In Depth – Page 33
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Features
Ahead of the Curve: Time to embrace downside risk
The attractions of equity put options as way to reduce a portfolio’s downside risk exposure can make it an expensive play. But offering call options canprovide higher long-term returns
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Features
Age spectre haunts Japan
Abenomics is faring in the battle to bring Japan’s ecomomy out of the doldrums to cope with a rapidly ageing population
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Features
Brazil’s trapped potential
Brazil’s huge market and competitive global companies hold out promise for investors but its economic recovery is being fettered by a political impasse
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Features
Make cash pay
Cash holders do not have to settle for low yields from traditional cash management vehicles. Enhanced cash vehicles offer higher yields
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Interviews
Strategically speaking: RBC Global Asset Management
We ask Damon Williams, co-chief executive officer of RBC Global Asset Management, what sets his company apart from other asset managers
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Features
Ahead of the Curve: Repo faces paralysis
As the repo market faces an uncertain future, Andy Hill looks at the ramifications of increased regulation and liquidity demands
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FeaturesClimate change: The two degree dilemma
The Paris climate summit has pointed the way towards a low-carbon future. But what can investors do to move beyond simply measuring their carbon footprint?
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Features
Equity Earnings: Burning the furniture
Many companies with strong balance sheets are using that position to bolster weak income statements
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Features
Alternative Credit: Portfolio role for alternative credit
Alternative credit provides a breadth of diversity that can help investors create better risk-adjusted portfolios for outperformance in a tough market, writes Nimisha Srivastava
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Features
Asset Allocation: Ahead of the Curve - Sales drive private-equity alpha
A recent study of 450 realised private-equity deals finds that sales growth is a key component for alpha generation, according to Ian Roberts
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Features
African Private Equity: The bright continent
Carolyn Campbell describes how Africa’s expanding middle class, rising GDP and government policies are fuelling opportunities for private equity
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Interviews
Strategically speaking: Pictet Asset Management - Starting from scratch
As in other walks of life, things go in and out of fashion in institutional investment. Multi-asset investing is a case in point. Once, a few balanced managers held centre stage in pension fund management in countries like the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Then, in the 1990s and early 2000s, the orthodoxy was for manager diversification using segregated mandates or multi-manager approaches. Faith in the equity market premium was high, as was the thesis espoused by Gary Brinson that asset allocation is the primary driver of portfolio returns, ahead of market timing or stock selection.
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Features
High-Yield Bonds: Uncharted waters
Is the sell-off in high-yield bonds an indicator of broader weakness, or an opportunity for contrarians to pick up yield?
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Features
Assessing AIFMD
Kai Braun considers the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) and finds that operating models have stabilised
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Features
Ahead of the Curve: ASEAN - the next emerging economy?
Andrew Graham asks whether the ambitious integration plan of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will unlock the region’s potential, or whether the complexity of the task will overwhelm any chance of success
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Interviews
Strategically speaking: Principal Global Investors - A glimpse into the future
At least no-one dies as a result of what the investment management industry does or does not do. Unlike technological companies considering drone pizza deliveries or driverless cars, and where real issues of safety and liability may arise, asset management executives only have a set of financial outcomes to consider.
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Features
Demographics: Global Growth - Doldrums ahead
Niels Jensen argues that an ageing population and lower productivity are the biggest threats to global economic growth
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Features
Ahead of the Curve: Brands and the city
Doreen Wang says financial analysts should give a company’s brand a bigger line item in investment valuations
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Features
US Illiquid Credit: Bankers by default
Structural changes in banking, regulation and low interest rates are transforming the illiquid loans market
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Interviews
Strategically speaking: Amundi
Perhaps one of the greatest lessons of the 2007-08 period for institutional investors was about liquidity. Equity markets dropped precipitously and credit spreads widened, while liquidity in safe-haven assets dried up and other instruments became impossible to trade
