STAFF WRITER

Over the last several years, institutional investors have more than doubled their allocation, to over $110 billion, to financial products whose returns are linked to those of commodity indices. Commodities may be attractive due to the low correlation between the returns of commodities and those of other asset classes, the high correlation of commodities returns […]

How do current market activities, regulatory changes and dislocations potentially impact the ability of hedge funds to prosper going forward? The huge changes occurring in the markets are having a significant impact on hedge funds, including short sale restrictions, disclosure requirements and the effective elimination of the investment banking model and its attendant impact on […]

Over the last 12 months global financial markets have undergone major corrections following, fundamentally, a break-down in the confidence and trust in the financial system as practiced by the Western world. Along with this break-down we experienced a steep fall in US housing prices, the nationalization of financial institutions, the forced merger and/or failure of […]

Activist investing is an investment approach whereby an investor seeks to influence the strategy of a company. Strategy may be very broadly defined to include acquisitions, divestitures, capital structure, dividend policy and board composition, inter alia. We see two broad aspects of this strategy that may exist separately or together. First, activist investing may seek […]

Alpha is shrinking, and it’s good news for investors. This idea may seem paradoxical. But alpha is really just the portion of a portfolio’s returns that cannot be explained by exposure to common risk factors (betas). With the emergence of new betas, the unexplained portion (alpha) shrinks – alpha gets reclassified as beta. The rise […]