This paper explores the optimisation of asset allocation within “alternative” investments, i.e. between private equity and hedge funds, as well as between private equity and public equities. It uses our proprietary Portfolio Blender tool. As a preliminary step before the optimisation, we...

Volatility is usually considered as a synonym for risk. Mainstream financial theory states that higher portfolio volatility is translated into higher expected returns while diversification helps eliminate idiosyncratic risks. This leaves us with an apparent anomaly as low-risk (low-beta) stocks...

Momentum and Reversion have always been seen as independent of each other and never as a composite. This study explains how the two behaviors are not only connected but also get transformed into each other. This dynamics drives not only stock market systems but all natural systems. One reason...

We study the impact of risky human capital in life-cycle portfolio choice and survey the academic literature on the optimal asset allocation over the individual's life-cycle. A distinction is made between the riskless conception of human capital as having bond-like characteristics, and the risky...

In the modern era of investing, diversification has become the cornerstone of most asset managers' investment philosophy. Within the equity space, the primary focus of most institutional investors has been to diversify their active equity managers – combining equity funds exhibiting...

An application of the Stokes' theorem is illustrated by solving the two state problem, with inequality constraints, of Dobell and Ho concerning the optimal investment of resources. Whenever applicable, the Stokes' theorem approach seems to be elegant and parsimonious

There are many attractively-designed portfolio-tracking websites, which often come as an addition to brand-name portals, each attempting to offer unique and useful features for portfolio analysis. However, we should not confuse marketing and functionality. Portfolio trackers claim that they...

This paper investigates the impact of background risk on an investor’s portfolio choice in a mean-VaR, mean-CVaR and mean-variance framework, and analyzes the characterizations of the mean-variance boundary and mean-VaR efficient frontier in the presence of background risk. We also consider...

Momentum is widely accepted among academic researchers as one of the strongest return generating factors, yet it remains largely unknown by the investing public. This paper explores that dichotomy by examining momentum from a practical point of view. Using exchange traded fund data from 2002...

In this paper we give a resume of the correlation concept that underlies the models for credit risk measurement, for the rating of structured products, for the pricing of (tranches of) structured products, and for Basel II capital charges. We discuss how securitization has changed the risk...