Latest Special Reports – Page 94

  • Special Report

    Commodities: Capturing risk premium

    July 2012 (Magazine)

    The risk of inflation hangs ominously over the heads of investors, so an active approach to commodity investing could be the way to maximise risk-adjusted returns, says Brent Bell

  • Global assets flatline at €36.3trn
    Special Report

    Global assets flatline at €36.3trn

    July 2012 (Magazine)

    Asset managers in our listing are ranked by global asset sunder management, and by the country of the main headquarters and/or main European domicile. Assets managed by these groups are in excess of €36.3trn.

  • Top 120 European institutional managers
    Special Report

    Top 120 European institutional managers

    July 2012 (Magazine)

    This breakdown details total third-party asset managed for all types of European institutional clients - pension funds, insurance companies, corporates, charities and foundations - for the leading 120 managers in this business segment. Total assets are €5.4trn (2010=€5.7trn)

  • Special Report

    The trouble with fracking

    July 2012 (Magazine)

    The full environmental impact of shale gas extraction is not known, so investors must engage with companies to make sure they are acting responsibly, says Nina Röhrbein

  • Special Report

    Commodities: Puffed-out dragon?

    July 2012 (Magazine)

    China’s slowing economy – and its longer-term transition away from investment-led growth – is raising questions about ongoing demand for commodities. But Martin Steward suggests that it’s too early to call time on the ‘supercycle’

  • Special Report

    Commodities: Equities suffer from dematerialisation

    July 2012 (Magazine)

    Is recent share-price disappointment a sign of things to come in the extractive industries? Lynn Strongin Dodds finds mining becoming more expensive just as China, one of the biggest commodity markets, begins to reduce its demand

  • Special Report

    Dc in Europe: Choice is not an easy option

    July 2012 (Magazine)

    It’s not enough to simply offer pension fund members a range of investment choices, finds Rachel Fixsen

  • Special Report

    DC in Europe: Look forward to payout time

    July 2012 (Magazine)

    UK pension schemes could offer members an enhanced payout phase experience through greater forward planning and tapping into the range of options available, finds Rachel Fixsen

  • Special Report

    Smart Beta: A smart beta taxonomy

    June 2012 (Magazine)

    Daniel Leveau and Des Morris categorise the alternative indexing universe and recommend that investors build diversified, smart-beta portfolios. By focusing on risk and return, they should achieve the desired results

  • Special Report

    Smart Beta: Creating custom solutions

    June 2012 (Magazine)

    John Krieg discusses the findings of a survey of institutional investors’ changing perspectives on passive investing, and the growing use of customised beta strategies

  • Special Report

    Smart Beta: How equal-weighting wins

    June 2012 (Magazine)

    Yuliya Plyakha, Raman Uppal and Grigory Vilkov discover a surprising crop of non-systematic alpha generated by the monthly rebalancing process

  • Special Report

    Smart Beta: Debt and demographics

    June 2012 (Magazine)

    Investors should look for risk to be compensated by attractive premia. But Christoph Gort argues that market-cap weighted bond indices fail to deliver this. New index methodologies will allow for more efficient global bond investing

  • Special Report

    Risk Parity: Simple idea, complex questions

    June 2012 (Magazine)

    Brendan Maton asks what the track records of risk parity strategies can tell us about their suitability for new economic environments, and how they might fit into the thinking of European pension funds suitability for new economic environments, and how they might fit into the thinking of European pension funds

  • Special Report

    Risk Parity: Risk parity for a single asset class

    June 2012 (Magazine)

    Pure risk parity just about works in a multi-asset class context. For individual asset classes, Joseph Mariathasan finds that it needs to be constrained and adapted – but still offers a useful corrective to the biases of the cap-weighted portfolio

  • Risk Parity: Risk parity for pension schemes?
    Special Report

    Risk Parity: Risk parity for pension schemes?

    June 2012 (Magazine)

    Gearing-up on bonds looks remarkably like LDI, notes Gwion Moore. So what does this tell us about the suitability of risk parity for an investor whose starting point is a significant short position in long-dated interest rates?

  • Special Report

    Risk Parity: ‘Risk parity is not sufficient’

    June 2012 (Magazine)

    Martin Steward discusses the philosophy behind the risk-factor allocation approach adopted by Danish pension fund ATP with CIO Henrik Gade Jepsen – and the impact of a new risk environment on its strategy

  • Special Report

    Risk Parity: I’m a (cautious) believer

    June 2012 (Magazine)

    The principles of risk parity may be sound, the CEO of AIMCo tells Joel Kranc, but the exuberance must be tempered by the current economic climate

  • Special Report

    Risk Parity: A better balance

    June 2012 (Magazine)

    Joel Kranc discusses the rationale for a gradual shift to the risk parity model with Bill Estabrook, executive director with Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund

  • Special Report

    Pay proposals in the shareholder spring

    June 2012 (Magazine)

    Shareholders are beginning to flex their muscles by voting against inflated executive remuneration packages in listed companies, says Nina Röhrbein

  • Special Report

    Smart Beta: New generation of choices

    June 2012 (Magazine)

    The ‘smart beta’ revolution is taking investors from one ‘passive’ solution – the cap-weighted index – to many. Rachel Fixsen looks at the questions this raises