Diversification alone is not enough to manage downside risk, rather academic research in dynamic portfolio theory suggests the three complementary techniques of diversification, hedging, and insurance can be used together to design customised investment solutions, that ultimately separate assets into performance seeking portfolios and liability hedging portfolios, according to EDHEC’s Felix Goltz and Stoyan Stoyanov.   (more…)

CalPERS will introduce a new leadership organisation design next year, which includes for the first time a dedicated chief financial officer function coordinating all corporate finance functions including cash flow.

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Thomas P DiNapoli was given a little scare in the recent US mid-term elections but, in the end, was returned fairly comfortably to his position of New York State Comptroller and sole trustee of the New York State pension fund. What happens next, though, may be more interesting. (more…)

Will Kinlaw, managing director of portfolio and risk management group at State Street Global Markets in Cambridge, tells Amanda White why new ‘turbulence’ indexes, measuring volatility and unusualness of returns, can guide investors in adjusting risk exposures and so improve returns. (more…)

If there was an opportunity for a clean slate, what investments and service providers would provide the optimal structure for your members? The UK’s National Employment Savings Trust is preparing to receive its first contributions next year. Amanda White spoke with chair Lawrence Churchill about that privilege and challenge. (more…)

The optimal asset allocation for Sovereign Wealth Funds is a state-dependent allocation to three building blocks: a performance-seeking portfolio, an endowment-hedging portfolio, and a liability-hedging portfolio, according to research conducted by the EDHEC-Risk Institute.

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