Multi Asset Investing

Planning, constructing and managing a multi-asset portfolio A multi-asset investment management approach provides diversification benefits, enhances risk-adjusted returns and enables a portfolio to be tailored to a wide range of investing objectives, whether these are generating returns or income, or matching liabilities. This book is divided into four parts that follow the four stages of the multi-asset investment management process: 1. Establishing objectives: Defining the return objectives, risk objectives and investment constraints of a portfolio. 2. Setting an investment strategy: Setting a plan to achieve investment objectives by thinking about long-term strategic asset allocation, combining asset classes and optimisation to derive the most efficient asset allocation. 3. Implementing a solution: Turning the investment strategy into a portfolio using short-term tactical asset allocation, investment selection and risk management. This section includes examples of investment strategies. 4. Reviewing: Evaluating the performance of a portfolio by examining results, risk, portfolio positioning and the economic environment. By dividing the multi-asset investment process into these well-defined stages, Yoram Lustig guides the reader through the various decisions that have to be made and actions that have to be taken. He builds carefully from defining investment objectives, formulating an investment strategy and the steps of selecting investments, leading to constructing and managing multi-asset portfolios. At each stage the considerations and strategies to be undertaken are detailed, and the description of the process is supported with relevant financial theory as well as practical, real-life examples. 'Multi-asset Investing' is an essential handbook for the modern approach to investment portfolio management.

Despite the accepted fact that a substantial part of the risk and return of any portfolio comes from asset allocation, we find today that the majority of investment professionals worldwide are focused on security selection. Multi-Asset Investing: A Practitioner’s Framework questions this basic structure of the investment process and investment industry. Who says we have to separate alpha and beta? Are the traditional definitions for risk and risk premium relevant in a multi-asset class world? Do portfolios cater for the ‘real risks’ in their investment processes? Does the whole Emerging Markets demarcation make sense for investing? Why do active Asian managers perform much poorer compared to developed market managers? Can you distinguish how much of a strategy’s performance comes from skill rather than luck? Does having a performance fee for your manager create alignment or misalignment? Why is the asset management transitioning from multi-asset strategies to multi-asset solutions? These and many other questions are asked, and suggestions provided as potential solutions. Having worked together for fifteen years, the authors’ present implementable solutions which have helped them successfully manage large asset pools. The Academic Perspective “Multi-Asset Investing asks fundamental questions about the asset allocation investment processes in use today, and can have a substantial impact on the future structure of the finance industry. It clarifies and distils the techniques that investment professionals need to master to add value to client portfolios.” —Paul Smith, President & CEO, CFA Institute “Pranay Gupta, Sven Skallsjo, and Bing Li describe the essential concepts and applications of multi-asset investing. Their treatment is far ranging and exceptionally lucid, and always with a nod to practical application. Buy this book and keep it close at hand.” —Mark Kritzman, MIT Sloane School of Management “Innovative solutions to some of the most difficult investment problems we are faced with today. Multi-asset Investing tackles investment issues which don’t have straight forward solutions, but nevertheless are faced by every investment professional. This book sets the standard for investment processes of all asset managers.” —SP Kothari, MIT Sloane School of Management The Asset Owner Perspective “Multi-asset means different things to different people. This is the first text that details a comprehensive framework for managing any kind of multi-asset investment problem. Further, its explanation of the commercial aspects of managing a multi-asset investment business for an asset manager, private bank or asset owner make it an indispensable tool” —Sadayuki Horie, Dy. Chairman - Investment Advisory Comm., Government Pension Investment Fund, Japan “Multi-Asset Investing shows the substantial scope there is to innovate the asset allocation process. With its novel approaches to allocation, portfolio construction and risk management it demonstrates the substantial value that can be added to any portfolio. The solutions proposed by Multi-Asset Investing are creative, thought provoking, and may well be the way all portfolios need to be managed in the future.” —Mario Therrien, Senior Vice President, Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, Canada The Asset Manager’s Perspective “Never has astute asset allocation and diversification been more crucial than today. Asset Managers which are able to innovate their investment processes and products in this area, are more likely to be the winners. Multi-Asset Investing provides both simple and sophisticated, tested and implementable techniques for successfully managing multi-asset portfolios.” —Vincent Camerlynck, former CEO BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Asia Pacific The Investment Strategist Perspective “For plan sponsors, portfolio managers, analysts and risk managers, Multi-Asset Investing is an unparalleled guide for portfolio management. Its approach to blending the quantitative and fundamental, top-down and bottom up and the risk and return frameworks makes it a valuable tool for any kind of investment professional. It clarifies a complex subject into a series of practical ideas to help add value to any portfolio.” —Ajay S. Kapur, Chief Strategist, BOA Merrill Lynch Asia

The book explains that instead of asset allocation being set in an isolated and arbitrary fashion, it is in fact the way in which specific hurdle investment returns can be targeted, and that this approach is already in use in the US (and has been for many years). It involves extended and detailed financial analysis of various asset class returns and proposes a five-asset class approach for future use. Opening with a study of the historic asset allocation practice of UK pension funds, the book shows how the current approach has led to the present funding crisis. It goes on to compare and contrast the UK approach with that of the US and to propose a new approach to UK asset allocation: the five asset class approach ("MAC Investing"). The book reviews and analyses different asset classes based on historic returns, examines risk, and concludes with a suggestion of the five asset classes to use; Quoted equities (both Domestic and foreign), hedge funds, private equity and property. This book also includes benchmark performance figures never previously published.

This book provides the fundamentals of asset management. It takes a practical perspective in describing asset management. Besides the theoretical aspects of investment management, it provides in-depth insights into the actual implementation issues associated with investment strategies. The 19 chapters combine theory and practice based on the experience of the authors in the asset management industry. The book starts off with describing the key activities involved in asset management and the various forms of risk in managing a portfolio. There is then coverage of the different asset classes (common stock, bonds, and alternative assets), collective investment vehicles, financial derivatives, common stock analysis and valuation, bond analytics, equity beta strategies (including smart beta), equity alpha strategies (including quantitative/systematic strategies), bond indexing and active bond portfolio strategies, and multi-asset strategies. The methods of using financial derivatives (equity derivatives, interest rate derivatives, and credit derivatives) in managing the risks of a portfolio are clearly explained and illustrated.

Investors who build diversified, multi-asset portfolios, have an ever increasing range of investment assets at their disposal. In order to invest effectively - and build a solid, performing portfolio - it is essential for investors to understand each of these single asset classes and how to use them in portfolios. The Investment Assets Handbook covers the full spectrum of different asset classes and investment types available today, providing investors with the definitive information they need to reach an understanding of the broad range of investment assets. The Handbook is divided into four parts: 1. An introduction to asset classes, including how they should be defined, the main features that can be used to characterise asset classes and the roles that different assets fulfil within a multi-asset portfolio. 2. Traditional assets, including global equities, fixed income and cash. 3. Alternative assets, including real estate, commodities, private equity and hedge funds. 4. New alternative investments, including currency, infrastructure, structured finance, leveraged loans, structured products, alternative or smart betas, volatility, art, insurance-linked securities and timber. Each asset chapter within these sections provides a description of the asset and its characteristics, its historic performance, how to model its future long-term performance, the role it performs in a multi-asset portfolio, its risks, how to access it, and other relevant topics. Long-term investment themes that may impact the future behaviour of assets and investing generally are also highlighted and discussed. The Investment Assets Handbook is the essential guide that investors need as they navigate the universe of investment assets and build multi-asset portfolios.

Debunking outdated and inaccurate beliefs about investment management and reveals the new realities of the post-modern financial markets There have been a lot of big changes in the investment world over the past decade, and many long-cherished beliefs about the structures and performance of various investments no longer apply. Unfortunately the news seems not to have reached many thought leaders and investment professionals who persist in trying, and failing, to apply 20th-century thinking to 21st-century portfolio management. Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to the subject of alternative investments. Written by an all-star team of investment management experts, this book debunks common myths and misconceptions about most classes of alternative investments and offers valuable advice on how to develop investment management and asset allocation strategies consistent with the new realities of the ever-changing world of alternative investments. Covers most alternative asset classes, including private equity, real estate, managed futures, hedge funds, commodity indices, and more Debunks long-held assumptions about the structure and performance of various investment classes that continue to dominate the industry Explores the implications for investment managers of the proliferation of international marketable securities and global financial markets Provides an overview of both the micro and the macro aspects of each alternative investment class