When Exchanges are Complements, not Competitors
One regular theme of coverage and analysis that involves the listed equities, including analysis of the pursuit of alpha, is that many of the users of these markets claim, often quite obstreperously,...
View ArticleEurekahedge: The Return of Alpha
The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index was up in August, 0.17%, easily outperforming the global equity market, as measured by MSCI ACWI, which was down 2.37%. The August number brings the Eurekahedge HFIâs...
View ArticleSpoti-sly
By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association How do you turn a millennial into a capitalist? Sell her SNAP in the post-IPO market. A little hindsight here shows how ridiculous this all looked. The initial...
View ArticleGoldman Sachs Puts Stop-loss on Options
Goldman Sachs threw in the towel two years ago. Well, âa towel,â anyway. Goldman has lots of towels. But two years ago, Goldman gave up on market making at the US options exchanges. In time for the...
View ArticleWashington, Don’t Bar the Door
PitchBookâs Adam Putz recently tackled the intensifying political scrutiny of Big Tech and the harm the scrutineers may do by trying to fix something that isnât brokenâthe merger and acquisitions...
View ArticleLow Vol vs Option-Based Strategies
By Nicolas Rabener of FactorResearch (@FactorResearch) INTRODUCTION Some investment products and strategies can be considered toxic given their history on Wall Street. Portfolio insurance is rarely...
View ArticleValuation: A New Approach to an Old Financial Tool
Zane Swanson, an accounting professor at the University of Central Oklahoma, has been at work on a fascinating new approach to the valuation of firms and the valuation of their equity shares. This...
View ArticleDivestitures and Carve-outs in the Top Middle Market Deals
Private equity middle market deal-making did well in the first half of 2019, matching the pace of 2018, which was a record-setting year, according to a new report from Pitchbook. The authors credit the...
View ArticleThe Persistence of the Low-Risk Effect
The âvolatility effect,â also known as the âlow-risk effect,â is the subject of a new paper from Robeco. The gist of the âeffectâ is this: low-risk stocks âshouldâ show a lesser return...
View ArticleMeet the New Crisis: Looks Like the Old Crisis
Last month saw an extraordinary spike in the interest rates of the repo marketâthe market that consists of the (very) short-term, usually the overnight, borrowing of government securities. Hedge...
View ArticleOf Colossal Fools and Fossil Fuels
By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association The saying âfool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on meâ has its origins all the way back to the 1600âs when most of the carbon now in our atmosphere...
View ArticleBitcoin Derivatives Behaving Just Like Other Underlying Assets
Bitcoin derivatives act a lot like the derivatives of other asset classes. Two scholars at the University of London recently looked at bitcoinâs âvolatility smiles and skewsâ as found in the...
View ArticlePast performance guarantees no future results
Since, as everyone says, âpast performance is no guarantee of future results,â a history of close correlation between two assets, or between a single asset and a benchmark, is no guarantee of...
View ArticleGlobal Hedge Fund Assets Shrink
According to the latest report from Eurekahedge, the worldâs hedge funds recorded a net growth of $3.4 billion due to performance in September 2019. On the other hand, September also saw large net...
View ArticleImprove Private Funds, Don’t Do Away with Them
By John L. Bowman, CFA This editorial first appeared on Sept. 18 in Crain’s Pensions & Investments online edition. Itâs open season on private equity in the Democratic presidential debates....
View ArticleAIMA: Looking at the Canadian Landscape
The Alternative Investment Management Association first opened a branch in Canada in 2003. In recent days, AIMA has posted a report on what it calls the âlandscape.â It doesnât mean the Rockies....
View ArticleIt’s Not Cheating for Market Makers to Pay for Order Flow
Larry Tabb, in a piece in the Financial Times, has defended the controversial practice of payment for order flow (PFOF). Letâs start with PFOF and why itâs controversial. The UKâs Financial...
View ArticleMerger Arb: A Dis-economy of Scale
A new paper in the Journal of Economics and Business presents data on merger arb, and which factors, especially sector size and individual fund size, do or do not have an impact on the alpha available...
View ArticleA Harvard Education
By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association While Harvard the institution is legendary, much less is known about its founding other than by some who have taken those tedious Cambridge tours or the gifted alum...
View ArticleWhat if Cryptos Succeed Only After the US has Locked Itself Out?
Recent developments in cryptocurrency have brought new currencies and more uncertainty about them and some of the underlying investments in this brave new world. Anthony Pompliano, a founder and...
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