Investing

Two institutional managers I know — one at a Fortune 500 defined benefit pension fund and another at a municipal pension fund and later an endowment — believe in going all-in on active management. To them, a 100% active allocation is not only okay but desirable. Of course, anyone with […]

“There are these people who think we don’t have to take all these tough decisions to deal with our debt. . . . It’s as if they think there’s some magic money tree. Well, let me tell you a plain truth: there isn’t.” — David Cameron, UK Prime Minister, 2010 […]

Evaluating investment managers is a challenging endeavor. Why else would asset owners expend so much time and resources, often with the aid of consultants, to conduct manager searches? Proper manager selection and evaluation requires thorough due diligence, but a relatively simple filter can serve as a helpful initial screen of […]

After a long hiatus, The Sustainability Story podcast from CFA Institute is back. In the first new episode, Paul Andrews, head of Research, Advocacy, and Standards at CFA Institute, speaks with Ceres president and CEO Mindy Lubber about the critical connection between climate risk and financial risk. Mindy Lubber believes […]

Index fund investors have various choices when selecting the weighting style of the funds they hold. There are market cap-weighted indices like the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000/3000, stock price-weighted indices like the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as well as equally weighted indices. But to our knowledge, there is […]

The Art in Fundamental Analysis Financial statement analysis represents the art in fundamental equity valuation and helps creditors and investors make better economic decisions. For reporting purposes, corporations prepare statutory statements that combine accounting rules describing the accrual process, management estimates of projected events based on past experience, and managerial […]

Introduction The Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index (SSE) was booming in early 2015, and as it soared, legions of new investors rushed in to try their luck at securities speculation. Although stock bubbles were nothing new, this one had two peculiarities. First, under the regulatory framework, SSE stocks could not […]

The financial markets are experiencing a sea change marking the end of a long period of accommodative central bank monetary policy, and there is little hope of ultra-low interest rates returning anytime soon, legendary investor Howard Marks, CFA, explained in a virtual conversation with Margaret “Marg” Franklin, CFA, president and […]

What I Learned about Investing from Darwin. 2023. Pulak Prasad. Columbia University Press. Investment professionals know that there is no substitute for hours of in-depth textbook study combined with an equal helping of hands-on experience. Self-taught investors, however, can develop significant knowledge and skillsets for their own investing success even […]

What is the current outlook for investors in today’s credit market? Interest rates had been in secular decline since the 1980s. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis (GFC), rates hovered near zero as central banks embraced quantitative easing (QE) and flooded markets with liquidity. Among other effects, these […]