It may seem like a stretch, but the very esoteric and complex mathematical area topology and performance attribution have something in common: mapping. Topologists map points from one surface to another, while PMPs (Performance Measurement Professionals) map weights...
Performance Perspectives Blog
Thoughts on performance measurement from David Spaulding and other members of our team.
Topology and performance attribution
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More on reporting standards, guidance, principles
I have had the opportunity to engage in conversation with several folks over the past month or so regarding the CFA Institute's "Principles for Investment Reporting." I remain generally opposed; actually, perhaps more so.For a document that promotes "transparency," it...
Investing in employees through training
Yes, this IS a dilemma: do you invest the money into providing your performance and risk measurement team the training they need to do a good job, and run the risk they'll leave, or avoid teaching them and save the money?Fortunately, most firms see the wisdom in...
Flourishing as an objective
I have begun to read Mass Flourishing, by Edmund Phelps, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. He begins with the following: “Flourishing is the heart of prospering – engagement, meeting challenges, self-expression, and personal growth…A person’s flourishing comes from...
Buy high and sell low isn’t a recipe for success, but it’s the strategy most investors seem to follow
In this weekend's WSJ, Jason Zweig discusses how investors too often make poor contribution/withdrawal decisions (see "How Investors Leave Billions on the Table").He mentions how Pimco's Total Return fund had a 12-month return (as-of September 30) of -0.74%, that...
“A stunning implication…”
The words in this post's title appear in Nobel Laureate in Economics Leon Lederman's The God Particle. I can't say exactly why, but when I read it those words struck me.A stunning implication.I once read that good writers write one word at a time; I believe Lederman...
If God didn’t want us to lie, He wouldn’t have invented politicians
I've been wanting to use the line in today's heading, and stumbled upon a way (though it may be a stretch). I came up with it recently, and think it's clever (but I'm biased a bit). As a former politician, I am fully aware of the linkage between the art of lying and...
DON’T ONLY “show me the money”
A memorable line from the Tom Cruise/Cuba Gooding movie, Jerry Macguire, is "show me the money," uttered multiple times by Gooding. As a result, it has become a part of our society's broader lexicon. This reinforces the point that we occasionally look more at the...
A webinar like no other … kind of scary!
This Halloween (October 31) at 11:00 AM (EST), John Simpson, Jed Schneider, and I will host our monthly webinar. This month has a theme ... I wonder if you can figure it out? It's titled: We will cover a lot of scary and interesting stuff about performance and risk...
Baseball and material errors
It is rare that people keep track of errors, but baseball, with its love of statistics, does just that: goof during a game and it will usually get recorded. In last night's Detroit Tigers vs. Boston Red Sox game, we were treated to three errors, two by the same...