Alternative Investments
Norb Vonnegut culls three lessons from HBO's recent Bernie Madoff biopic. Taken together, they serve as a renewed prompt for investors to consider low-cost index funds. After all, these funds are hardly exclusive. The world is vetting them constantly. So long as investors reinvest dividends and other cash flows back into the funds, the annualized returns are a real measure of investment performance: What you see is what you get. And what’s better than that?
Global macro is as much an exercise in navigating the political economy as it is an alternative investment strategy. Practitioners must recognize its limitations and remember that change is the one constant.
In the final analysis, can we truly measure the emissions of our portfolio? Or understand what the actual “carbon footprint” is? No, not really, says Christopher K. Merker, CFA, but it is becoming easier.
Does environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing add or subtract value from investment portfolios? According to the findings of a trio of researchers, summarized in the new In Practice series, the answer is neither: Investors can both match index performance while also “doing good” for the environment and society.
The recent stampede of asset managers into environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing is reminiscent of another time and another industry, says Christopher K. Merker, PhD, CFA.
Jennifer Stevenson sees strong support for oil prices, and a supply-side rebalancing could mean big gains for North American oil companies.
How many of the hedge funds out there are actually worth investing in? Ben Carlson, CFA, explores the question.
Eternal market truths are hard to find and difficult for us fallible humans to understand, says Tadas Viskanta. He recommends getting reacquainted with George Soros's theory of reflexivity.
This introduction to hedge funds is also an instructive work of financial history. It discusses hedge funds in relation to other assets and describes specific hedge fund strategies in detail. It also delves into the nitty-gritty of hedge fund operations. Practical rather than theoretical, the book contains worked examples. And a companion website provides practice questions and guideline answers.
“Everything starts with solving a very tiny slice of a problem,” explained Muhammad Yunus at the 2016 CFA Institute European Investment Conference. That is how social business begins. “There is no reason anyone should be poor; we just need to fix the system so that all are truly reflected in our economy.”