Based on a methodology introduced in 1927 to analyze human skulls and later applied to turbulence in financial markets, this study shows how to use a statistically derived measure of financial turbulence to measure and manage risk and to improve investment performance

Regime shifts present significant challenges for investors because they cause performance to depart significantly from the ranges implied by long-term averages of means and covariances. But regime shifts also present opportunities for gain. The authors show how to apply Markov-switching models...

Regime shifts present significant challenges for investors because they cause performance to depart significantly from the ranges implied by long-term averages of means and covariances. But regime shifts also present opportunities for gain. The authors show how to apply Markov-switching models...

Hedge funds have return peculiarities not commonly associated with traditional investment vehicles. Specifically, hedge funds seem more inclined to produce return distributions with significantly non-normal skewness and kurtosis. There is also growing acceptance of the notion that investor...

Should investors in emerging markets focus on diversifying across countries or diversifying across industries? This question, widely debated in developed markets, and particularly in Europe, has received little attention in emerging markets. Using a normative approach that disentangles the...

Should investors in emerging markets focus on diversifying across countries or diversifying across industries? This question, widely debated in developed markets, and particularly in Europe, has received little attention in emerging markets. Using a normative approach that disentangles the...

We present a recent innovation to portfolio construction called full-scale optimization. In contrast to mean-variance analysis, which assumes that returns are normally distributed or that investors have quadratic utility, full-scale optimization identifies the optimal portfolio given any set of...

SUBJECT AREAS: valuation, investment analysis, portfolio management, country analysis, emerging markets, development economics.This paper gives an overview of research and practice issues in the valuation of assets in emerging markets. It introduces a special edition in Emerging Markets Review...

SUBJECT AREAS: valuation, investment analysis, portfolio management, country analysis, emerging markets, development economics.This collection of two CD-ROMs presents interviews with leading scholars and practitioners on the subject of valuing assets in emerging markets. Featured interviews...