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 Friday 11 April 2014

The independent professional development service for investment portfolio construction practitioners

G'day

SAA vs DAA, passive vs active, quant vs qual - they're each a major debate of investing that stirs up an almost religious fervour in some of their proponents. This week, Dominic McCormick offers what is in my view an all too rare balanced summary of the pros and cons of passive vs active investing. Dr Robert Gay (past senior economist for the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve) analyses the Fed's portfolio holdings to show how the Fed will exit QE. We feature an excellent white paper from GMO on the shortcomings of traditional target date funds, and how better to invest for retirement (and you do not have to be a fund manager to do it, the tools are already available to practitioners e.g. the farrelly's offering available on PortfolioConstruction Forum). For a quick 5-minute overview of unconstrained debt investing, see my recent interview with PIMCO's Lisa Kim about divorcing your debt benchmark. And in a humorous treatment of a serious topic, BlackRock Investment Institute puts emerging markets on trial, asking their EM experts to defend their asset class against three charges (check out Figure 7 and 8 in particular on EM equity market valuations). Dovetailing in nicely is

another very highly rated session from the recent Markets Summit 2014 - Kathryn Koch explaining why going forward, EM performance will depend on individual merit.
All the best for a great weekend's learning and few weeks ahead (Fodder will be back in a few weeks, after the Easter and Anzac Day breaks) - Graham
P.S. Symposium 2014 Early Bird registration closes next week - register now!

LATEST...

Active versus passive
The active versus passive debate was recently given a boost when Warren Buffet suggested in his annual letter that most investors are better off investing passively.
Dominic McCormick, Select Asset Management
1 comment |  | 
Opinion

The Fed's exit strategy
The Fed’s published policy on how it will exit QE is fairly old. Overall, though, there is not a huge overhang of securities that the Fed needs to sell to exit.
Dr Robert Gay, Fenwick Advisers
Opinion

Investing for retirement: the defined contribution challenge
Target date funds are becoming the workhorse for DC plans but there are problems with the approach. This paper offers a portfolio construction framework to overcome them.
Ben Inker & Martin Tarlie, GMO
White paper

Divorcing your debt benchmark
Divorcing your debt benchmark and adopting more unconstrained approach to debt investing and offering degrees of freedom to the portfolio manager is the new "core".
Lisa Kim, PIMCO
Opinion

Emerging markets on trial
Against a backdrop of currency slides, yield spikes and chronic equity underperformance, we invited our EM experts to defend their asset class against three charges.
BlackRock
Investment Institute | 
White Paper

Quantitative squeezing - differentiation in EM Investing
Emerging Markets were a focal point in 2013, repricing as US stimulus, commodity prices and China's boom subsided. In future, EM performance will depend on individual merit.
Kathryn Koch, Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Resources
* Rated "very good" by Markets Summit 2014 delegates
 

RECENTLY...

The changing face of global risk
Economic, financial, and geopolitical risks are shifting. A year or two ago, six risks stood at center stage. These have now reduced. But six others have been growing.
Nouriel Roubini, Roubini Global Economics
Opinion

Rise of the machines - how will the EMs keep pace?
In theory, recent currency devaluations should make EM countries more competitive. But they're also facing a technological jump that they may not be able to keep up with.
Hon. Dr Pippa Malmgren, Principalis Asset Management
Opinion

The euthanasia of pensioners in Peoria
So the US budget deficit is contracting because government consumption is falling? It is really just an accounting illusion. Financial repression is still the order of the day.
Charles Gave, GaveKal
Opinion

Age banding - a model for planning retirement income needs
In recent months, we've reviewed one school of research on funding retirement income, the sustainable withdrawal rate approach. This paper takes a very different approach.
Angela Ashton, PortfolioConstruction Forum
| 1 comment
Research

The changing face of correlation?
The challenge for investors over the past several years is that diversification did not work as expected. The dynamic nature of correlation must be factored into portfolio modeling.
Dan Farley & al, State Street Global Advisors
1 commentWhite Paper

The sweet spot of the global economy
There is no doubt that some countries are better placed than others in The Great Escape. In fact, Australia and NZ have the chance to be rock star economies of the 21st century
Oliver Hartwich, The New Zealand Initiative
Resources
* Rated "very good" by Markets Summit 2014 program delegates

PLUS...

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