ThinkAdvisor 
The 2018 outlook for hedge fund and private equity fund returns will be determined largely by equity growth, according to several investment firm reports, although investors should be cautious as fund performance can vary dramatically. Hedge Funds “The hedge fund risk contribution has been fairly steady — though slowly declining — over time. Alpha generation has…
The CFA Institute recently solicited video submissions about the future of global investing, an irresistible lure to those inclined to share predictions from their “crystal ball.” My submission highlighted five disruptive forces influencing the future of global investing, starting with many people’s favorite topic, artificial intelligence: 1. Artificial intelligence, big data and machine learning will be…
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s board is rife with conflicts of interest, with six of the 13 current and immediate past public governors appearing to have conflicts because they’re employed by an industry firm or because of other board memberships, according to a just-released report by the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association, a trade group for…
Imagine a world in which two asset managers call the shots, in which their wealth exceeds current U.S. GDP and where almost every hedge fund, government and retiree is a customer. It’s closer than you think. BlackRock Inc. and Vanguard Group — already the world’s largest money managers — are less than a decade from managing…
The crazy thing about the past year in the market is not that an eight-year bull run has been extended another year, which is pretty good, but that it has sped up, running faster than anyone expected after Donald Trump was elected president. Investors, and anyone riding the market for that matter, need to be wary…
Bad stock market calls could fill oceans, and to find them you don’t have to go far beyond big market crashes. That said, with the increasing number of big and “mini” flash crashes, the list gets longer. Here are eight of the worst market calls of all time, although there are much more. 8. The granddaddy…
While the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority continues to zero in on abuses involving mutual fund share classes and senior financial fraud, restitutions ordered by the self-regulatory organization are way up while fines levied and the number of disciplinary cases pursued in the first half of 2017 are way down, according to a just-released analysis by Eversheds…
The average active equity mutual fund underperforms its benchmark, an assertion that sparks little controversy. This appears to be the case for active equity hedge funds as well. The story gets even worse when the results are AUM weighted. Collectively, active equity delivers no value to its investors and in fact extracts value from them. In…
Have you heard of HACK or CIBR? SLIM or MENU? IPAY or ITEQ? These are just some of the many niche ETFs that have been introduced in the past 2 1/2 years. They are “thinly constructed” funds that trade more like subsector rather than larger sector funds, says Todd Rosenbluth, director of ETF and Mutual Fund…
Almost half of financial firms reported being examined by regulators in the last 12 months, according to Smarsh’s 2017 Electronic Communications Compliance Survey, and examiners are looking more closely at firms’ communications. However, although firms have increased their efforts to meet compliance requirements regarding electronic communications with clients, significant gaps remain, the report found. (Related: Staying…
Three-quarters of investors in a new survey by Fidelity Investments expressed confidence that professional management would help them meet their financial goals. The survey found that the benefits of professional money management accrued even to those without a complicated portfolio; only 10% of respondents described their financial needs as very complex. The findings were based on…
Optimal Asset Management launched a free online tool for advisors called Factor Allocator, which among its many features, helps advisors build factor-based replicas of any mutual fund using ETFs. “Factor investing is based on the idea that a small number of factors dominate the returns of the portfolio,” Vijay Vaidyanathan, CEO of Optimal Asset Management, told…
Advisors searching for low tax investment vehicles for their clients’ taxable accounts need to look beyond ETFs, according to Frank Pape, director of consulting services forRussell Investments and a CPA. Although ETFs are more tax efficient than actively managed mutual funds, they lose more dollars to taxes than tax-managed funds, says Pape, who spoke at Envestnet’s…
<h1>Michael Lewis: A Warning for Index Investors From the Oakland A’s</h1> <blockquote class=”repubhubembed”><p class=”rhexcerpt”>While author Michael Lewis was researching his … Read more
President Donald Trump’s budget would eliminate the key fund that the Securities and Exchange Commission uses to beef up cybersecurity measures and deter fraud. The SEC’s budget request of $1.602 billion for fiscal year 2018, which the agency submitted Tuesday, would support 4,543 positions for the year. The agency states that its request is “essentially flat…
