I have a confession to make: I used to be 6' 1/2" tall (I liked the 1/2", because it put me ABOVE 6'). My father was 6'6", my older brother roughly the same, and my younger brother is, I think, around 6'2". My two sons are both taller than I am. And so, I can be...

Hurricane Sandy left many of us without power; fortunately, our office has electricity. And so, we invited our employees to bring their spouses and/or children with them, to have a chance to warm up, relax, and even have a hot shower. Most took advantage of the offer,...

A year ago Monday, the Northeast part of the United States was greeted with a horrendous storm, which included a lot of snow and damaging wind. My wife and I that day went to a civil union ceremony, a trip that should have taken about an hour; instead, it took four....

One of our clients introduced me to alternative ways to calculate two commonly used risk-adjusted return measures: information ratio and Sharpe ratio. Their immediate derivation is from Zephyr, and I am attempting to identify their origin. I confirmed that...

I have read through the new GIPS(R) (Global Investment Performance Standards) Alternative Investments Guidance Statement a few times, and frequently make what I think are interesting discoveries. Here's just one:I have highlighted the part I find of interest (I...

If truth be told (and I am about to tell it), I do not know how common this practice is, but we have become aware of cases where GIPS(R) (Global Investment Performance Standards) verifiers require their clients to sign multi-year contracts. E.g., they will perform the...

It came to my attention yesterday that a new GIPS(R) (Global Investment Performance Standards) rule is being introduced into the GIPS Handbook regarding the treatment of significant cash flows (SCF): compliant firms will no longer be able to use the "number of...

This was just released by TSG:

The weekend WSJ often provides fodder for this blog, though this is the first that I recall it came from Peggy Noonan. Her assessment of Thursday's Vice Presidential debate ("Confusing Strength With Aggression") in this past weekend's edition was quite insightful. But...

I am preparing to meet with a hedge fund client who wants to comply with GIPS(R) (Global Investment Performance Standards). As part of this preparation I am revisiting the recently published Guidance Statement on Alternative Investment Strategies and Structures. This...