The sources of inspiration for blog pieces seems almost infinite. Today, while reading the bible, I found the above quote (it's from the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 7, verse 29). Men (and women), in general, obviously have many calculations to draw upon; and even we...
Performance Perspectives Blog
Thoughts on performance measurement from David Spaulding and other members of our team.
“Men have had recourse to many calculations”
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Happy July 4th!
Palm Beach, Florida-based money manager Carl Domino, Inc. typically sends notes preceding various holidays, and this week was no exception. I was one of the many fortunate ones who received this greeting: July 4th is an important day in America’s history. A day where...
Wrong index or active management?
I taught our Introduction to Performance Measurement course yesterday and one student asked how one might know whether, if the tracking error is high, it is because of (a) active management or (b) the wrong index being used? I don't believe there's a simple way of...
An argument for simplicity
In today's Wall Street Journal, Terry Teachout provides a very interesting series of observations on complexity, as it relates to writing and music: "Too Complicated for Words." He cites a paper by Fred Lerdahl, which speaks directly on complexity and music:...
Behold, I have prepared my case. I know that I am in the right.
The title for this post comes from the book of Job (chapter 13, verse 18). It occurred to me that this is quite applicable when we consider the debate on money- vs. time-weighting. I know that some of you are saying "no, not again!!!," but it's a topic which I believe...
The Kramer effect
I taught a class yesterday and, as I typically do, when I got to the topic of peer groups I mentioned one of its disadvantages: questionable makeup of the universe. That is, does the manager belong here?And, as I typically do, I cited an episode of Seinfeld to make my...
CIPM updates…
As noted to the right of this blog post, John Simpson, CIPM will host a webinar on June 25th at 12:00 noon (EST) to discuss the changes that have occurred to the Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement (CIPM) program. John and I were "pioneers" as we were...
2,000 & counting
It wasn't too long ago that I reported that we had reached 1,000 unique visitors to our blog; well, we now have had 2,000! Thank you for visiting. And thanks to all who occasionally post comments, as these are helpful in providing various perspectives.
One year of blogging
I'm usually better at remembering anniversaries ... June 2 marked the one year anniversary of this blog. And 250+ entries later, with close to 2,000 visitors, we're still going strong. I greatly appreciate the comments that have come in and continue to welcome your...
The art of the apology
Peggy Noonan's WSJ column today discusses Detroit Tigers' pitcher Armando Galarraga's near perfect game which was only broken up by a bad call made by umpire Jim Joyce. There were two exceptional lessons to take from that event. First, Galarraga's demeanor, which was...