Investors want significant improvements in the way hedge funds interact with investors, and have called for greater reporting and transparency in a recently published guide to the industry.
Mercer, Callan courtship augurs more engagements
The recent alliance between Mercer Investment Consulting and Callan Associates to acquire the bulk of Evaluation Associates – the investment consulting arm of Milliman Inc – could be the start of a cooperation that targets other potentially attractive acquisitions in the US industry.
Eigenfactor adjusted covariance matrices
This paper investigates the underlying sources for the biases of optimised portfolios, and identifies special portfolios, termed eigenfactors, that exhibit large systematic biases in the risk forecasts. It shows that the covariance matrix can be adjusted to remove these biases, and that removing eigenfactor biases essentially removes the optimised portfolio biases as well.
Derivatives: How will the New US and EU Regulations Affect the Asia Pacific Region
The global financial services industry during 2011 faces active rulemaking and a myriad of changes in derivatives regulations from the United States and European Union. For financial firms operating in the Asia-Pacific region, the effects of these proposed regulatory changes on derivatives markets are particularly unclear. This article touches on some of the most-pressing concerns … Read more
Alaskan fund furthers alternative exposures
The Alaska Permanent Fund has made allocations to three alternative investment programs and begun a new push into timber and diversified inflation funds hiring Callan to conduct searches.
Harvard factors in rebalancing to endowment
The Ann Kaplan professor of business, finance and economics at Columbia University, Andrew Ang, who also consults to the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, describes the shortcomings of research on asset allocation and illiquid assets, and how to overcome behavioural biases.
