Investors who are looking to reduce risk and increase investment returns may want to consider owning farmland, according to this article from AgraShares. Across the past 40 years, owning and leasing a farm produced an average annual rate of return of 11 percent, comparable to the rate of return from stocks.
Mortgage defaults and the ongoing credit crunch are a challenge, but they have created opportunity for investors in distressed debt. Indeed, 51 percent of the investors surveyed by Debtwire for Bracewell & Giuliani report that say they see bargains in distressed debt.
A new report from Fortigent makes the case for a core/satellite approach to investing. Such an approach, the report says, justifies increased use of passive strategies to capture cost- and tax-effectiveness, creates easy to understand buckets for active core and satellite managers, and helps investors create endowment-like portfolios.
Enviromental sustainability is shifting from an abstract philosophy to a mission for more corporations and private individuals. PricewaterhouseCoopers analyzes 57 industry sectors and 367 companies to identify leading companies and practices. The research points to a statistically significant correlation between corporate commitment to sustainabili...
Emerging market local currency-denominated debt is a relatively new asset class that offers the potential for strong returns with low correlation to the returns of other asset classes. BNY Mellon Asset Management provides answers to a dozen common questions about this type of debt.
Emerging market equities have become a dedicated asset class, and developing countries are now key contributors to world economic growth. This paper from Parametric explores some portfolio construction concepts that can help investors take advantage of emerging market opportunities to achieve superior long-term returns.
Independent research by Altair Advisers finds that active investment management can provide persistent outperformance and protection in down markets, compared with passive management. However, patience and thorough, ongoing qualitative due diligence are prerequisites.
Investors can win bigger profits in commodity futures trading by keeping a close eye on inventory, according to a research paper available though Knowledge@Wharton. The research shows how to gauge inventory levels by looking at the relationship between prices of commodities on the futures market and in the cash market, where they are sold for immed...
Absolute return funds deserve a place in anyone's investment portfolio, according to a research paper from Liberty Gateway Investment Management Co. Rather than trying to fit these and other alternative investments into a traditional portfolio, Liberty recommends looking at traditional and alternative investments simultaneously to create the best p...
No asset class, except government bonds, has protected investors from the credit crisis. But that does not mean diversification has failed investors, according to this analysis by Barclays Global Investors. The authors explore investors' flight to quality as a risk factor affecting current returns and explain why investors should diversify across t...
While it is critical to reward good performance by general partners, risks and returns should be equitably shared. Non-marketable alternative asset investors should hold frank discussions with general partners about fee arrangements, fund sizes and other activities that may dilute a proper alignment of incentives.
Emerging country returns have high volatility and low correlation. A cap-weighted indexed portfolio is concentrated; its risks are high; and long-term growth expectations are compromised. However, a mathematical model shows that investors can expect to do better with an alternative portfolio structure, one that is rebalanced to relatively equal-wei...
This handbook attempts to strip away some of the mystery around farmland and outline the key aspects of it as an asset class, its management, the key considerations for investors and, perhaps most important of all, the vital questions any good farmland investment advisor must be able to answer satisfactorily.
New research shows flexible managers, or those who can invest in any equity category, delivered higher returns than their benchmark and higher returns than the aggregated performance of style box managers, or those who invest only in a particular equity category. The median flexible manager outperformed the benchmark by 3.2% annualized and the medi...
Companies that are responsive to the changing economic, social and environmental landscape, brought about by trends related to climate change, will create opportunities (that will not come without challenges) to grow their businesses and, in turn, create wealth for their stakeholders.