process, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Risk management, Asset allocation, Asset Allocation Models, Alternative Investments in Context, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Hedge Funds, Risk Management & Operations, Allocating to A.I.On Nov. 13, the 24th Annual National Pension and Institutional Investment Summit convenes in Dallas Texas. CAIA is a sponsor of this event. Panayiotis Lambropoulos, portfolio manager of hedge funds at the Employees Retirement System of Texas, will offer his insights at a panel on emerging hedge fund managers. Lambropoulos’Read More
Supreme Court Decisions: Post-Announcement Hours & Days
Sep 10th, 2015 | Filed under: CAPM / Alpha Theory, Hedge Fund Strategies, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Legislation/Court rulings, Alpha SeekersPresumably the U.S. Supreme Court's decision, in December 2008, that states can in fact make and enforce tougher labeling standards for cigarettes than does the federal government was a negative for tobacco stocks. But did that mean that stock prices had already anticipated the decision before it happened? or that they immediately adjusted downward on the morning the decision was announced? Or ... neither of those? Read More
The Skorina Report: Fearless Forecast Says That Endowment Returns Will Disappoint in FY2015
Sep 3rd, 2015 | Filed under: Performance, Analytics & Metrics, Hedge Fund Strategies, Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Alpha Seekers, Endowments & FoundationsGuest columnist Charles Skorina looks at the potential for 2016 endowment returns and finds them to be somewhat lacking... Could alternatives ride to the rescue?Read More
Administration, via Verrelli, Rolls the Dice on Insider Trading Issue
Aug 31st, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, Alpha Hunters, Legislation/Court rulingsNot all benefits are as tangible as a suitcase of cash, and the question of law for the Second Circuit, for the Ninth, and now perhaps for SCOTUS is: is friendship enough? how about regard for one's brother? Read More
CFTC Exempts ASX Clear from DCO Registration
Aug 25th, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Commodities, Alpha Hunters, Alpha SeekersThe CFTC has issued its first exemption from the CDO registration mandate under 5b (h). The successful petition for that exemption, from ASX Clear, has the additional merit of having inspired an idiosyncratic seeming, but concise, comment letter, quoted in full here. Read More
The Skorina Report: Risky Business–Chief Investment Officers and Public Pension Plans
Aug 16th, 2015 | Filed under: Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Risk management, Alpha SeekersGuest columnist Charles Skorina with a cautionary tale of greed and deceit and less-than-best practices at a large public pension plan.Read More
Event-Driven Hedge Funds Rescued by Obamacare
Aug 11th, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Hedge Fund Strategies, Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Alpha SeekersObamacare's impact on the investment world may have been mitigated until very recently by the protracted and complicated litigation that the law immediately generated starting with its enactment in 2010. But now.... Read More
The Strength of Multi-Strat Is No Mystery
Aug 2nd, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Hedge Fund Strategies, Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, FeesCredit Suisse Capital Services says that appetite has increased of late, among institutional investors, for multistrategy funds. Faille offers some thoughts as to why. Read More
Crisis? Tempted to Flee to Shelter of Big Funds? Bad Idea
Jul 29th, 2015 | Filed under: CAPM / Alpha Theory, Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Hedge Fund Strategies, Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Behavioral financeThe authors of a new study of the relationship between fund size and performance employ a database consisting of 7,261 funds and their performance over a twenty year period (1994 to 2014). Spoiler alert: size is bad. Especially in a crisis.Read More
‘Women of the Street’—Not Just Another War Story
Jul 22nd, 2015 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Alpha SeekersMeredith Jones' book on investing in women takes it to the Street and comes back with some solid conclusions.Read More
Delivering Alpha Highlights: Part Two
Jul 20th, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Alpha SeekersLow interest rates and record equity valuations together mean that companies can use either stock swaps or borrowed cash or a combination of the two, to buy one another. Further, corporate executives infer that they have to keep buying in order not to become a target themselves. Read More
Delivering Alpha Highlights: Part One
Jul 19th, 2015 | Filed under: Currencies, Media Coverage of Hedge Funds, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Alpha Seekers, ETFsLarry Fink is "deeply worried" that the combination of share repo with high-yield debt is "one of the reasons why we have a below trend-line economy. We're not investing in the future as much as we should." Carl Icahn, predictably, has a very different view of what ails us. Read More
The Skorina Report: A Look at the New Investment Crew at NYU
Jul 9th, 2015 | Filed under: Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha SeekersCharles Skorina looks at the new crew at NYU.Read More
The Core Satellite Model: How to Cut Hedge Fund Fees in Half Part II
Jun 25th, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Performance, Analytics & Metrics, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Alpha Seekers, FeesAndrew Beer continues his discussion on slashing hedge fund fees without burning yourself or your clients.Read More
Hybrid Equity: Another Perspective on Private Equity
Jun 14th, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Retail Investing, Private Equity, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Liquid AltsManagers who offer funds that provide shorter time frames to investment exits, greater liquidity through a hedge fund structure, and employ the event-driven skill set that identifies and manages an investment portfolio yielding private equity-like returns are finding increased interest from an investment community seeking returns married with reasonable liquidity. Read More
The Skorina Report: Wall Street Pay & CEO Performance: Who got their money’s worth?
Jun 4th, 2015 | Filed under: Alpha-centric Companies, Asset Managers, Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, High-net-worth investorsCharles Skorina presents his annual CEO compensation report and a little bit more.Read More
One Decision, Two Courts, Three Nations, Four Angles
Jun 3rd, 2015 | Filed under: Media Coverage of Hedge Funds, Alpha Hunters, Insolvency, Alpha SeekersFaille is struck by a brief passage in the recent Nortel decision (the Delaware side of the Delaware/Ontario concord over allocation) that suggests the degree to which the United States dominates the patent-granting as well as the patent-litigating world. Like what the U.K. is for defamation.... Read More
Top Hedge Fund Managers: They Aren’t Wizards, but They Are Masters
May 28th, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Real Estate, Hedge Fund Strategies, Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Alpha SeekersFor Faille, the stand-out essay in this collection of case studies, from CNBC's Maneet Ahuja, concerns Marc Lasry and Sonia Gardner, of the Avenue Capital Group. As Myron Scholes says in his afterword to this volume, Lasry and Gardner take returns from those whose demand for liquidity makes them willing to give them up. Read More
Lies, Damned Lies and Alpha
May 21st, 2015 | Filed under: CAPM / Alpha Theory, Alpha Hunters, Alpha StrategiesGuest columnist Andrew Beer looks at alpha.Read More
Northern Trust on Hedge Funds, Big Data and Transparency
May 20th, 2015 | Filed under: Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, TechnologyThe integration of data isn't fully on the hedge fund industry radar yet. Yet it may be critical to rebuilding manager-investor relations via whiz-bang 21st century technology. Read More
If I Can’t Call It a Hedge Fund, What AM I Going to Call It?
May 18th, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, Alpha HuntersIntrepid contributor Doug Friedenberg addresses a burning nomenclatural issue for the investment style formerly known as hedge funds and proposes a solution to save the financial system.Read More
A Caddie’s Observations on Money Management
May 14th, 2015 | Filed under: Alpha Hunters, Alpha StrategiesGuest columnist Diane Harrison on investment lessons learned on the golf course.Read More
Comparing SPM to Elliott: And Other Thoughts on MBS Funds
May 6th, 2015 | Filed under: Derivatives, Alpha Hunters, Risk management, Alpha SeekersSPM "sticks out in [his] mind" as a successful manager with a "17 year track record" with returns in the mid 20s. "Where else are you going to get that?" Well, there is at least one other place that then comes to Brian Shapiro's thoughts: SPM's return compares to the return available from Elliott.Read More
The Skorina Report: The Best, The Rest & Our Pick for Public Endowment CIO of Decade
Apr 30th, 2015 | Filed under: Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha StrategiesCharles Skorina looks at the top public endowments and discusses performance with Erik Lundberg.Read More
Griffin, Bernanke, and the Saud family
Apr 27th, 2015 | Filed under: Currencies, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Indexes, MacroeconomicsWhy has Ken Griffin, the founder of Citadel, hired former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke as a Senior Advisor? This decision represents a surprise given Griffin's views on "quantitative easing," views he forcefully expressed a couple of years ago. Read More
Some Assets are Hard to Ignore
Apr 23rd, 2015 | Filed under: Currencies, Infrastructure, Hard metals, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, GoldGuest columnist Diane Harrison looks at the world of alternatives to alternatives, including stamps, cars, farmland and more...Read More
They Do It Right Down Under: Australian Institutional Funds
Apr 14th, 2015 | Filed under: CAPM / Alpha Theory, Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Indexes, Alpha Seekers, ETFsThe hapless U.S. mutual funds Chen and Gallagher sample have a nominally positive pre fee alpha only when measured against CAPM. That disappears into the negatives when the baseline used is the Fama-French model, and deeper into the negatives when the momentum factor is added. Read More
John H. Makin, Hedge Fund Economist/Principal, Defender of U.S. Fed
Apr 8th, 2015 | Filed under: Currencies, Alpha Hunters, ForexThe impression one gets from some of the recent work of Dr. Makin is of a man who decided, late in life, that currency is a state invention, and that the states deputize their central banks to make sure the rest of us use it properly. Read More
M&A: a Continuing Trend According To Survey
Apr 1st, 2015 | Filed under: Currencies, Alpha Hunters, Alpha StrategiesIntralinks is confident that the ongoing growth in M&A activity will continue through the 2d quarter, fueled by strong performances in EMEA and North America. In North America in particular the drivers include low interest rates and pressure on corporate honchos to generate growth in that low-rate environment. Read More
Does the hedge fund industry benefit society?
Mar 30th, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Hedge Fund Strategies, Media Coverage of Hedge Funds, Alpha Hunters, Alpha StrategiesGuest columnist Donald Steinbrugge, CFA, looks at the bad rap hedge funds have gotten and talks about why it's not deserved.Read More
Hedge Fund Investors and Managers: Concord and Discord
Mar 29th, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha StrategiesInvestors in hedge funds want more transparency than they think they're getting, a fact that might not be clear to their managers. Read More
Women in Senior Roles in Alternative Finance: The Marathon Continues
Mar 16th, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Alpha SeekersFunds of funds are quite different entities from single-manager funds from the point of view of the number of women in senior C-suite roles. Different in what direction? That depends upon the country under consideration. Read More
Does Private Real Estate Actually Have a Low Correlation with Public Real Estate?
Mar 15th, 2015 | Filed under: Real Estate, Private Equity, Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha StrategiesBrad Case, Ph.D., CFA, CAIA, looks at the relationships between public and private real estate.Read More
Alpha, Love, and Marriage
Mar 10th, 2015 | Filed under: Alpha Hunters, Risk management, Behavioral financeThe most important turning points of our lives tend to have consequences for our alpha seeking. A new paper gives us some insight into what those consequences are, and how they vary as to strategies.Read More
Focus on U.S. Real Estate Benchmarks: NCREIF Transaction Based Index
Feb 20th, 2015 | Filed under: Real Estate, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, IndexesBy Brad Case, PhD, CFA, CAIA This is the third in a series of articles focusing on the strengths of different indices that are published regularly and may be appropriate for benchmarking, risk assessment, and other real estate investment purposes. The first article focused on two similar index families, the Moody’s/RCARead More
A Basis for Pursuing the Pursuers? Sonar-based Whale Hunts
Feb 17th, 2015 | Filed under: Algorithmic and high-frequency trading, Derivatives, Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, RegulatoryTo the extent that high-frequency trading is analogized to 'insider trading,' it may be in trouble with securities regulators but still in the clear with commodities regulators. After all, the latter do allow hedgers to use non-public material information to protect themselves. But Gregory Scopino doesn't believe pinging and related HFT practices should be in the clear with the CFTC at all. Read More
A Metaphorical Map that Proposes an Unbound Barbell
Feb 12th, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, Alternative Beta & Hedge Fund Replication, Alternative Mutual Funds, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Risk management, Asset allocation, Liquid AltsThe hedge fund universe has become a much more complicated place since 2008. The old-school hedge funds offering only quarterly redemptions with at least one month notice are no longer the only option for those seeking alternatives plays. And those who are seeking such plays may be somewhat confused by the proliferation of possibilities. Read More
Pension Funds as Alternative Investors Get Some Advice
Jan 28th, 2015 | Filed under: Institutional Investing, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, Asset allocationAs the CEO of AIMA, Jack Inglis, said: Many pension-fund trustees "are asking questions about their existing or prospective hedge fund allocations. Rarely has there been such demand for a realistic assessment of the benefits – and also the risks – associated with hedge fund investing.” The AIMA and CAIA are working together to meet that demand in a series of papers.Read More
Prize to Sannikov: Scholar of Friction and Moral Hazard
Jan 26th, 2015 | Filed under: Alpha Hunters, Alpha StrategiesIn a fascinating review article, Sannikov and his co-authors distinguished among the sorts of liquidity, and thus identified the precise sort of liquidity mismatch likely to lead to market shocks. In a working paper last year, Sannikov took on the issue of executive pay, incentives, and claw-backs. Read More
Top 10 Hedge Fund Trends for 2015
Jan 8th, 2015 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Hedge Fund Strategies, Institutional Investing, Alpha HuntersGuest columnist Don Steinbrugge, CFA, surveys institutional investors and hedge funds to find out what the top trends may be for 2015.Read More
Focus on U.S. Real Estate Benchmarks: NCREIF Property Index
Jan 4th, 2015 | Filed under: Real Estate, Alpha Hunters, Alpha Strategies, IndexesBrad Case, Ph.D., CFA, CAIA, guest columnist, continues his series on U.S. real estate benchmarks as he looks at the NCREIF Property Index.Read More
Top 5 Alpha Stories of 2014
Dec 30th, 2014 | Filed under: Commodities, Alpha Hunters, Emerging marketsIn the middle of the year now ending, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered as complete a victory as it could manage to the hold-out bondholders in the Argentine-default dispute. Enforcement efforts plod on, and it seems likely a related story could make our top five list next year, too. Read More
The Magnetism of Insider Trading: Part Two
Dec 28th, 2014 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, Alpha Hunters, Legislation/Court rulingsIn Part One Faille discussed the Newman/Chiasson decision of a three-judge panel of the appeals court. In this follow-up, he discussed consequences, starting (but not ending) with the good news this offers Michael Steinberg. Read More
Missing the Market: An American Visits Nigeria
Dec 17th, 2014 | Filed under: Alpha Hunters, Frontier marketsGuest columnist Doug Friedenberg explores Nigeria as a frontier market.Read More
The Magnetism of Insider Trading: Part One
Dec 16th, 2014 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, Alpha Hunters, Legislation/Court rulingsA three-judge panel of the appeals court instructed the district court to "dismiss the indictment with prejudice as it pertains to Newman and Chiasson." Here we discuss why. in the second part, we'll discuss the likely consequences. Read More
Mergers in Theory and Practice: Synchronicity and Synergy
Nov 19th, 2014 | Filed under: Alpha Hunters, Alpha StrategiesAccording to a new report from Intralinks and Cass Business School, M&A activity is a critical component in how successful companies innovate and enhance shareholder value. Actavis' latest coup, rescuing Allergan from the clutches of Valeant and Pershing Square, may make the report's authors' point more vividly than their dry numbers can. Read More
Is Private Real Estate Actually Less Volatile than Public Real Estate?
Nov 18th, 2014 | Filed under: Real Estate, Alpha HuntersGuest columnist Brad Case, Ph.D., CFA, CAIA, examines the differences between private and public real estate investments.Read More
Investment Advisors, Investors and Beauty Contests
Nov 6th, 2014 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Alpha Hunters, Asset allocation, High-net-worth investorsn a new book, Charlotte Beyer tells investors that having the right advisor isn't suckerdom. It can in fact be insurance against suckerdom. So: how does an investor find the right advisor? Read More
Is it Time to Re-Design our Markets?
Nov 4th, 2014 | Filed under: Alpha HuntersGuest columnist Vikas Shah speaks to Nobel Prize winning economist, Professor Alvin E. Roth about market re-design.Read More
Microfinance and Its Critics: An Update
Oct 27th, 2014 | Filed under: Microfinance, Alpha Hunters, Socially responsible investingThe convergence of a central banker and micro financiers at a recent ceremony in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea inspires a look at where the MFI industry stands, and where it is headed. Read More