Latest Special Reports – Page 77
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Special Report
Liability-Driven Investments: The other 30%
Martin Steward looks at swaptions strategies to cover contingencies around the rump of LDI users’ un-hedged liabilities
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Special Report
Liability-Driven Investment: Banks and the linkers market
As government linker issuance shrinks, Harris Gorre argues that banks are in a much better position to issue secured, structured bonds with index-linked yields than corporates are
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Special Report
Risk and Portfolio Construction: Annus horribilis?
After a 30-year bond bull market and an arguably easy run for risk parity, in 2013 practitioners suddenly found themselves grappling with significant problems in multiple asset classes. Jennifer Bollen asks four leading managers how they coped with the consequences of last summer’s bonds slump
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Special Report
Risk and Portfolio Construction: Risk parity preferences
The asset allocation strategy can reduce drawdowns, but doesn’t improve long-term returns, argues Andrew Clare. Moreover, those findings are reversed when risk parity is applied within an asset class
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Special Report
Risk and Portfolio Construction: All change
Tapan Datta asks how investors can begin to address uncertainty in a rising yield environment, in bond portfolios, multi-asset portfolios and LDI strategies
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Special Report
Risk and Portfolio Construction: Keep calm and carry on
Against the broad consensus that rising bond yields have to be bad for bonds, Charlotte Moore finds that being short duration can be punishing if those yields rise more slowly than the market expects
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Special Report
Risk and Portfolio Construction: Absolutely clear
Absolute return bond strategies are understandably attracting a lot of attention, but it is a complex and diverse sector. Joseph Mariathasan looks at some key characteristics
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Special Report
Risk and Portfolio Construction: Rising interest
Chris Redmond asks whether absolute return bonds could play a bigger role in institutional portfolios
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Special Report
Risk and Portfolio Construction: Beefing up the midfield
Investors that need both to limit the volatility of their funding-levels and achieve returns in excess of their liabilities face the twin challenge of low-growth and rock-bottom interest rates. In response, Lynn Strongin Dodds finds them adapting their traditional ‘barbell’ portfolios, albeit slowly, into something more broadly diversified
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Special ReportTop 400: Preventive medicine
Risk departments and portfolio managers don’t speak the same language on risk, argues Ian Webster. An integrated approach is essential
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Special ReportTop 400: A painful legacy
Legacy and outdated technologies are costly and are increasingly attracting the attention of regulators, according to Peter Hill
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Special ReportTop 400: Investing under the influence
Craig Stevenson argues that activist hedge funds strategies can be beneficial for investors but that collaborative approaches are more likely to be effective
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Special ReportTop 400: Smart factor investing
It is important but insufficient to focus on the factor exposure of an index – it is also necessary to optimise the associated risk and return, according to Noël Amenc
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Special Report
Liability-Driven Investment: The de-risking bear fight
As pension schemes line up to de-risk, Emma Cusworth finds the supply-and-demand dynamic on the UK yield curve is causing aggressive competitive behaviour, distorting bond market valuations
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Special Report
Africa: African horizons
Four years ago I attended the launch of a Middle East and North Africa fund. Much was made of the long-term potential of the region’s young population, which seemed to compare so favourably with Europe’s – not to mention Russia’s and large parts of Asia’s. I asked about the risks associated with a preponderance of young men in the event of sluggish growth or job-creation and the portfolio manager politely played them down. Nine months later Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight in Tunisia.
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Special Report
Africa: The capital of Africa
Charlotte Adlung looks at how the changing nature of the sub-Saharan African economy should generate more private investment capital, institutionalising markets and improving governance
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Special Report
Africa: Crossing the borders
Charlotte Adlung outlines changes to the pension fund regimes of South Africa and Nigeria that have the potential to unlock significant capital for investment in sub-Saharan Africa
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Special Report
Africa: Pivotal point
African countries tapped the eurobond market for a record amount of funds in 2013, and now stand at a pivotal point. Christopher O’Dea finds those with sound financial policies will continue to attract capital, while those that squander proceeds will fall out of favour with global investors
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Special Report
Africa: A work in progress
Daniel Ben-Ami looks at North Africa and finds that, while pursuing the positive stories associated with Egypt may still be something of a gamble, Morocco offers a less risky way to exploit some similar themes
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Special Report
Africa: Out of Africa, off-exchange
Joseph Mariathasan considers the pros and cons of listed and unlisted sectors in Africa, and concludes that investors should probably let the lines blur to get the most out of the region
