Business Insider (May 2)
“April was the best month for stocks since 1987. But this stand-out performance” may be misleading. “History is rife with many examples of bear rallies that give way to even deeper losses.”
Tags: April, Bear rallies, History, Losses, Misleading, Performance, Stand-out, Stocks
The Economist (May 11)
Companies are really bad at hiring. “Only a third of American companies check whether their recruitment process produces good employees” and obvious flaws in hiring practices are rampant. “Everyone should worry that companies are less rigorous about evaluating the performance of their staff than about the quality of the raw materials they put in their products.” This helps to explain why productivity has been so sluggish.
Tags: Companies, Employees, Evaluating, Flaws, Hiring, Performance, Productivity, Quality, Raw materials, Recruitment, Rigorous, Staff, U.S.
The Guardian (February 12)
“GDP growth slipped to its lowest since 2012, at 1.4%, down from 1.8% in 2017.” The UK’s dismal performance in 2018 gave the lie to “Philip Hammond’s claim that Britain can reap an economic dividend from Theresa May’s Brexit deal…as official figures confirmed the UK has suffered its worst year for GDP growth since 2012.”
Tags: Brexit, Dismal, Economic dividend, GDP, Growth, Hammond, May, Performance, UK
Institutional Investor (July 5)
“Behind the best performing endowment funds are investment committees stacked with professional investors in alternative asset management, according to new research which found that “Board expertise within alternatives broadly and private markets specifically was proven to lead to higher performance among endowments.”
Tags: Alternative asset management, Board, Endowment funds, Expertise, Investment committees, Investors, Performance
Institutional Investor (April 4)
On February 5, after a placid 2017, “the VIX surged from the previous trading day’s close of 17.3 to 37.3…the largest daily percentage increase in the three-decade history of the index, more than doubling in one day.” Some investors have been overreacting to the detriment of performance when they should be simply tuning out the noise. “Volatility can create a risk: that we reduce our market exposure at the point of maximum psychological pain; in other words, we sell at the bottom…. Sometimes the best thing we can do is simply nothing.”
Tags: Bottom, Investors, Market exposure, Overreacting, Pain, Performance, Risk, Sell, VIX, Volatility
Institutional Investor (February 14)
“Record-high fundraising has resulted in some growing pains and new challenges for private market managers.” In 2017, “fund managers raised a record sum of nearly $750 billion. Much of this fundraising was driven by so-called mega funds, or funds larger than $5 billion,” which more than doubled their take over 2016. According to McKinsey & Co., the largest firms are now increasingly challenged by where to deploy capital, rather than how to raise it. Maintaining “the persistency of firm performance” is also growing more challenging “as the biggest firms get bigger.”
Tags: Capital, Challenges, Fundraising, McKinsey, Mega funds, Performance, Record high
Institutional Investor (December 21)
“As we face the end of another year, reviewing performance and planning 2018’s asset allocations, perhaps it is wise to remember that our worst (and best) case scenarios rarely materialize.”
Tags: Asset allocations, Best case, Performance, Planning, Review, Scenarios, Worst, Year end
Institutional Investor (July 20)
“After eight straight months of positive returns, hedge funds may have finally redeemed themselves in the eyes of investors…. Total industry assets under management rose by $34.1 billion to $3.1 trillion, with positive returns boosting asset growth. The renewed interest in hedge funds comes in the midst of industry’s greatest period of performance since the financial crisis.”
Tags: AUM, Financial Crisis, Growth, Hedge funds, Investors, Performance, Positive returns, Returns
Reuters (July 11)
As its first family fights publicly in an unprecedented and ugly manner, the “shrinking returns” of its sovereign wealth fund, GIC, “are adding gloom to Singapore. The sovereign wealth fund, which manages an estimated $343 billion of assets, has delivered its worst annual performance since 2001 barring the financial crisis.” Moreover, the “outlook is depressing too” as GIC prepares for “a protracted period of low returns.”
Tags: Assets, Fight, Financial Crisis, First family, GIC, Gloom, Outlook, Performance, Returns, Singapore, Sovereign wealth fund, Ugly, Unprecedented
The Economist (June 17)
Replacing Jeff Immelt at GE’s helm, new CEO John Flannery will need “to deal with GE’s soggy financial performance. Trian, an activist hedge fund, owns a stake in GE and, behind the scenes, has probably been agitating for change. Unless the numbers improve soon, pressure may mount for GE to break itself up. That would be a bad idea: what it now needs is less re-engineering and more consistent execution. At least Mr Flannery, unlike Mr Immelt, takes the helm when expectations are low.”
Tags: Activist, CEO, Execution, Expectations, Flannery, GE, Hedge-fund, Immelt, Performance, Re-engineering, Trian