I got an e-mail question on Friday with the following request: We have a discount stock plan at our firm. You can buy discounted stock at the end of each quarter and can sell it immediately for a 15% profit.  The question arises about what your annual return would be....

I recently came across the attached clip from USA Today, which was actually published several years ago (I had saved it). While it may be a bit hard to read, what we are seeing is that one of the judges asked a contestant to "tone it down," which he did. The following...

As someone who loves to write, I learned a long time ago that there really is no such thing as "writing," per se; rather it's rewriting. One must be prepared to write, revise, and revise again. Often with letters and reports I do this many, many times. Today of course...

This week I'm reviewing a software vendor client's system and saw that they used a version of Modified Dietz which we typically don't see. Here's the normal form: and here's what they use: In reality they will provide the same result so it really shouldn't matter...

I have become increasingly aware of how the term "audited" is often used. Several of our clients refer to their performance returns as "audited" or "unaudited." But are they actually "audited"? In most cases, no. Clearly they're trying to communicate that they've...

We have launched a survey that addresses the increasingly important topic of risk measurement. And while we've surveyed the industry on the presentation standards, attribution, performance measurement technology, and the performance measurement professional, many...

I often get into discussions with clients and students about how benchmarks should be treated. For example, a few years ago I spoke with a hedge fund manager and suggested that he didn't manage against any benchmarks; he quickly corrected me saying he did. But then I...

A problem surfaced over the past couple years that has long been lingering within the world of performance measurement and risk: the potential for "negative Sharpe ratios." While I had heard of a problem, I hadn't seen it first hand until about two years ago and then...

I've been having a discussion with a colleague on the topic of index data. I suspect that many asset managers don't give these statistics much thought, simply taking in whatever values they're given by their data providers. But should they? Many performance...