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Asset Classes (asset + class)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	90%

Selected Abstracts

The Effect of Investment Horizons on Risk, Return and End-of-Period Wealth for Major Asset Classes in Canada

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES, Issue 2 2006
Lakshman Alles
Abstract The objective of this paper is to investigate whether the current practice among financial planners of recommending stocks at an early age and progressively moving into cash or bonds as retirement approaches would be appropriate. We computed returns, risks and end-of-period wealth distributions of various Canadian asset classes at increasing horizons between 1957 and 2003, based on the bootstrapping technique. Results show that investment outcomes at short horizons can be quite different from outcomes at longer horizons. Evidence is provided in favour of time diversification, while the current market practice of life cycle investing is not fully supported as stocks continue to exhibit more favourable risk-return payoffs than other asset classes, even at shorter time intervals. Résumé Cet article se propose d'étudier le bien-fondé de la pratique actuelle qui consiste à recommander des actions aux investisseurs dans leur jeunesse et l'argent liquide ou les obligations lorsqu'ils approchent l'âge de la retraite. Grâce à la technique de bootstrapping, nous calculons les retours sur investissement, les risques et la distribution de richesse en fin de période pour plusieurs types d'actifs canadiens à horizons divers entre 1957 et 2003. Les résultats présentent des différences importantes entre les investissements à court terme et les investissements à long terme. Les données disponibles soutiennent l'idée de la diversification temporelle et réfutent partiellement la pratique actuelle du cycle de vie d'investissement. De fait, les actions comportent toujours un profil risques-bénéfices plus favorable que les autres types d'actifs, même pour des intervalles de temps réduits. [source]

Momentum investing and the asset allocation decision

ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 4 2007
Karen L. Benson
G23 Abstract This study examines the active asset allocation decisions of Australian multisector fund managers to determine whether active fund managers engage in momentum strategies. We find evidence supporting the existence of momentum investing in active asset allocation strategies. This evidence exists in the Australian Equities, Australian Fixed Interest and Listed Property asset classes. Interestingly, balanced funds adopt contrarian strategies in the International Equities asset class. We also examine whether there is any association between a fund's market timing skill and the execution of momentum strategies. Our results show that fund managers with no market timing skill are momentum investors. [source]

AN INVESTIGATION OF HOME BIAS IN SUPERANNUATION INVESTMENT CHOICES

ECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 1 2006
PAUL GERRANS
Australian superannuation funds have increased investment choices available for their members. Fund members can typically choose from a range of ready-made options or select their own asset allocations. Evidence suggests that individuals may display a home bias in these allocations by favouring domestic assets at the expense of international assets. Such a bias may produce a sub-optimal investment. This paper investigates the asset allocations of members of the Government Employees Superannuation Board (GESB), the superannuation fund for Western Australian public sector employees. Asset allocations appear to be in line with a normal allocation to international equity, especially at the time of their first choice. Subsequent choices however appear to be driven more by historical performance of the asset classes offered, rather than by a home bias. [source]

Liquidity: Considerations of a Portfolio Manager

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2009
Laurie Simon Hodrick
This paper examines liquidity and how it affects the behavior of portfolio managers, who account for a significant portion of trading in many assets. We define an asset to be perfectly liquid if a portfolio manager can trade the quantity she desires when she desires at a price not worse than the uninformed expected value. A portfolio manager is limited by both what she needs to attain and the ease with which she can attain it, making her sensitive to three dimensions of liquidity: price, timing, and quantity. Deviations from perfect liquidity in any of these dimensions impose shadow costs on the portfolio manager. By focusing on the trade-off between sacrificing on price and quantity instead of the canonical price-time trade-off, the model yields several novel empirical implications. Understanding a portfolio manager's liquidity considerations provides important insights into the liquidity of many assets and asset classes. [source]

Momentum investing and the asset allocation decision

Attribution of investment performance: an analysis of Australian pooled superannuation funds*

ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 1-2 2001
David R. Gallagher
This paper evaluates the market timing and security selection capabilities of Australian pooled superannuation funds over the eight-year period from January 1991 to December 1998. Evaluation of both components of investment performance is surprisingly scarce in the Australian literature despite active investment managers engaging in both market timing and security selection. The paper also evaluates performance for the three largest asset classes within diversified superannuation funds and their contribution to overall portfolio return. The importance of an accurately specified market portfolio proxy in the measurement of investment performance is demonstrated. This paper employs performance benchmarks that account for the multi-sector investment decisions of active investment managers in a manner that is consistent with their unique investment strategy. Consistent with U.S. literature, the empirical results indicate that Australian pooled superannuation funds do not exhibit significantly positive security selection or market timing skill. [source]

A Measure of Fundamental Volatility in the Commercial Property Market

REAL ESTATE ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2003
Shaun A. Bond
The low level of volatility observed in appraisal-based commercial property indices relative to other asset classes has been frequently noted and extensively commented on in the real estate finance literature. However, the volatility of such commercial property indices is only one source of information on the second moment of commercial property returns. The volatility of securitized property returns forms another potential source of information, though there is some uncertainty about how closely the volatility of securitized returns may match the volatility of the underlying asset. Each measure of volatility has a potential source of noise associated with it. This paper proposes a fundamental measure of volatility for the commercial property market by using a stochastic volatility model to filter out the signal in the different sources of volatility information. This allows for different measures of volatility to be decomposed into transitory noise and unobserved fundamental volatility. The suitability of such an approach and the properties of the underlying fundamental volatility series are analyzed using data from the U.K. property market. [source]

The Behaviour of Socially Responsible Investments as Financial Assets

AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW, Issue 34 2004
Paul Gerrans
This paper examines the behaviour of socially responsible investments (SRIs) as financial assets using a returns-based style analysis methodology. Conflicting views exist on the risks of SRIs in terms of their exposure to asset classes and industry sectors. This paper provides empirical evidence from a sample of Australian SRI managed funds. The sample SRI funds do not have strong consistent patterns in terms of style. They do not appear to represent a homogenous category of investments, and do not belong in an investment class of their own. [source]

The Effect of Investment Horizons on Risk, Return and End-of-Period Wealth for Major Asset Classes in Canada

Les hedge funds ont-ils leur place dans un portefeuille institutionnel canadien?

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES, Issue 3 2003
Stéphanie Desrosiers
This article examines the return and risk of hedge funds (HF), and their correlations with traditional asset classes for the 1990,2002 period. Efficient frontiers resulting from optimizations with and without constraints demonstrate that it is worthwhile to include HF in a Canadian institutional investor's portfolio. HF offer a high potential return relative to risk, while weaker correlations with traditional asset classes create a beneficial diversification effect. Non-directional HF provide protection in bear markets and are more suitable for lower risk portfolios, whereas directional HF are better suited to higher risk portfolios. Caveats are necessary due to the skew-ness and kurtosis of the return distributions, potential biases in the return series, the lower liquidity, and the complexity of the HF industry. Résumé Cet article examine le rendement, le risque et les correélations des hedge funds (HF) avec les catégories d'actif traditionnelles sur la période 1990,2002. Des optimisations avec et sans contraintes montrent qu'il est avantageux d'inclure les HF dans un portefeuille institutionnel canadien du fait d'un potentiel de rendement élevé par rapport au risque encouru et de faibles corrélations. Les HF non-directionnels offrent une meilleure protection en marché baissier et sont plus appropriés pour des portefeuilles moins risqués. Les HF directionnels conviennent davantage aux portefeuilles prksentant un risque plus élevé. Des réserves doivent toutefois étre émises en raison des coefficients d'asymétrie et d'aplatissement de la distribution des rendements, des biais potentiels des données, de la faible liquidité, et de la complexité de l'industrie des HF. [source]