Investing

[ad_1] “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it.” And so it is with complex machine learning (ML). ML now measures environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk, executes trades, and can drive stock selection and portfolio construction, yet the most powerful models remain black boxes. ML’s accelerating expansion […]

[ad_1] Actively managed strategies should have a place at the core of well-designed retirement plans. That a broad cross-section of the industry continues to hold this view is evidenced in part by positive flows into many actively managed strategies, as well as the excess returns posted by them over the […]

[ad_1] For more reading on inflation, check out Puzzles of Inflation, Money, and Debt by Thomas S. Coleman, Bryan J. Oliver, and Laurence B. Siegel from the CFA Institute Research Foundation. As most of us in the West will take some time off at the end of the year, I want to invite you to think […]

[ad_1] Hedge funds have become an integral part of institutional portfolio management. They constitute some 7% of public pension assets and 18% of large endowment assets. But are hedge funds beneficial for most institutional investors? To answer that question, I considered performance after fees and compatibility with institutional investors’ long-term […]

[ad_1] “When everyone is included, everyone wins.” “Inclusion is not a matter of political correctness. It is the key to growth.” The long-time US civil rights activist the Reverend Jesse Jackson is often quoted on the subject of inclusion and these two particular axioms of his are becoming more relevant […]

[ad_1] High inflation and expensive equities lead to a negative risk-return relationship and shrink the equity premium to zero. In years following this “everything expensive” scenario, low-volatility, quality, value, and momentum factors yield sizeable positive premiums. Given today’s market dynamics, investors should avoid high-volatility stocks or hope for a different […]

[ad_1] What role does firm size play in the relationship between board gender diversity and firm performance? Sana Mohsni and Alia Shata of Carleton University explored that question in their 2021 Hillsdale Investment Management – CFA Society Toronto Investment Research Award-winning paper, “Board Gender Diversity and Firm Performance: The Role […]

[ad_1] While many traditional sectors of the economy have succumbed to secular stagnation, a new form of value creation has expanded since the 1970s as part of the Third Industrial Revolution. The digitization of the economy has left few elements of our social and economic environments untouched. Today, more and […]

[ad_1] Asset Allocation and Private Markets: A Guide to Investing with Private Equity, Private Debt, and Private Real Assets. 2021. Cyril Demaria, Maurice Pedergnana, Rémy He, Roger Rissi, and Sarah Debrand. John Wiley & Sons. Private market (PM) investing, according to the authors of Asset Allocation and Private Markets, entails […]

[ad_1] The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) says that active equity management is a waste of time. Because stock prices incorporate all relevant information, it is not possible to consistently beat the market, according to EMH true believers. That’s because EMH is based on the concept of the wisdom of crowds. […]