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Active management: turning the argument on its head

One of the enduring areas of asset management academic study, and practitioner query, is whether or not managers have skill. In his work, professor of finance at Stanford, Jonathan Berk, shows the answer doesn’t lie in returns but in manager compensation.   Determining whether active skill exists is not the same as looking at whether

Investment beliefs of endowments

Academics from Columbia and Yale Universities examine the expected and actual returns of US university endowment portfolios and the role of alternatives in generating alpha.   To access the paper Investment beliefs of endowments

Breakfast with AQR’s Cliff Asness

Having a breakfast meeting with Cliff Asness is a wake-up call. He will let you know if you’re late – something he holds in very little regard. He admits he has to constantly remind himself that just because he’s 20 minutes early to everything that others are not automatically then 20 minutes late. Asness is

ATP reunites alpha and beta after 6 years

Alpha and beta rely to a large extent on exposures to systematic risk factors, so goes the “2013 thinking” of ATP in reversing the decision to separate alpha and beta in its investment portfolio six years ago. ATP has separate hedging and investment portfolios, with the hedging portfolio significantly larger at around DKK 670 billion

ESG and alpha

Academics collide on the relationship between environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG), and alpha. One view is there is a clear link that can be uncovered by a deep dive into the underlying factors using a sophisticated operating engine. The other perspective is that the market will price in environmental and social factors, the way

ESG alpha solution
in a labyrinth

More than 1000 asset owners and service providers have signed up to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, and yet the question on everyone’s lips remains how to actually integrate sustainability into the investment process and ultimately add alpha. Bill Mills, managing partner of Highland Good Steward Management, has an idea and a platform