I delivered a talk earlier this week for the CFA Society of St. Louis on performance attribution. One of the attendees asked "what's the point?" I.e., why should an asset manager be doing performance attribution? My initial response was "every party has a pooper,...
Performance Perspectives Blog
Thoughts on performance measurement from David Spaulding and other members of our team.
A HUGE reason why performance attribution is critically important
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Contrasting “for” and “during” in your performance reporting
Although not common, I still occasionally run into situations like the following: a period is selected to report performance that extends beyond (at the start, end, or both) the actual period a portfolio or asset was being managed or held, and yet a return is...
Returns across weekends
A Linkedin colleague sent me a note about the idea of calculating returns across weekends. There really is no need to do this, except when the month-end date occurs on the weekend and you're accruing for income. The following paints four cases: In Case #1, we...
What does flying have to do with investment risk?
Chuck Yeagar is perhaps best known as the first pilot to officially go beyond the speed of sound. You may recall that he was portrayed by Sam Shepard in the movie, The Right Stuff. In his autobiography he wrote "all pilots take chances from time to time, but knowing...
Announcing the first ever, “black tie optional” performance measurement conference
This year's Performance Measurement, Attribution & Risk (PMAR) conferences will be "black tie optional." A bit unusual, right? And so, why would we do this? Well, the theme of the events is "the secret agents of performance measurement," and when we think "secret...
Inspiration
I have been a fan of "synchronicity" for some time; it's essentially the belief that there are no such thing as coincidences; instead, things happen for a reason. Yesterday, I posted about Napoleon Hill. And earlier today I discovered this on Facebook: It was posted...
A word on education, from Napoleon Hill
Napoleon Hill wrote the classic, Think & Grow Rich. I am reading it for the umpteenth time, and came across the following which I think is important to consider:Successful men*, in all callings, never stop acquiring specialized knowledge related to their major...
Mission Accomplished!
My postings slowed down this week, because I was preparing for my doctoral dissertation defense, which occurred yesterday (despite the horrid weather we were having). I am pleased to announce that I was successful. I have wanted to achieve this goal for nearly 30...
Looking for a date? How about three?
We were recently contacted regarding the appropriate date to use for a fund's inception. This caused me to reflect a bit, and I thought I'd touch on this briefly. There are essentially three dates you may want to concern yourself with: Inception Date: this is the date...
“They were simply outplayed”
It's probably not surprising that Sunday's Superbowl is still a topic of discussion. I'm conducting a GIPS(R) (Global Investment Performance Standards) verification this week, and this morning, when I went into the hotel's concierge lounge, I overheard two women who...