A trustee guide to factor investing

This research by academics at Tilburg University and the VU University Amsterdam, looks at the hurdles of implementing factor investing. It translates those into a checklist for implementing factor investing. The research, conducted for Robeco, finds that three approaches to factor investing are emerging and conducts case studies to examine how these approaches are implemented

HOOPP’s strong funding status driven by liability hedging

The $51.6 billion Canadian fund, HOOPP, returned 8.55 per cent for the 2013 financial year, exactly half the return of 2012. But it finished the year in a better position than the year before, demonstrating that returns are only half the story. Amanda White spoke to Jim Keohane about the funds liability-driven investment style.  

Blackrock looks favourably on equities

Blackrock has a favourable view on equities, relative to bonds, but within fixed income it advocates an unconstrained approach. Amanda White spoke to chief investment strategist, Russ Koesterich.   Equities look cheap relative to bonds or cash, says chief investment strategist for Blackrock and iShares chief global investment strategist, Russ Koesterich, with the manager recommending

Howard Marks on alpha and making money

“It used to be easier to make money,” Oaktree Capital Management founder and chairman, Howard Marks muses as he discusses meeting the demands and goals of his clients in 2014. Marks is an avid communicator, and has been writing memos to clients for 24 years. The result is his book “The Most Important Thing”, which

Manager risk contribution in a multi-manager portfolio

This paper by MSCI creates a framework in order to answer the question: given a portfolio of managers, how does the active risk of each manager relate to the active risk of the portfolio? Asset owners often measure manager risk (the active risk of each manager) and have difficulty relating it to the contribution each

How active is your real estate fund manager?

Using detailed data from IPD, this paper looks at the holdings and performance of 256 UK commercial real estate funds from 2002-2011. It concludes the more active funds, those further from benchmark holdings, outperform but are not accompanied by higher risk.   To access the paper click here How active is your real estate fund