All Features articles – Page 311
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Features
When things become ugly
Although individual days, hours or indeed minutes may be quite exciting, there’s an uneasy calm about bond markets at the moment. “There’s very, very little activity just now; we’re all in ‘Wait and see’ mode,” says Pictet’s Christel Rendu de Lint. Waiting to see the Federal Reserve move interest rates, ...
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Features
A bridge too far?
Institutional investors who view private equity generally as high risk may see investing in private equity in emerging markets as a bridge too far. The experience of the 1990s would only confirm this view as results have been disappointing in both absolute terms and also relative to private equity funds ...
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Features
Clearing the hurdles
One hundred per cent allocation to hedge funds? This is not as silly as some may think. If an institutional investor were to simply put hedge fund return data into their asset liability model, 100% may well be the answer. The risk return characteristics of hedge funds are so attractive, ...
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Features
Coming into their own
International consultancies are gaining confidence in the German market. For years they have relied on joint ventures with the well-established local firms to get a foothold in the country. But now the larger global firms are stepping out on their own – sure that they have exactly what clients need ...
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Features
Common sense the touchstone
Hedge funds are on their way to become the next big thing in investment management. New funds start up every day, hedge funds are marketed aggressively to institutions and, under pressure to make up for recent losses, many institutional investors are showing serious interest. Many investors do not seem to ...
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Features
Too complicated for its own good
The German pension system is widely regarded as being one of Europe’s most complex. If that wasn’t bad enough, leading observers believe aspects of the reforms currently being discussed in Parliament simply don’t make sense. “The devil is in the detail,” says Peter Scherkamp, managing director of German pension consultants ...
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Features
Law of unintended consequences
It is one of those unwritten rules that whenever governments try to introduce more protection for one group of people someone somewhere suffers and sometimes it turns out to be the very group you tried to protect in the first place. The ‘law of unintended consequence’ has been well illustrated ...
