The best of the best?
A few years ago, the Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) – Alaska’s sovereign wealth fund with assets of USD 50+ bn (website) – introduced an interesting element into their portfolio. After an exhaustive search, they appointed five asset management firms as external CIOs. They gave each about USD 500 million in a largely unconstrained mandate (the […]
The Economist and CalPERS
After a series of posts that were rather critical of the media, it seems only fair to praise an article that makes its points succinctly. This week’s Buttonwood column in the Economist discusses hedge funds and pension deficits in the context of the decision of CalPERS to abandon hedge fund investment. It makes for rather […]
Bill Sharpe’s dim views on smart beta
Advisor Perspectives has run a story under the title Bill Sharpe: "Smart beta makes me sick". Since smart beta looks like it is going to be around for a while, Bill is likely to keep suffering for some time – if the story quotes his views correctly. But what seems to be causing Bill Sharpe […]
Did The Economist miss the point?
Ten days ago, a teaser on the cover of The Economist proclaimed the “Death of the fund manager”. Inside, there was a leader – which is what The Economist calls its editorials – and a lengthy article. Given the tone of the teaser, the content is hardly surprising. It berates financial intermediaries for their greed […]
The performance of asset managers
I have made only one specific investment recommendation on this weblog so far and it has turned out to be rather poor advice, at least in the short term. I questioned the wisdom of investing in the Carlyle IPO almost two years ago. But Carlyle has comfortably outperformed both the market and its sector since […]
Radio silence
An unreasonably long time has elapsed since my last post (23 July 2013). There is no excuse other than a bit of writer’s block. I have looked at the previous posts and have discussed their content with some of my most faithful readers. Their feedback suggests that the posts suffer from four main weaknesses: too […]
James Montier – the World’s Dumbest Idea
By Rolf on 11 December 2014
I am a fan of James Montier. I find his insights into behavioural finance very interesting and mostly rather entertaining. Some of his essays, such as the one on Abu Ghraib and the Milgram experiment, are memorable if depressing. He has his obvious prejudices and his bêtes noires (Milton Friedman, the CAPM, efficient markets – […]
Posted in Comments/ramblings | Tagged Asset pricing, Beliefs