Other Alternative Investments - Articles & White Papers
Articles and research on other alternative asset classes (those outside of mainstream alternatives). Some alternatives within this section are insurance-related, so there are a number of white papers on catastrophe bonds, reports on reinsurance securities, and securities backed by life settlements (secondary market for life insurance policies). Is volatility an asset class? This is debatable, but we have included in this section papers on volatility as an asset class or "opportunity class", including the use of short volatility to... enhance portfolio returns. Master Limited Partnerships are another, relatively new alternative asset, and our listing includes white papers on MLPs, which provide relatively high income with stable cash flows. Other exotic alternatives include institutional investment in wine and institutional investment in art, with one paper examining the characteristics of art funds and their typical investments, while another examines the history of bubbles in the art market. PwC author a report on alternative investment asset classes which considers oil and gas MLPs and insurance flavored products, among others.
As the effects of climate change become more severe, catastrophe risk modelling is more relevant than ever. Few sectors of the economy play a role as intense in catastrophe recovery as insurance; therefore, the industry should strive to continually strengthen the predictive power of its catastrophe modelling capabilities.…
The Cryptoassets Taskforce report lays out the UK’s policy and regulatory approach to cryptoassets and distributed ledger technology in financial services. It provides an overview of cryptoassets and DLT, assesses the associated risks and potential benefits, and sets out the path forward with respect to regulation in the UK…
ICOs fill an essential gap in funding for entrepreneurs that have limited access to other forms of startup financing. Regulating them needs to resolve the conflict between financial innovation and protecting investors.
The paper is organized in five sections. The first offers an overview of CBDCs—what they are, why central banks might issue CBDCs, and how they might design these. Using a stylized model, the second section offers a conceptual discussion of the tradeoffs between different CBDC designs and examines some of the implications…
In this article, Matthew Beck from Grayscale examines the rise of digital assets, offering insight and commentary into how this industry has grown and the impact it has had on the hedge fund investment landscape as a whole.
The second edition of the Global Cryptoasset Benchmarking Study provides new insights into the current state of the cryptoasset industry. The study gathers survey data from more than 180 cryptoasset companies and individuals, covering 47 countries across five world regions. The empirical analysis specifically focuses on the…
The year 2018 is coming to a close and with it the endless reports on strategists’ stock market forecasts for the coming year. And rest assured, just like every year, someone is going to ask me where the FTSE 100 or the S&P 500 is going to be at the end of 2019.
We asked a number of our fund managers which key events they are looking out for in 2019 and what the impact is likely to be for their respective asset class.
Emerging markets are especially vulnerable to a myriad of domestic and external risks. This column develops a framework to classify these risks based on their predictability and, hence, their insurability. As the probability of relatively large events increases, it becomes more difficult to insure against such risks. In the…
The surge of interest in cryptocurrencies has been accompanied by a proliferation of fraud. This paper examines a pervasive tactic long known to financial markets: pump and dump schemes. While the fundamentals of the ruse have not changed in the last century, the recent explosion of nearly 2,000 cryptocurrencies in a largely…
The purpose of this article is to document the descriptive anatomy of the distressed debt markets size, growth, major strategies, characteristics, and participants, and then to explore its performance attributes, reviewing the relevant 30-year period from 1987-2017.
Authorities around the globe face challenging questions about crypto-assets and their regulation. The right approach will depend significantly on how crypto-assets evolve. Projecting this evolution, and drawing conclusions on appropriate regulation, requires: analysis of (1) the "users" and (2) the cryptoeconomy in…
As Canada ends the prohibition of recreational marijuana, our projections indicate a continuing black market and shortages of legal marijuana supply that will result in forgone tax revenues in the first year of legalization.
Pump-and-dump schemes (P&Ds) are pervasive in the cryptocurrency market. We study these events using trade-by-trade data and a sample of P&Ds with precisely identified starting times. We find that P&Ds lead to short-term cryptocurrency bubbles featuring dramatic increases in prices, volume, and volatility. Prices…
Now in our second decade of championing stewardship through ESG engagement and corporate responsibility, Pantheon is delighted to showcase our new interactive insights into these important areas of our daily life. “Investing Responsibly Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow” profiles the steps we take across our firm to achieve…
A five cent $0.05 investment in Bitcoin on July 17, 2010, the first date in which there appears to have been a published value had grown to $7,383.39 on July 18, 2018. While Bitcoin as a currency has existed for less than a decade ̶ it had a very limited liquidity and usage during the first few years. During calendar year…
The purpose of this document is to raise awareness of the fact that the provision of services to participants in the crypto-asset markets, and not just the adoption of distributed ledger technology by market infrastructures to enhance their existing services, should be seen as a target market by major participants in the…
