Benchmark-driven investment strategy

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Benchmark-driven investment strategy is an investment strategy where the target return is usually linked to an index or combination of indices of the sector or any other like S&P 500. [1]

In finance, an investment strategy is a set of rules, behaviors or procedures, designed to guide an investor's selection of an investment portfolio. Individuals have different profit objectives, and their individual skills make different tactics and strategies appropriate. Some choices involve a tradeoff between risk and return. Most investors fall somewhere in between, accepting some risk for the expectation of higher returns.

Return on investment (ROI) is a ratio between the net profit and cost of investment resulting from an investment of some resources. A high ROI means the investment's gains favorably to its cost. As a performance measure, ROI is used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiencies of several different investments. In purely economic terms, it is one way of relating profits to capital invested. Return on investment is a performance measure used by businesses to identify the efficiency of an investment or number of different investments.

Stock market index method of measuring the value of a section of the stock market

A stock index or stock market index is a measurement of a section of the stock market. It is computed from the prices of selected stocks. It is a tool used by investors and financial managers to describe the market, and to compare the return on specific investments.

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With the Benchmarks approach the investor chooses an index of the market (benchmark). The goal of the fund manager is to try to beat the index performance-wise.

Security (finance) tradable financial asset

A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some jurisdictions the term specifically excludes financial instruments other than equities and fixed income instruments. In some jurisdictions it includes some instruments that are close to equities and fixed income, e.g., equity warrants. In some countries and languages the term "security" is commonly used in day-to-day parlance to mean any form of financial instrument, even though the underlying legal and regulatory regime may not have such a broad definition.

Volatility (finance) degree of variation of a trading price series over time

In finance, volatility is the degree of variation of a trading price series over time as measured by the standard deviation of logarithmic returns.

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An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. An ETF holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds and generally operates with an arbitrage mechanism designed to keep it trading close to its net asset value, although deviations can occasionally occur. Most ETFs track an index, such as a stock index or bond index. ETFs may be attractive as investments because of their low costs, tax efficiency, and stock-like features.

In finance, a portfolio is a collection of investments held by an investment company, hedge fund, financial institution or individual.

Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities and other assets in order to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of the investors. Investors may be institutions or private investors.

Active management refers to a portfolio management strategy where the manager makes specific investments with the goal of outperforming an investment benchmark index or target return. In passive management, investors expect a return that closely replicates the investment weighting and returns of a benchmark index and will often invest in an index fund.

A "fund of funds" (FOF) is an investment strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing directly in stocks, bonds or other securities. This type of investing is often referred to as multi-manager investment. A fund of funds may be "fettered", meaning that it invests only in funds managed by the same investment company, or "unfettered", meaning that it can invest in external funds run by other managers.

Asset allocation Investment strategy

Asset allocation is the rigorous implementation of an investment strategy that attempts to balance risk versus reward by adjusting the percentage of each asset in an investment portfolio according to the investor's risk tolerance, goals and investment time frame. The focus is on the characteristics of the overall portfolio. Such a strategy contrasts with an approach that focuses on individual assets.

Core & Satellite Portfolio Management is an investment strategy that incorporates traditional fixed-income and equity-based securities known as the "core" portion of the portfolio, with a percentage of selected individual securities in the fixed-income and equity-based side of the portfolio known as the "satellite" portion.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to finance:

Robert D. Arnott American entrepreneur/investor/editor/writer

Robert D. Arnott is an American entrepreneur, investor, editor and writer who focuses on articles about quantitative investing.

A 130–30 fund or a ratio up to 150/50 is a type of collective investment vehicle, often a type of specialty mutual fund, but which allows the fund manager simultaneously to hold both long and short positions on different equities in the fund. Traditionally, mutual funds were long-only investments. 130–30 funds are a fast-growing segment of the financial industry; they should be available both as traditional mutual funds, and as exchange-traded funds (ETFs). While this type of investment has existed for a while in the hedge fund industry, its availability for retail investors is relatively new.

Target date fund

A target date fund (TDF) – also known as a lifecycle, dynamic-risk or age-based fund – is a collective investment scheme, often a mutual fund or a collective trust fund, designed to provide a simple investment solution through a portfolio whose asset allocation mix becomes more conservative as the target date approaches.

Global Tactical Asset Allocation, or GTAA, is a top-down investment strategy that attempts to exploit short-term mis-pricings among a global set of assets. The strategy focuses on general movements in the market rather than on performance of individual securities.

A Portfolio Manager is a professional responsible for making investment decisions and carrying out investment activities on behalf of vested individuals or institutions. The investors invest their money into the portfolio manager's investment policy for future fund growth such as a retirement fund, endowment fund, education fund and other purposes. Portfolio managers work with a team of analysts and researchers, and are responsible for establishing an investment strategy, selecting appropriate investments and allocating each investment properly towards an investment fund or asset management vehicle.

Risk parity is an approach to investment portfolio management which focuses on allocation of risk, usually defined as volatility, rather than allocation of capital. The risk parity approach asserts that when asset allocations are adjusted to the same risk level, the risk parity portfolio can achieve a higher Sharpe ratio and can be more resistant to market downturns than the traditional portfolio.

Martin L. Leibowitz is a financial researcher, business leader, and a managing director of Morgan Stanley.

Dedicated portfolio theory, in finance, deals with the characteristics and features of a portfolio built to generate a predictable stream of future cash inflows. This is achieved by purchasing bonds and/or other fixed income securities that can and usually are held to maturity to generate this predictable stream from the coupon interest and/or the repayment of the face value of each bond when it matures. The goal is for the stream of cash inflows to exactly match the timing of a predictable stream of cash outflows due to future liabilities. For this reason it is sometimes called cash matching, or liability-driven investing. Determining the least expensive collection of bonds in the right quantities with the right maturities to match the cash flows is an analytical challenge that requires some degree of mathematical sophistication. College level textbooks typically cover the idea of “dedicated portfolios” or “dedicated bond portfolios” in their chapters devoted to the uses of fixed income securities.

Investment fund way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group

An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group. These advantages include an ability to:

Natixis Investment Managers is a global asset management company with $1,008 billion in assets under management as of March 2018. The company has headquarters in Paris and Boston and it is the second biggest French manager by market share. Its clients are institutional investors, companies, private banks, distributors and banking networks. The company is part of the French Natixis financial group.

Brandywine Asset Management

Brandywine Asset Management, Inc. is an American investment management firm founded and managed by Michael Dever. The firm is registered as a commodity trading advisor.

References

  1. Chong, James, and G. Michael Phillips. "Low-(Economic) Volatility Investing."The Journal of Wealth Management 15.3 (2012): 75-85.
  2. Leibowitz, Martin L., Simon Emrich, and Anthony Bova. Modern Portfolio Management: Active Long/Short 130/30 Equity Strategies. Vol. 539. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
  3. Blitz, David C., and P. van Vliet. The volatility effect: lower risk without lower return. No. ERS-2007-044-F&A. Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), 2007.

Further reading