Investment management is the professional management of various securities A security is a fungible, negotiable instrument representing financial value. Securities are broadly categorized into debt securities and equity securities, e.g., common stocks; and derivative contracts, such as forwards, futures, options and swaps. The company or other entity issuing the security is called the issuer. A country's regulatory (shares, bonds and other securities) and assets In financial accounting, assets are economic resources. Anything tangible or intangible that is capable of being owned or controlled to produce value and that is held to have positive economic value is considered an asset. Simplistically stated, assets represent ownership of value that can be converted into cash . The balance sheet of a firm (e.g., real estate Real estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with improvements to the land, such as buildings, fences, wells and other site improvements that are fixed in location—immovable. Real estate law is the body of regulations and legal codes which pertain to such matters under a particular jurisdiction and include things such as commercial), to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of the investors. Investors may be institutions (insurance companies, pension funds, corporations etc.) or private investors (both directly via investment contracts and more commonly via collective investment schemes A collective investment scheme is a way of investing money with others to participate in a wider range of investments than feasible for most individual investors, and to share the costs and benefits of doing so e.g. mutual funds A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors and invests it in stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities. The mutual fund will have a fund manager that trades the pooled money on a regular basis. The net proceeds or losses are then typically or exchange-traded funds An exchange-traded fund (also known as Exchange-Traded Product (ETP)) is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. An ETF holds assets such as stocks or bonds and trades at approximately the same price as the net asset value of its underlying assets over the course of the trading day. Most ETFs track an index, such as the S&) .
The term asset management is often used to refer to the investment management of collective investments A collective investment scheme is a way of investing money with others to participate in a wider range of investments than feasible for most individual investors, and to share the costs and benefits of doing so, (not necessarily) whilst the more generic fund management may refer to all forms of institutional investment as well as investment management for private investors. Investment managers who specialize in advisory or discretionary management on behalf of (normally wealthy) private investors may often refer to their services as wealth management or portfolio management often within the context of so-called "private banking".
The provision of 'investment management services' includes elements of financial statement analysis Financial statement analysis refers to an assessment of the viability, stability and profitability of a business, sub-business or project, asset selection, stock selection, plan implementation and ongoing monitoring of investments. Investment management is a large and important global industry in its own right responsible for caretaking of trillions This list compares various sizes of positive numbers, including counts of things, dimensionless quantity and probabilities. Each number is given a name in the so called short scale which is used in English speaking countries, as well as a name in the long scale which is used in a series of countries that do not have English as their national of dollars, euro, pounds and yen. Coming under the remit of financial services Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies, stock brokerages, investment funds and some government sponsored many of the world's largest companies are at least in part investment managers and employ millions of staff and create billions in revenue.
Fund manager (or investment adviser A financial adviser or financial advisor (US spelling), more recently often referred to as a financial planner, is a professional who renders financial planning services to individuals, businesses and governments. This can involve investment advice, which may include pension planning, and/or advice on Life insurance and other insurances such as in the United States) refers to both a firm A business is a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods or services, or both, to consumers, businesses and governmental entities. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies. Most businesses are privately owned. A business is typically formed to earn profit that will increase the wealth of its owners and grow the business that provides investment management services and an individual who directs fund management decisions.
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Industry scope
The business of investment management has several facets, including the employment of professional fund managers, research (of individual assets and asset classes In financial accounting, assets are economic resources owned by business or company. Anything tangible or intangible that one possesses, usually considered as applicable to the payment of one's debts is considered an asset. Simplistically stated, assets are things of value that can be readily converted into cash . The balance sheet of a firm), dealing, settlement, marketing, internal auditing Internal auditing is a profession and activity involved in helping organizations achieve their stated objectives. It does this by using a systematic methodology for analyzing business processes, procedures and activities with the goal of highlighting organizational problems and recommending solutions. Professionals called internal auditors are, and the preparation of reports for clients. The largest financial fund managers are firms that exhibit all the complexity their size demands. Apart from the people who bring in the money (marketers) and the people who direct investment (the fund managers), there are compliance staff (to ensure accord with legislative and regulatory constraints), internal auditors of various kinds (to examine internal systems and controls), financial controllers (to account for the institutions' own money and costs), computer experts, and "back office" employees (to track and record transactions and fund valuations for up to thousands of clients per institution).
Key problems of running such businesses
Key problems include:
- revenue is directly linked to market valuations, so a major fall in asset prices causes a precipitous decline in revenues relative to costs;
- above-average fund performance is difficult to sustain, and clients may not be patient during times of poor performance;
- successful fund managers are expensive and may be headhunted by competitors;
- above-average fund performance appears to be dependent on the unique skills of the fund manager; however, clients are loath to stake their investments on the ability of a few individuals- they would rather see firm-wide success, attributable to a single philosophy and internal discipline;
- analysts who generate above-average returns often become sufficiently wealthy that they avoid corporate employment in favour of managing their personal portfolios.
Representing the owners of shares
Institutions often control huge shareholdings. In most cases they are acting as fiduciary agents rather than principals (direct owners). The owners of shares theoretically have great power to alter the companies they own via the voting rights the shares carry and the consequent ability to pressure managements, and if necessary out-vote them at annual and other meetings.
In practice, the ultimate owners of shares often do not exercise the power they collectively hold (because the owners are many, each with small holdings); financial institutions (as agents) sometimes do. There is a general belief that shareholders - in this case, the institutions acting as agents—could and should exercise more active influence over the companies in which they hold shares (e.g., to hold managers to account, to ensure Boards effective functioning). Such action would add a pressure group Advocacy groups use various forms of advocacy to influence public opinion and/or policy; they have played and continue to play an important part in the development of political and social systems. Groups vary considerably in size, influence and motive; some have wide ranging long term social purposes, others are focused and are a response to an to those (the regulators and the Board) overseeing management.
However there is the problem of how the institution should exercise this power. One way is for the institution to decide, the other is for the institution to poll its beneficiaries. Assuming that the institution polls, should it then: (i) Vote the entire holding as directed by the majority of votes cast? (ii) Split the vote (where this is allowed) according to the proportions of the vote? (iii) Or respect the abstainers and only vote the respondents' holdings?
The price signals generated by large active managers holding or not holding the stock may contribute to management change. For example, this is the case when a large active manager sells his position in a company, leading to (possibly) a decline in the stock price, but more importantly a loss of confidence by the markets in the management of the company, thus precipitating changes in the management team.
Some institutions have been more vocal and active in pursuing such matters; for instance, some firms believe that there are investment advantages to accumulating substantial minority shareholdings (i.e. 10% or more) and putting pressure on management Management in all business areas and organizational activities are the acts of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and to implement significant changes in the business. In some cases, institutions with minority holdings work together to force management change. Perhaps more frequent is the sustained pressure that large institutions bring to bear on management teams through persuasive discourse and PR. On the other hand, some of the largest investment managers—such as Barclays Global Investors and Vanguard—advocate simply owning every company, reducing the incentive to influence management teams. A reason for this last strategy is that the investment manager prefers a closer, more open and honest relationship with a company's management team than would exist if they exercised control; allowing them to make a better investment decision.
The national context in which shareholder representation considerations are set is variable and important. The USA is a litigious society and shareholders use the law Law is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. Laws can shape or reflect politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets. Property law defines rights and as a lever to pressure management teams. In Japan it is traditional for shareholders to be low in the 'pecking order,' which often allows management and labor to ignore the rights of the ultimate owners. Whereas US firms generally cater to shareholders, Japanese businesses generally exhibit a stakeholder mentality, in which they seek consensus amongst all interested parties (against a background of strong unions A trade union or labor union (American English) is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labor contracts (collective bargaining) with and labour legislation Legislation is law which has been promulgated (or "enacted") by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it. (Another source of law is judge-made law or case law.) Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to as "legislation" while it remains under).
Size of the global fund management industry
Conventional assets under management of the global fund management industry fell 19% in 2008, to $61.6 trillion. Pension assets accounted for $24.0 trillion of the total, with $18.9 trillion invested in mutual funds and $18.7 trillion in insurance funds. Together with alternative assets (sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, private equity funds and exchange traded funds) and funds of wealthy individuals, assets of the global fund management industry totalled around $90 trillion at the end of 2008, a fall of 17% on the previous year. The decline in 2008 followed five successive years of growth during which assets under management more than doubled. Falls on equity markets, poor investment performance, reduced inflow of new funds, and investor redemptions, all contributed to the fall in assets in 2008. The decline reported in US dollars was also exacerbated by the strengthening of the US dollar during the year.
The US remained by far the biggest source of funds, accounting for over a half of conventional assets under management in 2008 or over $30 trillion. The UK was the second largest centre in the world and by far the largest in Europe with around 9% of the global total.[1]
10 Largest Asset Management Firms
JP Morgan & Chase (2.2T) State Street Global Advisors (1.9T) Bank of America/Merrill Lynch (1.5T) has overtaken UBS (1.4T) as the largest global wealth management firm, with Citi (1.3T) still in sight.[2]
Philosophy, process and people
The 3-P's (Philosophy, Process and People) are often used to describe the reasons why the manager is able to produce above average results.
- Philosophy refers to the over-arching beliefs of the investment organization. For example: (i) Does the manager buy growth or value shares (and why)? (ii) Do they believe in market timing (and on what evidence)? (iii) Do they rely on external research or do they employ a team of researchers? It is helpful if any and all of such fundamental beliefs are supported by proof-statements.
- Process refers to the way in which the overall philosophy is implemented. For example: (i) Which universe of assets is explored before particular assets are chosen as suitable investments? (ii) How does the manager decide what to buy and when? (iii) How does the manager decide what to sell and when? (iv) Who takes the decisions and are they taken by committee? (v) What controls are in place to ensure that a rogue fund (one very different from others and from what is intended) cannot arise?
- People refers to the staff, especially the fund managers. The questions are, Who are they? How are they selected? How old are they? Who reports to whom? How deep is the team (and do all the members understand the philosophy and process they are supposed to be using)? And most important of all, How long has the team been working together? This last question is vital because whatever performance record was presented at the outset of the relationship with the client may or may not relate to (have been produced by) a team that is still in place. If the team has changed greatly (high staff turnover or changes to the team), then arguably the performance record is completely unrelated to the existing team (of fund managers).
Investment managers and portfolio structures
At the heart of the investment management industry are the managers who invest and divest client investments.
A certified company investment advisor should conduct an assessment of each client's individual needs and risk profile. The advisor then recommends appropriate investments.
Asset allocation
The different asset class definitions are widely debated, but four common divisions are stocks The stock or capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors. Stock is distinct from the property and the assets of a business which may fluctuate in, bonds In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity. A bond is a formal contract to repay borrowed money with interest at fixed intervals, real-estate Real estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with improvements to the land, such as buildings, fences, wells and other site improvements that are fixed in location—immovable. Real estate law is the body of regulations and legal codes which pertain to such matters under a particular jurisdiction and include things such as commercial and commodities A commodity is a good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. It is fungible, i.e. equivalent no matter who produces it. Examples are petroleum, notebook paper, milk or copper. The price of copper is universal, and fluctuates daily based on global supply and demand. Stereo systems, on. The exercise of allocating funds among these assets (and among individual securities within each asset class) is what investment management firms are paid for. Asset classes exhibit different market dynamics, and different interaction effects; thus, the allocation of money among asset classes will have a significant effect on the performance of the fund. Some research suggests that allocation among asset classes has more predictive power than the choice of individual holdings in determining portfolio return. Arguably, the skill of a successful investment manager resides in constructing the asset allocation, and separately the individual holdings, so as to outperform certain benchmarks (e.g., the peer group of competing funds, bond and stock indices)...
Long-term returns
It is important to look at the evidence on the long-term returns to different assets, and to holding period returns (the returns that accrue on average over different lengths of investment). For example, over very long holding periods (eg. 10+ years) in most countries, equities have generated higher returns than bonds, and bonds have generated higher returns than cash. According to financial theory, this is because equities are riskier (more volatile) than bonds which are themselves more risky than cash.
Diversification
Against the background of the asset allocation, fund managers consider the degree of diversification Diversification in finance is a risk management technique, related to hedging, that mixes a wide variety of investments within a portfolio. It is the spreading out of investments to reduce risks.Because the fluctuations of a single security have less impact on a diverse portfolio, diversification minimizes the risk from any one investment that makes sense for a given client (given its risk preferences) and construct a list of planned holdings accordingly. The list will indicate what percentage of the fund should be invested in each particular stock or bond. The theory of portfolio diversification was originated by Markowitz (and many others) and effective diversification requires management of the correlation between the asset returns and the liability returns, issues internal to the portfolio (individual holdings volatility), and cross-correlations In signal processing, cross-correlation is a measure of similarity of two waveforms as a function of a time-lag applied to one of them. This is also known as a sliding dot product or inner-product. It is commonly used to search a long duration signal for a shorter, known feature. It also has applications in pattern recognition, single particle between the returns.
Investment styles
There are a range of different styles Investment style refers to different style characteristics of equities, bonds or financial derivatives within a given investment philosophy of fund management that the institution can implement. For example, growth, value, market neutral An investment strategy or portfolio is considered market neutral if it seeks to entirely avoid some form of market risk, typically by hedging. In order to evaluate market neutrality, it is first necessary to specify the risk being avoided. For example, convertible arbitrage attempts to fully hedge fluctuations in the price of the underlying common, small capitalisation, indexed, etc. Each of these approaches has its distinctive features, adherents and, in any particular financial environment, distinctive risk characteristics. For example, there is evidence that growth styles (buying rapidly growing earnings) are especially effective when the companies able to generate such growth are scarce; conversely, when such growth is plentiful, then there is evidence that value styles tend to outperform the indices particularly successfully.
Performance measurement
Fund performance is the acid test of fund management, and in the institutional context accurate measurement is a necessity. For that purpose, institutions measure the performance of each fund (and usually for internal purposes components of each fund) under their management, and performance is also measured by external firms that specialize in performance measurement. The leading performance measurement firms (e.g. Frank Russell Russell Investments is a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual and is headquartered in Tacoma, Wash., U.S.A. The firm provides investment products and services to individuals and institutions in 47 countries. Founded in 1936, Russell is considered a pioneer in multi-manager investing, and the creator of Russell Indexes. Russell manages more than US$151 in the USA or BI-SAM[1] in Europe) compile aggregate industry data, e.g., showing how funds in general performed against given indices and peer groups over various time periods.
In a typical case (let us say an equity fund), then the calculation would be made (as far as the client is concerned) every quarter and would show a percentage change compared with the prior quarter (e.g., +4.6% total return in US dollars). This figure would be compared with other similar funds managed within the institution (for purposes of monitoring internal controls), with performance data for peer group funds, and with relevant indices (where available) or tailor-made performance benchmarks where appropriate. The specialist performance measurement firms calculate quartile and decile data and close attention would be paid to the (percentile) ranking of any fund.
Generally speaking, it is probably appropriate for an investment firm to persuade its clients to assess performance over longer periods (e.g., 3 to 5 years) to smooth out very short term fluctuations in performance and the influence of the business cycle. This can be difficult however and, industry wide, there is a serious preoccupation with short-term numbers and the effect on the relationship with clients (and resultant business risks for the institutions).
An enduring problem is whether to measure before-tax or after-tax performance. After-tax measurement represents the benefit to the investor, but investors' tax positions may vary. Before-tax measurement can be misleading, especially in regimens that tax realised capital gains (and not unrealised). It is thus possible that successful active managers (measured before tax) may produce miserable after-tax results. One possible solution is to report the after-tax position of some standard taxpayer.
Risk-adjusted performance measurement
Performance measurement should not be reduced to the evaluation of fund returns alone, but must also integrate other fund elements that would be of interest to investors, such as the measure of risk taken. Several other aspects are also part of performance measurement: evaluating if managers have succeeded in reaching their objective, i.e. if their return was sufficiently high to reward the risks taken; how they compare to their peers; and finally whether the portfolio management results were due to luck or the manager’s skill. The need to answer all these questions has led to the development of more sophisticated performance measures, many of which originate in modern portfolio theory Modern portfolio theory is a theory of investment which tries to maximize return and minimize risk by carefully choosing different assets. Although MPT is widely used in practice in the financial industry and several of its creators won a Nobel prize for the theory, in recent years the basic assumptions of MPT have been widely challenged by fields.
Modern portfolio theory established the quantitative link that exists between portfolio risk and return. The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) developed by Sharpe (1964) highlighted the notion of rewarding risk and produced the first performance indicators, be they risk-adjusted ratios (Sharpe ratio, information ratio) or differential returns compared to benchmarks (alphas). The Sharpe ratio is the simplest and best known performance measure. It measures the return of a portfolio in excess of the risk-free rate, compared to the total risk of the portfolio. This measure is said to be absolute, as it does not refer to any benchmark, avoiding drawbacks related to a poor choice of benchmark. Meanwhile, it does not allow the separation of the performance of the market in which the portfolio is invested from that of the manager. The information ratio is a more general form of the Sharpe ratio in which the risk-free asset is replaced by a benchmark portfolio. This measure is relative, as it evaluates portfolio performance in reference to a benchmark, making the result strongly dependent on this benchmark choice.
Portfolio alpha is obtained by measuring the difference between the return of the portfolio and that of a benchmark portfolio. This measure appears to be the only reliable performance measure to evaluate active management. In fact, we have to distinguish between normal returns, provided by the fair reward for portfolio exposure to different risks, and obtained through passive management, from abnormal performance (or outperformance) due to the manager’s skill, whether through market timing or stock picking. The first component is related to allocation and style investment choices, which may not be under the sole control of the manager, and depends on the economic context, while the second component is an evaluation of the success of the manager’s decisions. Only the latter, measured by alpha, allows the evaluation of the manager’s true performance.
Portfolio normal return may be evaluated using factor models. The first model, proposed by Jensen (1968), relies on the CAPM and explains portfolio normal returns with the market index as the only factor. It quickly becomes clear, however, that one factor is not enough to explain the returns and that other factors have to be considered. Multi-factor models were developed as an alternative to the CAPM In finance, the capital asset pricing model is used to determine a theoretically appropriate required rate of return of an asset, if that asset is to be added to an already well-diversified portfolio, given that asset's non-diversifiable risk. The model takes into account the asset's sensitivity to non-diversifiable risk (also known as systematic, allowing a better description of portfolio risks and an accurate evaluation of managers’ performance. For example, Fama and French (1993) have highlighted two important factors that characterise a company's risk in addition to market risk. These factors are the book-to-market ratio and the company's size as measured by its market capitalisation. Fama and French therefore proposed three-factor model to describe portfolio normal returns (Fama-French three-factor model In the portfolio management field, Eugene Fama and Kenneth French developed the highly successful Fama-French three factor model to describe market behavior). Carhart (1997) proposed to add momentum as a fourth factor to allow the persistence of the returns to be taken into account. Also of interest for performance measurement is Sharpe’s (1992) style analysis model, in which factors are style indices. This model allows a custom benchmark for each portfolio to be developed, using the linear combination of style indices that best replicate portfolio style allocation, and leads to an accurate evaluation of portfolio alpha.
Education or Certification
Increasingly, international business schools A business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in Business Administration. It teaches topics such as accounting, administration, economics, finance, information systems, marketing, organizational behavior, public relations, strategy, human resource management, and quantitative methods are incorporating the subject into their course outlines and some have formulated the title of 'Investment Management' or 'Asset Management' conferred as specialist bachelors degrees A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for four years, but can range from two to six years depending on the region of the world. It may also be the name of a "postgraduate" degree, such as a Bachelor of Civil Law, the Bachelor of Music, or the Bachelor of (e.g. Cass Business School, London Cass Business School is the business school of City University London. Located in the City of London, England, it was formerly known as City University Business School (CUBS) but changed its name in August 2002 following a donation from the Sir John Cass Foundation, an educational charity. The MSc in administrative sciences began in 1967, and). Due to global cross-recognition agreements with the 2 major accrediting agencies AACSB The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business was founded in 1916 to accredit schools of business worldwide. The first accreditations took place in 1919. The stated mission is to advance quality management education worldwide through accreditation and thought leadership and ACBSP The Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs was founded in 1988 to offer accreditation services to business programs focused on teaching and learning which accredit over 560 of the best business school programs, the Certification of MFP Master Financial Planner Professional from the American Academy of Financial Management The American Academy of Financial Management is a USA based Board of Standards, certifying body, and accreditation council dedicated to the finance sector and management professionals is available to AACSB and ACBSP business school graduates with finance or financial services-related concentrations. For people with aspirations to become an investment manager, further education may be needed beyond a bachelors in business, finance, or economics. A graduate degree or an investment qualification such as the Chartered Financial Analyst CFA is an international professional designation offered by the CFA Institute to financial analysts who complete a series of three examinations. To become a CFA Charterholder candidates must pass each of three six-hour exams, possess a bachelor's degree (or equivalent, as assessed by CFA institute) and have 48 months of qualified, professional designation (CFA) or the Certified Financial Markets Practitioner (CFMP) Exam by the Management Laboratory may help in having a career in investment management.[citation needed]
There is no evidence that any particular qualification enhances the most desirable characteristic of an investment manager, that is the ability to select investments that result in an above average (risk weighted) long-term performance[citation needed]. The industry has a tradition of seeking out, employing and generously rewarding such people without reference to any formal qualifications[citation needed].
See also
- Active management Active management refers to a portfolio management strategy where the manager makes specific investments with the goal of outperforming an investment benchmark index. Investors or mutual funds that do not aspire to create a return in excess of a benchmark index will often invest in an index fund that replicates as closely as possible the
- Alpha capture system An alpha capture system is a computer system that enables investment banks and other organisations to submit "trading ideas" or "trade ideas" to clients in a written electronic format. First used in 2001 by Marshall Wace they are an alternative to the traditional stockbrokering approach of communicating ideas and strategies to
- Corporate governance Corporate governance is the set of processes, customs, policies, laws, and institutions affecting the way a corporation is directed, administered or controlled. Corporate governance also includes the relationships among the many stakeholders involved and the goals for which the corporation is governed. The principal stakeholders are the
- Exchange fund An Exchange Fund or Swap Fund is a mechanism specific to the U.S., first introduced in 1999 that allows holders of large amount of a single stock to diversify into a basket of other stocks without directly selling their stock
- Investment Investment is the commitment of money or capital to purchase financial instruments or other assets in order to gain profitable returns in the form of interest, income, or appreciation of the value of the instrument. It is related to saving or deferring consumption. Investment is involved in many areas of the economy, such as business management
- List of asset management firms This is a list of firms that have as their primary business provision of financial asset management / investment management firms, sorted by geographic region
- Passive management Passive management is a financial strategy in which a fund manager makes as few portfolio decisions as possible, in order to minimize transaction costs, including the incidence of capital gains tax. One popular method is to mimic the performance of an externally specified index—called 'index funds'. The ethos of an index fund is aptly summed up
- Exchange-traded fund An exchange-traded fund (also known as Exchange-Traded Product (ETP)) is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. An ETF holds assets such as stocks or bonds and trades at approximately the same price as the net asset value of its underlying assets over the course of the trading day. Most ETFs track an index, such as the S&
- Personal information managers A personal digital assistant is a mobile device, also known as a palmtop computer. Newer PDAs commonly have color screens and audio capabilities, enabling them to be used as mobile phones (smartphones), web browsers, or portable media players. Many PDAs can access the Internet, intranets or extranets via Wi-Fi, or Wireless Wide Area Networks (
- Portfolio Holding a portfolio is a part of an investment and risk-limiting strategy called diversification. By owning several assets, certain types of risk can be reduced. The assets in the portfolio could include stocks, bonds, options, warrants, gold certificates, real estate, futures contracts, production facilities, or any other item that is expected to
- Separately managed account A Separately Managed Account, or SMA, is an individual investment account offered typically by a brokerage firm through one of their brokers or financial consultants and managed by independent investment management firms and have varying fee structures. With such a broad definition, many types of accounts might fit the definition of an SMA. There
- Transition Management
References
- ^ Fund Management: City Business Series. International Financial Services, London. 2009-09-29. http://www.ifsl.org.uk/upload/Fund_Management_2009.pdf. Retrieved 2008-14-14.
- ^ http://www.cnbc.com/id/31756797
| This financial article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (February 2007) |
Further reading
- David Swensen David F. Swensen has been the Chief Investment Officer at Yale University since 1985. He is responsible for managing and investing the University's endowment assets and investment funds, which total about $17 billion.Realizing an average annual return of 17.8 percent on his investments over the last ten years, Swensen has added more than $16, "Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment," New York, NY: The Free Press, May 2000.
- Rex A. Sinquefeld and Roger G. Ibbotson, Annual Yearbooks dealing with Stocks, Bonds, Bills and Inflation (relevant to long term returns to US financial assets).
- Harry Markowitz, Portfolio Selection: Efficient Diversification of Investments, New Haven: Yale University Press
- S.N. Levine, The Investment Managers Handbook, Irwin Professional Publishing (May 1980), ISBN 0-87094-207-7.
- V. Le Sourd, 2007, “Performance Measurement for Traditional Investment – Literature Survey”, EDHEC Publication.
External links
- Investment Company Institute - US industry body
- Management Laboratory - international certification body for financial markets
- Investment Management Association - UK industry body
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Categories: Financial services | Investment
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Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:15:22 GMT+00:00
Daily Camera Perhaps the most critical decision you can make about investment management is how much risk to take. Once you have determined an appropriate level of risk, ...
unknown
ue, 27 Apr 2010 16:32:10 GM
With currencies ever changing and the possibilities of rapid high yield returns, it is no wonder that many investors are dabbling in FOREX investments.
Q. I've been a management consultant for a while and worked for some pretty well known firms - however I've always wondered about investment banking. I've accepted that life as an investment banker would be difficult for the first several years but the salaries these guys get is phenomenal. I can't even fathom getting a bonus of $100,000 I chose consulting instead of finance because I thought financial people made cold calls all day (just like the guys from 'Boiler room' or 'Wall Street') but I think that was just a foolish assumption. I also thought you had to be a Harvard MBA to be successful in Finance but all those people paying top dollar for apartments in NYC can't be Ivy League guys, can they?? Did I make a mistake choosing… [cont.]
Asked by rasmalai001 - Wed Dec 20 00:28:40 2006 - - 2 Answers - 0 Comments
A. I think this may be a "grass is greener" case. A friend of mine has a very good quote on the wall of his office: "When I was young, I spent all my health trying to be wealthy. Now that I'm old, I spend all my wealth trying to be healthy."
Answered by Hey...you asked! - Wed Dec 20 00:51:26 2006


