Alternatives and Liquidity: Will Spending and Capital Calls Eat Your “Modern” Portfolio?

An award for the academic paper with the most relevance to institutional investors, as judged by a panel including the chief investment officers of three large European pension funds, has been awarded to Laurence B Siegel, for his paper “Alternatives and Liquidity: Will Spending and Capital Calls Eat Your ‘Modern’ Portfolio?” published in the Journal of Portfolio Management.

Siegel, who has authored more than 70 articles and one book, Benchmarks and Investment Management, was a previous member of the editorial board of the Journal of Portfolio Management and the Journal of Investing.

The inaugural EDHEC Robeco Journal of Portfolio Management Award is awarded to the author of the academic paper
published in the Journal of Portfolio Management in the previous calendar year which, in the opinion of the jury, has had the most relevance for institutional investors.

Siegel’s paper was chosen following a two-stage selection process, firstly involving a panel of academic experts who
drew up a shortlist of potential winning papers, and then a final vote from a jury made up of three chief investment officers from leading European pension funds.

The pension fund representatives on the selection committee were: Johan van der Ende, chief investment officer, PGGM, Frederic Methlow, chief investment officer, AVS-AHV Compensation Fund, and Tom Steenkamp, chief investment officer for asset allocation and research, APG.

Siegel, who is renowned as a “bull”, was appointed as research director of the Research Foundation at the CFA Institute in 2005, he has also served as the director of research in the investment division of the Ford Foundation, and was a former managing director of consulting firm Ibbotson Associates.

Sponsored Content

Part of his (voluntary) role at the Research Foundation was to emphasise research of practical value to investment
professionals, while exploring new and challenging topics that provided a unique perspective.

At the time of his appointment to the CFA’s Research Foundation he said: “Some thoughtful investors have expressed concern that the “glory days” of discovery in finance are in the past, beginning in the 1950s with Harry Markowitz’s work and ending in the 1970s with the Black-Scholes option pricing formula.

“While these founding events are monumentally important, discovery has continued, practical financial innovation
has greatly accelerated, and the direct impact of finance on people’s lives has dramatically increased. The monograph series will both reflect these innovations and try to advance them further.”

He received both his BA and his MBA from the University of Chicago.

His winning paper can be found at http://www.cfapubs.org/doi/abs/10.2469/dig.v39.n2.14

Leave a Comment

Sort content by

HMC to increase in-house management

Harvard Management Company, with responsibility for managing the $26 billion Harvard endowment fund, has hired a number of senior investment staff and reorganised its internal structure as it positions itself to bring more asset management in-house. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

GIC claws back half of 20 per cent investment loss

The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) has recovered almost half of last financial year’s investment loss in recent months thanks to the revival in global stock markets, after recording a 20 per cent fall in assets in the year ending March 31, 2009. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

USS funded status plunges as assets fall 25 per cent

The £21.7 billion ($35 billion) Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is facing the prospect of having to initiate a recovery plan after a 25 per cent fall in its assets in the financial year ending March 2009 caused its funded status to drop by almost 30 per cent. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Ohio suspends incentive pay for investment staff

The investment department of the $56 billion State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRSOH) will defer the $3.39 million earned in performance-based incentive pay to future fiscal years conditional on certain hurdles, and a compensation study for investment associates will be completed by November. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Infrastructure allocations below 3 per cent “meaningless”

Listed infrastructure drew attention last year for all the wrong reasons. Kristen Paech talks to Bruce Eidelson, San Diego-based director, real estate securities at Russell Investments, about the viability of the asset class post-crisis, and why privatisation in the US could boost US pension allocations. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

SWFs return home after run of cross-border deals

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) piled a record $20 billion into foreign direct investment (FDI) transactions last year, continuing the big cross-border forays they began in 2005. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Previous