All Features articles – Page 411
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Features
Clamour for information
Over the past year hedge funds have boomed. An estimated $8.4bn (€ƒ9.2bn) flooded into the sector in the second quarter of this year, and new alternative investment firms seem to appear on a weekly basis. But as capital flows towards hedge funds, there is a growing demand for greater transparency ...
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Features
Climbing the wall of worry
There is far too much liquidity in the markets but at long last some positive signs beginning to seep into economic data. This is the view of John Dreyer, head of equities at Fortis Investment Management (FIM) in Paris. “We are very happy right now. Basically, the bullish stance that ...
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Features
Construction of a customised and diversified portfolio
Hedge funds still present a number of difficult analytical problems for those who wish to integrate them into a traditional approach. To achieve success, it is important to ensure that the objective of the hedge fund allocation is clearly defined at the outset and that expectations regarding return potential and ...
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Features
The hunt for 'decorrelation'
In a climate of low interest rates and low growth, pension funds are finding it increasingly difficult to earn a reasonable return without an unacceptable increase in risk. A bull market in equities is now a distant memory, and returns from equities and bonds continue to converge. This is creating ...
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Features
Tracking the differences
The main marketing problem faced by index-tracking investment managers is the difficulty of differentiating themselves from the competition. Understandably, index-tracking investment management is often regarded as a commodity product and, like most of these products, it is price that matters. For index-trackers, the price is specifically the ongoing management charge ...
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Features
Dipping a toe in the water
As hedge funds continue to win a measure of acceptance from pension funds and other institutional investors, they seem set to change the dynamics of the relationship between consultants and their pension fund clients. Across the board, consultants are finding that their larger, more active clients are expressing curiosity about ...
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Features
High-yield at low ebb
The Merrill Lynch High Yield Master Index in September suffered its biggest monthly fall since its inception. It declined –6.42% during the month, taking its third-quarter fall to –6.07%, which in itself was the biggest such drop since the third quarter of 1990. In addition, the spread versus Treasuries at ...
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Features
Markets have embraced 'V' shaped recovery
Equity markets, which plunged in the aftermath of the terrible events of 11 September, have more than made up the lost territory in the past few weeks. On the surface, this suggests that nothing material happened on the day of the attacks. Obviously, this is wrong. The world has changed ...
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Features
Pension funds hit hard by equities slump
The growth of an equity culture has been one of the success stories of continental European investment over the past 10 years, and pension funds have been an important part of this. Funds in Scandinavia, Switzerland and the Netherlands in particular have steadily increased their exposure to equities to take ...
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Features
Ready for European tour?
The announcement by the €552m VKG-CPM Belgian pension fund for doctors, dentists and pharmacists that it had established a new healthcare sector pension fund, ‘Amonis’, with potential membership of 250,000 employees across the country, was not only one of the most significant in the Belgian pension market in recent times, ...
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Features
Eyes fixed on reserve fund
This year has seen a slowdown in the creation of new pension funds in Portugal. The awaited reform of the social security system, the real key to the future development of the industry, has not yet materialised, and although the debate is still alive, so far no major steps have ...
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Features
Gescartera probe fuels political row
What began as an investigation into the activities of Spanish brokerage company Gescartera has developed into a political crisis for the ruling Partido Popular (PP), and a worldwide search for embezzled funds and ‘black money’ accounts Casualties already include the head off the stock market’s regulatory body and a senior ...
