Pioneering Portfolio Management


Book Description

In the years since the now-classic Pioneering Portfolio Management was first published, the global investment landscape has changed dramatically -- but the results of David Swensen's investment strategy for the Yale University endowment have remained as impressive as ever. Year after year, Yale's portfolio has trumped the marketplace by a wide margin, and, with over $20 billion added to the endowment under his twenty-three-year tenure, Swensen has contributed more to Yale's finances than anyone ever has to any university in the country. What may have seemed like one among many success stories in the era before the Internet bubble burst emerges now as a completely unprecedented institutional investment achievement. In this fully revised and updated edition, Swensen, author of the bestselling personal finance guide Unconventional Success, describes the investment process that underpins Yale's endowment. He provides lucid and penetrating insight into the world of institutional funds management, illuminating topics ranging from asset-allocation structures to active fund management. Swensen employs an array of vivid real-world examples, many drawn from his own formidable experience, to address critical concepts such as handling risk, selecting advisors, and weathering market pitfalls. Swensen offers clear and incisive advice, especially when describing a counterintuitive path. Conventional investing too often leads to buying high and selling low. Trust is more important than flash-in-the-pan success. Expertise, fortitude, and the long view produce positive results where gimmicks and trend following do not. The original Pioneering Portfolio Management outlined a commonsense template for structuring a well-diversified equity-oriented portfolio. This new edition provides fund managers and students of the market an up-to-date guide for actively managed investment portfolios.




Asset Management and Institutional Investors


Book Description

This book analyses investment management policies for institutional investors. It is composed of four parts. The first one analyses the various types of institutional investors, institutions which, with different objectives, professionally manage portfolios of financial and real assets on behalf of a wide variety of individuals. This part goes on with an in-depth analysis of the economic, technical and regulatory characteristics of the different types of investment funds and of other types of asset management products, which have a high rate of substitutability with investment funds and represent their natural competitors. The second part of the book identifies and investigates the stages of the investment portfolio management. Given the importance of strategic asset allocation in explaining the ex post performance of any type of investment portfolio, this part provides an in-depth analysis of asset allocation methods, illustrating the different theoretical and operational solutions available to institutional investors. The third part describes performance assessment, its breakdown and risk control, with an in-depth examination of performance evaluation techniques, returns-based style analysis approaches, and performance attribution models. Finally, the fourth part deals with the subject of diversification into alternative asset classes, identifying the common characteristics and their possible role within the framework of investment management policies. This part analyses hedge funds, private equity, real estate, commodities, and currency overlay techniques.




Fundamentals Of Institutional Asset Management


Book Description

This book provides the fundamentals of asset management. It takes a practical perspective in describing asset management. Besides the theoretical aspects of investment management, it provides in-depth insights into the actual implementation issues associated with investment strategies. The 19 chapters combine theory and practice based on the experience of the authors in the asset management industry. The book starts off with describing the key activities involved in asset management and the various forms of risk in managing a portfolio. There is then coverage of the different asset classes (common stock, bonds, and alternative assets), collective investment vehicles, financial derivatives, common stock analysis and valuation, bond analytics, equity beta strategies (including smart beta), equity alpha strategies (including quantitative/systematic strategies), bond indexing and active bond portfolio strategies, and multi-asset strategies. The methods of using financial derivatives (equity derivatives, interest rate derivatives, and credit derivatives) in managing the risks of a portfolio are clearly explained and illustrated.




Institutional Investment Management


Book Description

The most comprehensive coverage of institutional investment management issues This comprehensive handbook of investment management theories, concepts, and applications opens with an overview of the financial markets and investments, as well as a look at institutional investors and their objectives. From here, respected investment expert Frank Fabozzi moves on to cover a wide array of issues in this evolving field. From valuation and fixed income analysis to alternative investments and asset allocation, Fabozzi provides the best in cutting-edge information for new and seasoned practitioners, as well as professors and students of finance. Contains practical, real-world applications of investment management theories and concepts Uses unique illustrations of factor models to highlight how to build a portfolio Includes insights on execution and measurement of transaction costs Covers fixed income (particularly structured products) and derivatives Institutional Investment Management is an essential read for anyone who needs to hone their skills in this discipline.




Institutional Investors


Book Description

One of the most important recent developments in financial markets is the institutionalization of saving associated with the growth of pension funds, life insurance companies, and mutual funds. An increasing proportion of household saving is now managed by professional portfolio managers instead of being directly invested in the securities markets or held in the form of bank deposits. With the aging of the population and its adverse impact on public pension systems, the shift of individual savings to institutional investors is likely to become even more marked in the coming years. This book provides a comprehensive economic assessment of institutional investment. It charts the development and performance of the asset management industry and analyzes the implications of rising institutionalized saving for the development of the securities trading industry, the financial sector as a whole, and the wider economy. The book draws extensively on international experience, particularly in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan.




Capital Allocators


Book Description

The chief investment officers (CIOs) at endowments, foundations, family offices, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds are the leaders in the world of finance. They marshal trillions of dollars on behalf of their institutions and influence how capital flows throughout the world. But these elite investors live outside of the public eye. Across the entire investment industry, few participants understand how these holders of the keys to the kingdom allocate their time and their capital. What’s more, there is no formal training for how to do their work. So how do these influential leaders practice their craft? What skills do they require? What frameworks do they employ? How do they make investment decisions on everything from hiring managers to portfolio construction? For the first time, CAPITAL ALLOCATORS lifts the lid on this opaque corner of the investment landscape. Drawing on interviews from the first 150 episodes of the Capital Allocators podcast, Ted Seides presents the best of the knowledge, practical insights, and advice of the world’s top professional investors. These insights include: - The best practices for interviewing, decision-making, negotiations, leadership, and management. - Investment frameworks across governance, strategy, process, technological innovation, and uncertainty. - The wisest and most impactful quotes from guests on the Capital Allocators podcast. Learn from the likes of the CIOs at the endowments of Princeton and Notre Dame, family offices of Michael Bloomberg and George Soros, pension funds from the State of Florida, CalSTRS, and Canadian CDPQ, sovereign wealth funds of New Zealand and Australia, and many more. CAPITAL ALLOCATORS is the essential new reference manual for current and aspiring CIOs, the money managers that work with them, and everyone allocating a pool of capital.




Treynor On Institutional Investing


Book Description

Praise for TREYNOR ON INSTITUTIONAL INVESTING "Jack Treynor has a mind of his own. I mean that as the highest compliment. Jack Treynor sees what no one else sees, thinks what no one else thinks, explains what no one else explains. You will learn more in fifteen minutes with Jack Treynor than in a full hour with most pundits. You will work hard but you will see things, think things, and understand things as never before. This book is a most valuable treasure, gleaming with Jack Treynor's brilliance." -Peter L. Bernstein, author, Capital Ideas Evolving "Vintage Treynor. This is a must-own reference for anyone involved in institutional asset management. It assembles - in one place - many of the important insights of one of the most provocative and creative players in the finance world over the past half-century." -Robert D. Arnott, Chairman, Research Affiliates, and Former Editor, Financial Analysts Journal "As a practicing investment manager, Treynor always preferred brilliance to soundness. Identifying the flaws in conventional thinking, he shows both the theorist and the practitioner where to invest time in their search for excess return." -Perry Mehrling, Professor of Economics, Barnard College, Columbia University, author, Fischer Black and the Revolutionary Idea of Finance "Jack Treynor's new book brings together a lifetime of exploring the important questions surrounding the sophisticated investor's task. Readers of Treynor on Institutional Investing will be richly rewarded by the insights the author has developed about both the practical and the conceptual keys to successful investing." -Samuel L. Hayes, III, Jacob Schiff Professor of Investment Banking Emeritus, Harvard Business School




The Law of Institutional Investment Management


Book Description

The Law of Institutional Investment Management explains the custom and practice of the investment management business with reference to both US and English law. The work addresses the implementation of investment strategies by the investment manager, the infra-structure of the global financial markets, and the custody and administration of the assets which are entrusted to the manager. In this context, the book defines the various risks and pit-falls that confront institutional participants in financial markets, with an emphasis on the position (and protection) of the institutional investor.




Investment Manager Analysis


Book Description

Praise for Investment Manager Analysis "This is a book that should have been written years ago. It provides a practical, thorough, and completely objective method to analyze and select an investment manager. It takes the mystery (and the consultants) out of the equation. Without question, this book belongs on every Plan Sponsor's desk." —Dave Davenport, Assistant Treasurer, Lord Corporation, author of The Equity Manager Search "An insightful compendium of the issues that challenge those responsible for hiring and firing investment managers. Frank Travers does a good job of taking complicated analytical tools and methodologies and explaining them in a simple, yet practical manner. Anyone responsible for conducting investment manager due diligence should have a copy on their bookshelf." —Leon G. Cooperman, Chairman and CEO, Omega Advisors, Inc. "Investment Manager Analysis provides a good overview of the important areas that purchasers of institutional investment management services need to consider. It is a good instructional guide, from which search policies and procedures can be developed, as well as a handy reference guide." —David Spaulding, President, The Spaulding Group, Inc. "This book is the definitive work on the investment manager selection process. It is comprehensive in scope and well organized for both the layman and the professional. It should be required reading for any organization or individual seeking talent to manage their assets." —Scott Johnston, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, Sterling Johnston Capital Management, LP "Investment Manager Analysis is a much-needed, comprehensive review of the manager selection process. While the industry is riddled with information about selecting individual stocks, comparatively little has been written on the important subject of manager selection for fund sponsors. This is a particularly useful guide for the less experienced practitioner and offers considerable value to the veteran decisionmaker as well." —Dennis J. Trittin, CFA, Portfolio Manager, Russell Investment Group




Organizational Alpha


Book Description

Institutional investors spend the majority of their time in search of the Holy Grail of investment alpha, or risk-adjusted market outperformance. The problem is far too many organizations and funds fail to first understand whether or not they have what it takes to earn alpha or whether it even makes sense to try. Organizational alpha, on the other hand, is something every institutional investor and nonprofit can achieve, assuming they focus on what they can control and what matters. This book will show institutional investors, board members, trustees, consultants and beneficiaries how the concept of organizational alpha can help them: Recognize the importance of goals-based investing. Think in terms of process over outcomes. Understand the fiduciary duty and what constitutes a breach of that duty. Know the difference between a governing and managing fiduciary. Define their overarching investment philosophy. Make sense of the group dynamic at play when making decisions-by-committee. Ensure more continuity in their investment program. Improve their due diligence and decision-making processes. Choose the right consultant or advisor to help oversee their assets. Find additional sources of alpha. Understand the alternative investment landscape. Appreciate the differences between foundations, endowments and pensions. Document their investment process to cut down on unnecessary mistakes. Make decisions that revolve around the goals and mission of the organization. Set realistic expectations with the understanding that the future is always uncertain. Written by an institutional investor who has spent his entire career working with a wide range of institutional investors from endowments to foundations to pension plans to family offices and other nonprofits, Organizational Alpha is a manual that provides institutional investors with the tools they need to find success in the markets and as organizations.