Professional articles and academic papers on performance analysis. Attribution analysis seeks to compare the return from a fund with the return from a benchmark, and to explain the differences by decomposing the excess return into its component parts. Some of our most popular research on attribution analysis considers performance attribution methodology from first principles, providing a primer on attribution analysis and models. Others white papers and reports focus on particular models, such as the Brinson Model, fixed income return attribution, equity attribution analysis, or the dissecting of hedge fund returns. A key aspect of performance is of course reporting to clients, and here the CFA provides guidance for effective investment reporting with its Principles for Investment Reporting model, known as GIPS (Global Investment Performance Standards) and encapsulated in the GIPS Handbook. A proper attribution of returns illuminates the contribution made by active managers, enabling judgements to be formed of whether excess returns have arisen from skill or luck. For most investment strategies, however, an extended period of time is required before such judgements can be made with any confidence.
Multi-factor models are commonly used for risk analysis and performance attribution of equity portfolios. Equity portfolio managers are interested not only in assessing the impact of common factors, but also in understanding the impact of stock-specific attributes upon portfolio risk and performances. In this report, EDHEC-Risk Institute explores the challenge of consistent risk ...
Since the 2008 financial crisis, major central banks have purchased $9 trillion of bonds in efforts to reinvigorate the global economy. Government guaranteed securities comprise 96% of these purchases. Several central banks have purchased corporate bonds; the European Central Bank (ECB) is the largest buyer of these bonds and remains an active purchaser. With signs of rising ...
In this landmark hedge fund paper released in 2011, Roger Ibbotson, Peng Chen and Kevin Xhu analyse the decomposition of hedge fund returns, to produce a simple "ABC" (alpha, beta and costs). They estimate that, for the 1995-2009 period, the equally-weighted mean annual return from hedge funds consisted of Alpha of 3.0%, Beta of 4.7%, and Costs of 3.4%. The mean annual ...
Summary: This report provides recommendations on how to best put the Principles of Investment Reporting into practice, with the aim of establishing dialogue between the authors and intended users of the investment report.
Investors in hedge funds frequently seek returns that are neither correlated with the market, nor subject to tail risk. In this 10 page document, Blackrock demonstrates that hedge funds tend to derive performance from four main sources, which they call market beta, smart beta, exotic beta and alpha. They argue that decomposing total HF returns into these constituent parts assists ...
In this issue of Investment Insight, Segal Rogerscasey's 2013 study on performance persistence is discussed, as are its results, which demonstrate the outcomes of twelve previous analyses that indicate a lack of performance persistence in almost all of the analyzed investment classes.
Today's complex investment landscape requires a tool set of guidelines to bring forward the next stage of investment reporting. Currently, no general global industry guidance exists that addresses the lack of transparency that occurs when asset owners are provided with investment reports. The widely implemented GIPS guidelines address many of of these transparency issues, but ...
Team stability is considered of great important in the world of private equity. It is fixed most due diligence processes. Many GPs say, and many LPs have come to expect, that the stability of the team is vital to continued good performance. This paper explores whether this holds true.
Are hedge fund manager misreporting? This paper examines the assumption in recent literature that discontinuation, around zero, in the hedge fund net return distribution is proof misreporting by managers. The authors argue that alternative reasons exist for this phenomenon.
Performance attribution analysis involves comparing the performance of an investment portfolio with that of a benchmark. To better explain the impact of investment decisions, the excess return is gotten rid of. It is crucial to separately examine the contributions of the two sets of decision-makers in a total portfolio - the investment managers and the plan sponsor. This document ...
This paper by Damian Laker, Director of Performance Attribution Strategy at Barra, recaps on the Brinson Model and looks at its practical implications.
Fueled by anxiety over rising rates, The nontraditional bond Morningstar Category took off in the years immediately following the financial crisis. It promised to insulate bond-fund investors from traditional bond-market interest-rate risk. These funds are generally conceived as “go-anywhere” bond funds with broad flexibility to invest across sectors, quality strata, ...
LCP's sixth survey on investment management fees explores the fee paradox – managers’ fee rates are down, but investors are paying more. The survey revealed that pension schemes are paying investment managers up to 70% more than they were six years ago, highlighting just how important it is for pension schemes to regularly monitor their investment managers ...
In this paper, Jess Gasper, PhD (Head of Asset Allocation and Research at Commonfund) discusses the concepts of active risk and tracking error and their impact on the investment decision-making process.
This survey by CFA Institute categorises fees into three sections: trading expenses, admin fees and investment management fees. It provides detailed and important insights.
This article describes the Alberta Investment Management Corporation’s journey to developing a performance attribution system as an investment management tool. The hope is that it will contribute to the institutional investor debate on how to best address performance attribution.
This 35 page paper is a "best practice" guide for hedge funds seeking to raise capital and build a business. The report details the spectrum of hedge fund investors and details the investor due diligence process, highlighting nine necessary best practices for capital raising. It also identifies a list of the "big 12" best practices for building a successful ...
The findings from this Pantheon study demonstrate that some characteristics of cash flow have been linked with final fund quartile rankings in a statistically significant way, even as early as the 3rd year of a PE fund. These were some of the paper findings:
Funds that generated a higher rate of early distributions compared to vintage peers were more likely to ...
This GIPS (Global Investment Standards) handbook helps guide firms through the continually expanded and updated interpretations, provisions, and guidance statements in the 2010 GIPS standards guidelines.
The evaluation of commodity trading advisors (CTAs) and hedge funds is a process in which investors face significant barriers. With performance data being made available only by voluntary reports to private companies leading to strategic reporting being incentivized, severe bias is natural in these sets of data. It is difficult to determine whether hedge funds add value over ...
