Hedge fund performance has declined precipitously since the 1990s as assets under management have exploded. The managers are not solely to blame. While alpha has withered, large institutional investors have piled into large hedge fund managers that are perceived to be safe — an industry transformation beautifully summarized by Blackstone Group: The original hedge fund clients,…
Sports analogies often help us think about how we make investing decisions. Are there streaks in random data? Do past results affect future ones? And most importantly, if you know people have certain biases, what can you do to get a leg up? In this episode, hosts Dan Villalon and Gabe Feghali talk to AQR Principal and…
The thing that got me thinking about this idea was a piece that flashed briefly across one of my aggregators about which was better Coke (KO) or Pepsi (PEP) and I dont mean in the ways of the old Pepsi challenge that some of us would remember. To be honest I didn’t pay it much…
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m not a risk-taker. I don’t believe in hedging bets or property hot-spotting, and I’m not a gambler or adrenalin-junkie. However, I do know how to identify a good opportunity and seize it when one comes my way. I also know a lemon when I see one,…
In July 1838, Charles Darwin, then 29, sat down to make a decision that would alter the course of his life. The decision he was wrestling with was not related to scientific questions about the origins of species. It was a different kind of decision — existential as well, but of a more personal nature:…
Are you an agreeable person—you know, a nice guy? If so, a logical follow-up might be: how are your finances? And here’s why: “Agreeable peoplehave lower savings, they have higher debt, and they’re also more likely to go bankrupt or default on their loans.” Sandra Matz is a computational social scientist at the Columbia Business School…
It’s no rumor: Lindsey Buckingham, former lead guitarist of Fleetwood Mac, is suing his former bandmates, declaring that cutting him out of their current tour deprived him of up to $14 million. According to the suit Buckingham’s lawyers filed this week in Los Angeles Superior Court, Fleetwood Mac made a deal with Live Nation for a 60-concert North…
Whenever markets have any sort of hiccup (read dont go up in a linear fashion) all sorts of commentary comes out of the woodwork. I therefore thought it would be instructive to look at the events of last week and to put them into some form of context beginning with a short term view. The…
….here’s a hint its not gold under the bed…. More here – VisualCapitalist
Sugata Ray conducts the most fun research. From his post teaching and researching at the University of Alabama, he studies disparate influences on asset management and market microstructure. He has looked at the effect of personal real estate transactions and “marital events” on the productivity and risk tolerance of hedge fund managers. We caught up…
Fascinating but horrible….. Long story made short – they went pop. Abstract In AD 79 the town of Herculaneum was suddenly hit and overwhelmed by volcanic ash-avalanches that killed all its remaining residents, as also occurred in Pompeii and other settlements as far as 20 kilometers from Vesuvius. New investigations on the victims’ skeletons unearthed…
Deep down, we all want to be successful. That doesn’t mean we all want fame and a jet-setting lifestyle. But it does mean that most of us want to achieve something worthwhile in our lives and set ourselves up financially. There’s no shame in being ambitious and wanting those things. In fact, it’s important as humans…
