The Investment Assets Handbook

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.

A fast growing share of investors have recently widened their scope of analysis to criteria regarded as extra-financial. They are driven by different motivations. Adoption of sustainable investment strategies can be driven, on the one hand by the sole motivation to hedge portfolios against knowable risks by expanding the conceptual framework to incorporate the latest best practice in risk management. Other investors focus rather on a long-term view and make an active bet on societal change. Recent empirical research has shown that considering sustainability factors within investment practices does not come at a cost (i.e. through a reduced opportunity set) but allows for competitive returns. Furthermore, the growing market and resulting competition in the wake of sustainable investing going mainstream has the welcome effect to compress fees for such products. Hence, staying informed about recent trends in sustainable investing is imperative no matter what the main motivation is.

The first comprehensive guide to all types of alternative investments The Handbook of Alternative Investments is an indispensable working resource for investment managers, financial advisors, pension and endowment fund trustees, corporate treasurers, consultants, and estate planners. Authored by an all-star team of investment professionals and academics from across North America, the contributions featured in this groundbreaking guide were carefully selected. Darrell Jobman is a writer and editorial consultant in Deerfield, Illinois, dealing primarily with financial and futures markets. He is an acknowledged authority on derivative markets and has spent his career writing and publishing about them. He formerly was editor-in-chief of Futures Magazine and is currently a contributing editor. He has been an author, co-author, editor, or ghost-writer for a number of books, including The Handbook of Technical Analysis.

Since the first edition of the Handbook of Alternative Assets was published, significant events-from the popping of the technology bubble and massive accounting scandals to recessions and bear markets-have shifted the financial landscape. These changes have provided author Mark J. P. Anson with an excellent opportunity to examine alternative assets during a different part of the economic cycle than previously observed in the first edition. Fully revised and updated to reflect today's financial realities, the Handbook of Alternative Assets, Second Edition covers the five major classes of alternative assets-hedge funds, commodity and managed futures, private equity, credit derivatives, and corporate governance-and outlines the strategies you can use to efficiently incorporate these assets into any portfolio. Throughout the book, new chapters have been added, different data sources accessed, and new conclusions reached. Designed as both an introduction to the world of alternative assets and as a reference for the active investor, the Handbook of Alternative Assets, Second Edition will help you match alternative assets with your various investment goals.

The Asset Management Handbook is divided into three phases. Chapters 1 through 3 are conceptual introductions. Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 get into the "meat" of the policies and techniques of evaluating the capital needs of your property over the next 40 years. Chapters 8 and 9 help you identify which properties are doing well and which are the most threatened. What action should you take? What are the standard preservation and rejuvenation options available to a real estate portfolio manager? What is Asset Management? People are more accustomed to thinking about asset management of money or stocks or a package of annuity and savings accounts. Real estate asset management is a slower, longer term process. The properties in your portfolio, especially in affordable housing, have life cycles of 30, 40 or infinite time periods. Most nonprofit owners are not interested in selling to capture any appreciation on their properties. Their goal is to provide housing for the foreseeable future as long as the asset can perform. Many nonprofits and mid size property owners do not have a dedicated asset manager. It is extraordinarily important that someone take on that long-term analysis, be it for 10%, 25% or 50% of a full time employee. The next step is to benchmark your properties. How are you doing compared to the world? Not just on straight bottom line consideration, but how about in human services? Have you saved sufficient money to replace the roof or add the sprinklers that will be required at the next renovation? The Asset Management Handbook provides well-established objective criteria for 25 different variables. We've seen participants in the asset management practicum expand that up to 40 variables to analyze on an annual basis. We'll see how benchmarking and risk ranking of your portfolio are essential first steps in establishing its viability and needs. Capital Needs and Their Funds. In this "meat" of the manual, we walk you through essential policies that define how your properties will operate over the long term. We show how policies made by lenders, bankers and other short term partners can be self destructive and damaging to property owners holding for the long term. First example of the dichotomy, the lender is suggesting the reserve is sufficient when two years after their loan matures, the property will require $4 million of replacement expenditures. This is fine for investment property held for resale. You just flip it and get down the road. Most affordable housing owners do not consider selling the property as a positive outcome. Even if you've never performed a property inspection before, the Handbook offers you easy methods of counting and sorting components into well established remaining economic lives Then it is on to the massive spreadsheet that calculates the future need and the various waves in which it will appear. Exterior paint first, then roofs, windows and doors, and kitchens and baths follow and then it starts all over again. Most capital needs assessments performed by third parties make financial assumptions that are untenable. Their interest rates on earnings are overstated and their inflation rate on the components are generally understated leaving you with significant shortfalls, even if you have escrowed according to directions. We will keep you out of that trap, showing you the realistic funds that are required and the time periods when the inevitable refinancing windows will occur. Risk and Solutions. In the final section, we evaluate your primary risks. Which properties should you address first? Which properties have the strength and energy to function on their own? Then what should you do about it? Refinance? Renegotiate? Value engineer? Raise rents? In the foot race, the runner is always caught by the tsunami of required replacements. It is just a fact of the business that every 20 to 30 years you've got to re-invest a significant amount of money

A comprehensive volume that covers a complete array of traditional and alternative investment vehicles This practical guide provides a comprehensive overview of traditional and alternative investment vehicles for professional and individual investors hoping to gain a deeper understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of using these products. In it, expert authors Mark Anson, Frank Fabozzi, and Frank Jones clearly present the major principles and methods of investing and their risks and rewards. Along the way, they focus on providing you with the information needed to successfully invest using a host of different methods depending upon your needs and goals. Topics include equities, all types of fixed income securities, investment-oriented insurance products, mutual funds, closed-end funds, investment companies, exchange-traded funds, futures, options, hedge funds, private equity, and real estate Written by the expert author team of Mark Anson, Frank Fabozzi, and Frank Jones Includes valuable insights for everyone from finance professionals to individual investors Many finance books offer collections of expertise on one or two areas of finance, but The Handbook of Traditional and Alternative Investment Vehicles brings all of these topics together in one comprehensive volume.

This practical guide provides a comprehensive overview of professionally managed assets, or investments in which all portfolio decisions and rebalancing are delegated to a fund manager or third-party advice service. Savvy investors looking to achieve a better understanding of the nuances, benefits, and drawbacks of using these products will find the answers they are looking for in The Handbook of Professionally Managed Assets, no matter whether they would like to learn more about mutual funds or hedge funds. There is a considerable lack of knowledge among the investing public about how to properly construct a well-diversified portfolio of investments that includes a selection of professionally managed assets. As a long-standing financial planner, attorney, and educator, Keith Fevurly remedies this issue in The Handbook of Professionally Managed Assets by clearly presenting the major categories of professionally managed assets and revealing the best tactics for investing in these vehicles. Along the way, he reveals each asset's risks and rewards, and he also provides the in-depth knowledge and information investors need to confidently select the right assets for their portfolios. Filled with valuable insights for everyone from financial professionals to individual investors, The Handbook of Professionally Managed Assets stands alone in its ability to shed light on the many investment vehicles that fall under the larger umbrella of professionally managed assets. With topics as wide-ranging as mutual funds, closed-end funds, unit investment trusts, exchange traded funds, hedge funds, managed futures, and more, this invaluable resource will give you the information you need to build a prosperous financial future for yourself and your clients.

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.