Private equity firms are raising increasingly bigger funds, but they don’t necessarily deliver bigger returns. This according to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. “The rise of megafunds…
Winton's David Harding Offers Insights on Quant Investing
In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this year, Winton Capital Management founder and quantitative investing pioneer David Harding offered insights on the challenges faced by today’s quants, the competitive environment…
Six Common Misconceptions About Factor-Based Strategies
By Jack Forehand, CFA (@practicalquant) Factor strategies have grown exponentially in the past decade. Almost every major asset manager now offers their variation of things like value, momentum, quality, and…
It's a Great Time to Be an Active Manager
One prominent asset manager says that dominated of today’s market by passive funds and quantitative strategies is creating opportunities for his actively managed funds. This according to an article inInstitutional…
Ray Dalio on Unpredictability of Markets
The recent news that Bridgewater Associates’ flagship fund—the Pure Alpha fund—lost 4.9% in the first half of this year should underscore the unpredictability of markets, according to a recent article…
Stock Rally Causing Look-Alike Portfolios
A study by Bank of America Merrill Lynch found an overlap in the top 50 stock holdings among mutual funds and hedge funds. This according to an article inThe Wall…
The Gains and Losses Associated with Locking Up Money
In a recent article for The Wall Street Journal, columnist Jason Zweig discusses the pros and cons of a newly proposed fund called the “Forever Fund” in which investors would…
Black Rock Money Manager on the Retirement Crisis and Climate Change
In a recent Barron’s, Mark Wiseman, head of BlackRock’s equities group, made a strong case for long-term investing and offered solutions to short-termism and the retirement crisis in the U.S.…
Tips for Reading Financial News
The first in a series of CFA Institute articles on how to read financial news addresses the issue of consensus, noting how the expectations behind it form a “logical starting…
Small-Cap Troubles Signal Economic Worry
Small company stocks have been hit hard this year, and “investors are beginning to wonder if that is a taste of what is to come with the wider market.” This…