Portfolio Construction for Today's Markets

Portfolio Construction for Today's Markets PDF

Author: Russ Koesterich

Publisher: Harriman House Limited

Published: 2018-04-27

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 0857196308

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For most of the past 50 years the simplest asset allocation solution was often the best. A balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds provided the investor with good returns. Unfortunately, this approach is not likely to work as well in the future. Interest rates are close to historic lows, equity valuations and bond prices appear stretched, and global economic growth has slowed. Investors need a new asset allocation solution. In Portfolio Construction for Today's Markets, BlackRock Portfolio Manager and investment expert Russ Koesterich addresses this problem by describing the step-by-step approach to building a portfolio consistent with investor goals and suited to today’s market environment. This portfolio construction process is divided into six stages, beginning with setting objectives and moving through assessing risk tolerance, diversification, the importance of factors, generating return assumptions, and combining assets in a risk-controlled manner. In the final chapter, Mr Koesterich presents a highly useful summary of the five fundamental rules of asset allocation and a five-step checklist to follow when constructing portfolios. For investors and their advisors constructing portfolio in today's markets, this book is an indispensable new guide.

Portfolio Construction and Analytics

Portfolio Construction and Analytics PDF

Author: Frank J. Fabozzi

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2016-03-23

Total Pages: 760

ISBN-13: 1119238145

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A detailed, multi-disciplinary approach to investment analytics Portfolio Construction and Analytics provides an up-to-date understanding of the analytic investment process for students and professionals alike. With complete and detailed coverage of portfolio analytics and modeling methods, this book is unique in its multi-disciplinary approach. Investment analytics involves the input of a variety of areas, and this guide provides the perspective of data management, modeling, software resources, and investment strategy to give you a truly comprehensive understanding of how today's firms approach the process. Real-world examples provide insight into analytics performed with vendor software, and references to analytics performed with open source software will prove useful to both students and practitioners. Portfolio analytics refers to all of the methods used to screen, model, track, and evaluate investments. Big data, regulatory change, and increasing risk is forcing a need for a more coherent approach to all aspects of investment analytics, and this book provides the strong foundation and critical skills you need. Master the fundamental modeling concepts and widely used analytics Learn the latest trends in risk metrics, modeling, and investment strategies Get up to speed on the vendor and open-source software most commonly used Gain a multi-angle perspective on portfolio analytics at today's firms Identifying investment opportunities, keeping portfolios aligned with investment objectives, and monitoring risk and performance are all major functions of an investment firm that relies heavily on analytics output. This reliance will only increase in the face of market changes and increased regulatory pressure, and practitioners need a deep understanding of the latest methods and models used to build a robust investment strategy. Portfolio Construction and Analytics is an invaluable resource for portfolio management in any capacity.

Portfolio Theory and Management

Portfolio Theory and Management PDF

Author: H. Kent Baker

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2013-01-07

Total Pages: 816

ISBN-13: 019931151X

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Portfolio management is an ongoing process of constructing portfolios that balances an investor's objectives with the portfolio manager's expectations about the future. This dynamic process provides the payoff for investors. Portfolio management evaluates individual assets or investments by their contribution to the risk and return of an investor's portfolio rather than in isolation. This is called the portfolio perspective. Thus, by constructing a diversified portfolio, a portfolio manager can reduce risk for a given level of expected return, compared to investing in an individual asset or security. According to modern portfolio theory (MPT), investors who do not follow a portfolio perspective bear risk that is not rewarded with greater expected return. Portfolio diversification works best when financial markets are operating normally compared to periods of market turmoil such as the 2007-2008 financial crisis. During periods of turmoil, correlations tend to increase thus reducing the benefits of diversification. Portfolio management today emerges as a dynamic process, which continues to evolve at a rapid pace. The purpose of Portfolio Theory and Management is to take readers from the foundations of portfolio management with the contributions of financial pioneers up to the latest trends emerging within the context of special topics. The book includes discussions of portfolio theory and management both before and after the 2007-2008 financial crisis. This volume provides a critical reflection of what worked and what did not work viewed from the perspective of the recent financial crisis. Further, the book is not restricted to the U.S. market but takes a more global focus by highlighting cross-country differences and practices. This 30-chapter book consists of seven sections. These chapters are: (1) portfolio theory and asset pricing, (2) the investment policy statement and fiduciary duties, (3) asset allocation and portfolio construction, (4) risk management, (V) portfolio execution, monitoring, and rebalancing, (6) evaluating and reporting portfolio performance, and (7) special topics.

Buy and Hold Is Dead (Again)

Buy and Hold Is Dead (Again) PDF

Author: Kenneth R. Solow

Publisher: Morgan James Publishing

Published: 2009-05-01

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 1600377939

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Patience May Be A Virtue, But It Isn't An Investment Strategy. The current academic and financial planning definitions of "risk" are changing at light speed, but the notion of what constitutes "risky" investment strategy for informed investors is still stuck in the dark ages. Wealth management expert Kenneth Solow takes a fresh look at the investment industry's reliance on Buy-and-Hold investing, exposing the flaws and potential dangers of this investment approach in secular bear markets. Patiently waiting for stocks to deliver historical average returns does not rise to the level of an investment strategy, according to Solow, who recommends a different approach called Tactical Asset Allocation. A provocative and thoughtful critique of the current state of the money management industry, Buy and Hold is Dead (AGAIN) is an invaluable investment guide for our financially challenging times.

Managed Futures for Institutional Investors

Managed Futures for Institutional Investors PDF

Author: Galen Burghardt

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-05-03

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 1576603741

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A practical guide to institutional investing success Managed Futures for Institutional Investors is an essential guide that walks you through the important questions that need to be addressed before investing in this asset class and contains helpful direction for investors during the investing process. Backed by years of institutional experience, the authors reveal the opportunities offered by managed futures. They also include information on practices in the managed futures area and present the various analytical tools and building blocks required to use managed futures effectively. The book also contains insight on the issues that must be addressed when building and evaluating portfolios. Shows where to find data to evaluate managed futures and explains how managed futures are regulated Offers guidance on how to apply classic portfolio construction tools to managed futures Reveals how managed futures investments can help investors evaluate and meet risk, return, and liquidity objectives Managed Futures for Institutional Investors provides all the practical information to manage this type of investment well.

Handbook of Portfolio Construction

Handbook of Portfolio Construction PDF

Author: John B. Guerard, Jr.

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2009-12-12

Total Pages: 796

ISBN-13: 0387774394

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Portfolio construction is fundamental to the investment management process. In the 1950s, Harry Markowitz demonstrated the benefits of efficient diversification by formulating a mathematical program for generating the "efficient frontier" to summarize optimal trade-offs between expected return and risk. The Markowitz framework continues to be used as a basis for both practical portfolio construction and emerging research in financial economics. Such concepts as the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT), for example, provide the foundation for setting benchmarks, for predicting returns and risk, and for performance measurement. This volume showcases original essays by some of today’s most prominent academics and practitioners in the field on the contemporary application of Markowitz techniques. Covering a wide spectrum of topics, including portfolio selection, data mining tests, and multi-factor risk models, the book presents a comprehensive approach to portfolio construction tools, models, frameworks, and analyses, with both practical and theoretical implications.

Investments

Investments PDF

Author: Michael McMillan

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-01-11

Total Pages: 648

ISBN-13: 1118001168

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A comprehensive guide to investment analysis and portfolio management by an expert team from the CFA Institute In a world of specialization, no other profession likely requires such broad, yet in-depth knowledge than that of financial analyst. Financial analysts must not only possess a broad understanding of the financial markets-including structure, organization, efficiency, portfolio management, risk and return, and planning and construction-but they must also have a strong sense of how to evaluate industries and companies prior to engaging in an analysis of a specific stock. Investments: Principles of Portfolio and Equity Analysis provides the broad-based knowledge professionals and students of the markets need to manage money and maximize return. The book Details market structure and functions, market anomalies, secondary market basics, and regulation Describes investment assets and asset classes, types of positions and orders, as well as forecasting methodologies Discusses return and risk characteristics, portfolio diversification and management, the basics of both technical analysis and major technical indicators, and much more A companion Workbook, which includes learning outcomes, summary overviews, and problems and solutions sections is available and sold separately Investments provides readers unparalleled access to the best in professional quality information on investment analysis and portfolio management.

Managing Downside Risk in Financial Markets

Managing Downside Risk in Financial Markets PDF

Author: Frank A. Sortino

Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann

Published: 2001-10-02

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 9780750648639

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Quantitative methods have revolutionized the area of trading, regulation, risk management, portfolio construction, asset pricing and treasury activities, and governmental activity such as central banking to name but some of the applications. Downside-risk, as a quantitative method, is an accurate measurement of investment risk, because it captures the risk of not accomplishing the investor's goal. 'Downside Risk in Financial Markets' demonstrates how downside-risk can produce better results in performance measurement and asset allocation than variance modelling. Theory, as well as the practical issues involved in its implementation, is covered and the arguments put forward emphatically show the superiority of downside risk models to variance models in terms of risk measurement and decision making. Variance considers all uncertainty to be risky. Downside-risk only considers returns below that needed to accomplish the investor's goal, to be risky. Risk is one of the biggest issues facing the financial markets today. 'Downside Risk in Financial Markets' outlines the major issues for Investment Managers and focuses on "downside-risk" as a key activity in managing risk in investment/portfolio management. Managing risk is now THE paramount topic within the financial sector and recurring losses through the 1990s has shocked financial institutions into placing much greater emphasis on risk management and control. Free Software Enclosed To help you implement the knowledge you will gain from reading this book, a CD is enclosed that contains free software programs that were previously only available to institutional investors under special licensing agreement to The pension Research Institute. This is our contribution to the advancement of professionalism in portfolio management. The Forsey-Sortino model is an executable program that: 1. Runs on any PC without the need of any additional software. 2. Uses the bootstrap procedure developed by Dr. Bradley Effron at Stanford University to uncover what could have happened, instead of relying only on what did happen in the past. This is the best procedure we know of for describing the nature of uncertainty in financial markets. 3. Fits a three parameter lognormal distribution to the bootstrapped data to allow downside risk to be calculated from a continuous distribution. This improves the efficacy of the downside risk estimates. 4. Calculates upside potential and downside risk from monthly returns on any portfolio manager. 5. Calculates upside potential and downside risk from any user defined distribution. Forsey-Sortino Source Code: 1. The source code, written in Visual Basic 5.0, is provided for institutional investors who want to add these calculations to their existing financial services. 2. No royalties are required for this source code, providing institutions inform clients of the source of these calculations. A growing number of services are now calculating downside risk in a manner that we are not comfortable with. Therefore, we want investors to know when downside risk and upside potential are calculated in accordance with the methodology described in this book. Riddles Spreadsheet: 1. Neil Riddles, former Senior Vice President and Director of Performance Analysis at Templeton Global Advisors, now COO at Hansberger Global Advisors Inc., offers a free spreadsheet in excel format. 2. The spreadsheet calculates downside risk and upside potential relative to the returns on an index Brings together a range of relevant material, not currently available in a single volume source. Provides practical information on how financial organisations can use downside risk techniques and technological developments to effectively manage risk in their portfolio management. Provides a rigorous theoretical underpinning for the use of downside risk techniques. This is important for the long-run acceptance of the methodology, since such arguments justify consultant's recommendations to pension funds and other plan sponsors.

Active Portfolio Management: A Quantitative Approach for Producing Superior Returns and Selecting Superior Returns and Controlling Risk

Active Portfolio Management: A Quantitative Approach for Producing Superior Returns and Selecting Superior Returns and Controlling Risk PDF

Author: Richard C. Grinold

Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional

Published: 1999-11-16

Total Pages: 596

ISBN-13: 007137695X

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"This new edition of Active Portfolio Management continues the standard of excellence established in the first edition, with new and clear insights to help investment professionals." -William E. Jacques, Partner and Chief Investment Officer, Martingale Asset Management. "Active Portfolio Management offers investors an opportunity to better understand the balance between manager skill and portfolio risk. Both fundamental and quantitative investment managers will benefit from studying this updated edition by Grinold and Kahn." -Scott Stewart, Portfolio Manager, Fidelity Select Equity ® Discipline Co-Manager, Fidelity Freedom ® Funds. "This Second edition will not remain on the shelf, but will be continually referenced by both novice and expert. There is a substantial expansion in both depth and breadth on the original. It clearly and concisely explains all aspects of the foundations and the latest thinking in active portfolio management." -Eric N. Remole, Managing Director, Head of Global Structured Equity, Credit Suisse Asset Management. Mathematically rigorous and meticulously organized, Active Portfolio Management broke new ground when it first became available to investment managers in 1994. By outlining an innovative process to uncover raw signals of asset returns, develop them into refined forecasts, then use those forecasts to construct portfolios of exceptional return and minimal risk, i.e., portfolios that consistently beat the market, this hallmark book helped thousands of investment managers. Active Portfolio Management, Second Edition, now sets the bar even higher. Like its predecessor, this volume details how to apply economics, econometrics, and operations research to solving practical investment problems, and uncovering superior profit opportunities. It outlines an active management framework that begins with a benchmark portfolio, then defines exceptional returns as they relate to that benchmark. Beyond the comprehensive treatment of the active management process covered previously, this new edition expands to cover asset allocation, long/short investing, information horizons, and other topics relevant today. It revisits a number of discussions from the first edition, shedding new light on some of today's most pressing issues, including risk, dispersion, market impact, and performance analysis, while providing empirical evidence where appropriate. The result is an updated, comprehensive set of strategic concepts and rules of thumb for guiding the process of-and increasing the profits from-active investment management.

Strategic Fixed Income Investing

Strategic Fixed Income Investing PDF

Author: Sean P. Simko

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2012-12-26

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 1118422937

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Build a fixed income portfolio that will weather volatility and instability Designing a fixed income portfolio is an essential skill of any investment manager or advisor. This book outlines the critical components to successfully navigate through stable and turbulent markets, using real-life lessons from a seasoned institutional asset manager. The first section includes commentary on the changing fixed income market and overall economy, while the second section outlines the processes to navigate these ever-evolving markets including portfolio construction, the Federal Reserve, credit analysis and trade execution. Ladder Methodology is highlighted and the book discusses its pros and cons, gives examples of both well-constructed and poorly executed laddered bond portfolios and offers alternatives to traditional asset classes. Benefit from lessons learned, providing real life examples of market scenarios and trades Prepare fixed income portfolios that can weather any storm Written by Sean P. Simko, an expert on fixed income investing, who shares his investing experiences from the past 16 years Outlines the key principles of the Ladder strategy From strategy to execution, Strategic Fixed Income Investing offers the road map to help investment managers prepare portfolios that will insulate investments against adverse market conditions.