Hosted by Steve Wellard
Subscribe by RSSTop Five Articles from March: Technical Analysis, Nixon, and the Year’s Best Financial Writing
1. Can Technical Analysis Boost Portfolio Returns?
In a broad-based study examining two decades worth of returns, a trio of academics find that fund managers who employ technical analysis delivered higher returns than those who did not — results that could help to change the way technical analysis is thought of in the asset management world.
Weekend Reading for Financial Advisers: Jeremy Grantham, Steve Jobs, and Marshmallows
If you follow my tweets (@laurenfosternyc), many of these links below will be familiar. But for those of you who missed them, here is a short selection of some of the most essential and/or enjoyable reading and viewing I’ve come across over the past few weeks.
Eurozone Crisis: Could Informal Problem-Solving Mechanisms Prove the Conventional Wisdom Wrong?
Conventional wisdom holds that the lack of a legal framework for political and monetary union makes policy coordination within the EU and the eurozone impossible. Instead of solving crises, finance ministers race from one disaster to the next,
Poll: Is the 4% Rule of Withdrawal Rates Still Valid?
In a poll conducted earlier this week in the CFA Institute Financial NewsBrief, we asked readers whether the “4% rule” — which holds that an initial withdrawal rate of 4% of the value of the typical portfolio at retirement should be sustainable over 30 years (adjusted annually for inflation) — is still valid.
Turning Points: US Housing, Cyprus Bail-In, and Monetary Policy
Here’s a wrap-up of key issues affecting global markets for fundamental investors.
Currencies
Growth in central bank balance sheets. (eFX News) The Swiss people move to save Swiss gold.
Applying the GIPS Standards to Asset Owners: It’s About Good Governance
The success of the GIPS standards is in large part due to the support of the asset owners who demand the compliance of asset managers. The ability to compare investment performance afforded by standardized calculation and disclosure requirements is an important factor when evaluating asset managers. By demanding GIPS compliance from the asset managers they hire,
Avinash Persaud: Who Will Win the Currency Wars?
“Who will win the currency wars — the Americans or the Chinese?” asks risk expert and chairman at Intelligence Capital Limited, Avinash Persaud, at the CFA Institute Middle East Investment Conference.
Are Safe Withdrawal Rates Still Relevant in Today’s Low-Return Environment? (Video)
Michael E. Kitces, a partner and director of research at Pinnacle Advisory Group, a private wealth management firm, tackled the topic of safe withdrawal rates at last week’s CFA Institute Wealth Management 2013 conference in Boston.
Regulators in the Era of Systemic Risk — Potential Solution or Part of the Problem?
Since passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress has generally looked to regulators to implement the myriad of regulations that purportedly will make the U.S financial system safer, sounder, and, thus, less susceptible to risk.
“Gibberish and Alleged Untruths” — The London Whale Fiasco Explained
Finding time to read through a 300-page report or view hours-long Senate testimony of JPMorgan executives and regulators may be too much for many people — even those who are closely following the US$6 billion London Whale trading loss saga.
Five Ways Financial Advisers Can Add Value in a Low Interest Rate Environment
The US Federal Reserve’s easy money policies may be helping to prop up the global economy, but they are making life difficult for people who own income-producing financial assets — and for the advisers and wealth managers they turn to for advice.
Insights into Islamic Investment Management from a CFA Charterholder in Pakistan
To gather insights into Islamic investment management from experienced CFA charterholders from different countries, we will be conducting a series of interviews. In the first interview of this series, we discuss Islamic investment management with Mohammad Shoaib,
Roundup: Wealth Management 2013
At CFA Institute’s recent Wealth Management 2013 conference in Boston, held 21–22 March, one of the overarching themes was helping financial advisers better understand client behavior and successfully manage client relationships.
Current Thinking on Investing in Gold and the Gold Standard
Newly fashionable economist John Maynard Keynes spent much of his career attacking the human instinct to hoard stores of wealth unproductively. For example, the tons of gold buried under millions of Indian floors,
Banker Pay Limits in Europe: Bad Idea or Horrible idea? The Swiss Take It One Step Further
There is no corporate governance issue that enflames opinion more than executive pay — and, more specifically, banker pay. High banker pay is a visceral issue that is blamed for igniting the financial crisis as well as the scourge of short-termism in today’s markets.
Challenges for Family Offices: Customized Service versus Economies of Scale
They’re hiding in plain sight: Family offices in the United States steward more than $1.5 trillion in assets, and yet there is no definitive data on even the number of family offices established. As Fidelity’s Andrew T.
J.P. Morgan Strategist David Kelly Not a Big Fan of Fed Policy
Speaking at the Wealth Management 2013 conference in Boston on March 22, David Kelly, CFA, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds, said he has three problems with the current Federal Reserve policy of zero interest rates and quantitative easing.
Current Thinking on Investing in Gold and the Gold Standard
Newly fashionable economist John Maynard Keynes spent much of his career attacking the human instinct to hoard stores of wealth unproductively. For example, the tons of gold buried under millions of Indian floors,
Bank Regulatory Capital: What Does Enhanced Transparency Look Like?
The underperformance of major global banking stocks since 2007 is, in part, indicative of the belated recognition by investors that banks had for too long been too highly leveraged. Adequate loss-absorbing equity capital is necessary to ensure the solvency and financial stability of banking institutions.
Cyprus and Ohio: Mirror Images in Grab for Savers’ Money
Sunny Cyprus and snowy Ohio — at least at this time of year — have seemingly little in common. Ohio has 12.5 times the area, 10 times the population, and 29 times the GDP of the island nation. Cyprus,
Malik and Awadallah: Economic Fragmentation of the Arab World
At the recent CFA Institute Middle East Investment Conference, hosted in the modern economic miracle that is Dubai, Adeel Malik from the University of Oxford and Bassem Awadallah, founder and CEO of Tomoh Advisory,
Weekend Reading for Equity Investors: Fundamental Matters and Market Outlooks
As we come upon the close of the first quarter of 2013, most major equity indices around the globe are showing impressive gains, buoyed by continued monetary easing by central banks and hopeful signs of economic resurgence.
Cyprus and Ohio: Mirror Images in Grab for Savers’ Money
Sunny Cyprus and snowy Ohio — at least at this time of year — have seemingly little in common. Ohio has 12.5 times the area, 10 times the population, and 29 times the GDP of the island nation. Cyprus,
Talk Your Walk: Client Reporting in a Goals-Based Framework
High-net-worth investors aren’t yet convinced that their investment managers are earning their keep. So said Scott Welch of Fortigent at the opening session of the Wealth Management 2013 conference in Boston today.
QFII and RQFII Liberalization: Changing Dynamics in the Greater China Capital Markets
At the opening plenary session at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong in mid-January, attendees were paying close attention when then-China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) Chairman Guo Shuqing addressed the topic of the RQFII 2 and QFII 2 programs that would enable foreign individual investors to access China’s A shares market.
Poll: What Part of the Financial Ecosystem Is Most in Need of Attention?
Because CFA Institute launched its major, new multi-year effort “to help change finance for the greater good,” the Future of Finance, on Monday, we thought it was particularly timely to ask readers of the CFA Institute Financial NewsBrief which portions of the financial ecosystem need the most improvement.
Anil Gaba: How to Make Better Investment Decisions under Uncertainty
Anil Gaba, chaired professor of risk management at INSEAD, gave the CFA Institute Middle East Investment Conference a range of practical pointers to help navigate the difficult process of making decisions under conditions of uncertainty.
Corporate Access: Should Investors Really be Paying for It?
Since 2006 the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) has limited investment managers’ use of dealing commissions to the purchase of trade execution and research services. More than six years later it would appear that not everybody has been abiding by these rules;
The Credibility Gap: The Systemic Implications of Trust (Video)
United States and author of Stewardship: Lessons Learned from the Lost Culture of Wall Street, spoke about the implications of the widespread loss of trust in financial institutions following the financial crisis,
Change Must Start with All of Us
Opening the Middle East Investment Conference in Dubai, Nitin Mehta, CFA, managing director of CFA Institute, EMEA; Yacoub Nuseibeh, CFA, president, CFA Society Emirates; and Obaid Saif Al Zaabi, Research Adviser,