Social media highlights from the flagship event in the Middle East for CFA Institute, held 25-26 March 2012 in Doha, Qatar.

Have you ever wondered why some tweets are valued more than others? (Think of the people you’ve followed, or “unfollowed,” in recent months and why.) Well, the wait is over. A new study, “Who Gives a Tweet? Evaluating Microblog Content Value,” provides some answers.

Giorgio Valente, professor of finance at Essex Business School and founder and director of the Centre for Asian Financial Studies at the University of Essex, discusses recent trends in algorithmic and high frequency trading and related developments in the Asia Pacific region.

Despite some hand-wringing over China’s ability to orchestrate a soft landing, a successful near-term resolution to the Greek debt crisis and signs of continued economic improvement in the United States have helped to keep global equity markets firmly in the black for the year.

Are institutional investors mostly investing in the same securities at the same time? And can a better understanding of such crowding help investors?

With the recent news that Apple, Inc…. READ MORE ›

“To be or not to be” is not just for Hamlet, it’s the existential question of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), the ruling body on credit default swaps. After much ballyhoo about whether or not Greece’s restructuring would technically qualify as a default, the ISDA ruled that Greece’s restructuring in March is in fact a default, thereby triggering credit default swaps on Greece sovereign debt.

Since the early 2000s, policymakers in emerging markets have been concerned about “waves” of international capital flows into their countries. As Kristin Forbes, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, pointed out at the Investing in Emerging Markets 2012 conference, “Volatility of capital flows is here to stay, and there are no magic bullets.”

Richard Hokenson discusses the investment implications of global demographic trends and the investment opportunities these trends represent for Africa.

Could it be that the Holy Grail has been spotted at the recent Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Risk Management Conference? Well not quite, but there was much… READ MORE ›

There is no such thing as a risk-free rate of return, just as there is no such thing as our world without action. Yet, the concept of a bedrock expected rate of return is a good one in need of a better description that is more reflective of reality.