Florida basks in sunny performance

The $109 billion Florida Retirement System Pension Plan remains in its rosy position as one of the US’ best performing funds, exercising its scale to effect with a total expense ratio of 32 basis points for the financial year 2009-10.

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QE2 not just another QE1

Following the Fed’s announcement of QE2 and the recent auction of 5-year TIPS  that resulted in the first-ever negative yield issuance (-0.55%), AQR has updated its recent research series on inflation. This paper addresses the events which resulted in the first-ever negative yield TIPS issuance, discusses the future impact of government actions, and comments on the implication for institutional investors.

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Skulls, financial turbulence and risk management

Based on a methodology introduced in 1927 to analyse human skulls and later applied to turbulence in financial markets, this study by Mark Kritzman and Yuanzhen Li, published in the Financial Analysts Journal, shows how to use a statistically derived measure of financial turbulence to measure and manage risk and to improve investment performance.

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Climate-change investors damn US weakness

A group of more than 250 institutional investors has damned individual country national policies, particularly highlighting inadequacies in the US, as preventing more private capital flowing into climate change-related investments. The collaborative stance comes ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico.

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