Adaptive Asset Allocation. Dynamic Global Portfolios to Profit in Good Times - and Bad

Discover a masterful exploration of the fallacies and challenges of asset allocation In Asset Allocation: From Theory to Practice and Beyond —the newly and substantially revised Second Edition of A Practitioner’s Guide to Asset Allocation —accomplished finance professionals William Kinlaw, Mark P. Kritzman, and David Turkington deliver a robust and insightful exploration of the core tenets of asset allocation. Drawing on their experience working with hundreds of the world’s largest and most sophisticated investors, the authors review foundational concepts, debunk fallacies, and address cutting-edge themes like factor investing and scenario analysis. The new edition also includes references to related topics at the end of each chapter and a summary of key takeaways to help readers rapidly locate material of interest. The book also incorporates discussions of: The characteristics that define an asset class, including stability, investability, and similarity The fundamentals of asset allocation, including definitions of expected return, portfolio risk, and diversification Advanced topics like factor investing, asymmetric diversification, fat tails, long-term investing, and enhanced scenario analysis as well as tools to address challenges such as liquidity, rebalancing, constraints, and within-horizon risk. Perfect for client-facing practitioners as well as scholars who seek to understand practical techniques, Asset Allocation: From Theory to Practice and Beyond is a must-read resource from an author team of distinguished finance experts and a forward by Nobel prize winner Harry Markowitz.

Since the formalization of asset allocation in 1952 with the publication of Portfolio Selection by Harry Markowitz, there have been great strides made to enhance the application of this groundbreaking theory. However, progress has been uneven. It has been punctuated with instances of misleading research, which has contributed to the stubborn persistence of certain fallacies about asset allocation. A Practitioner's Guide to Asset Allocation fills a void in the literature by offering a hands-on resource that describes the many important innovations that address key challenges to asset allocation and dispels common fallacies about asset allocation. The authors cover the fundamentals of asset allocation, including a discussion of the attributes that qualify a group of securities as an asset class and a detailed description of the conventional application of mean-variance analysis to asset allocation.. The authors review a number of common fallacies about asset allocation and dispel these misconceptions with logic or hard evidence. The fallacies debunked include such notions as: asset allocation determines more than 90% of investment performance; time diversifies risk; optimization is hypersensitive to estimation error; factors provide greater diversification than assets and are more effective at reducing noise; and that equally weighted portfolios perform more reliably out of sample than optimized portfolios. A Practitioner's Guide to Asset Allocation also explores the innovations that address key challenges to asset allocation and presents an alternative optimization procedure to address the idea that some investors have complex preferences and returns may not be elliptically distributed. Among the challenges highlighted, the authors explain how to overcome inefficiencies that result from constraints by expanding the optimization objective function to incorporate absolute and relative goals simultaneously. The text also explores the challenge of currency risk, describes how to use shadow assets and liabilities to unify liquidity with expected return and risk, and shows how to evaluate alternative asset mixes by assessing exposure to loss throughout the investment horizon based on regime-dependent risk. This practical text contains an illustrative example of asset allocation which is used to demonstrate the impact of the innovations described throughout the book. In addition, the book includes supplemental material that summarizes the key takeaways and includes information on relevant statistical and theoretical concepts, as well as a comprehensive glossary of terms.

An easy-to-understand how-to guide to the single most important thing you can do in investing – choosing and mixing your assets successfully. You don’t need to be an expert analyst, a star stock-picker, or a rocket scientist to have better investment results than most other investors. You just need to allocate your assets in the right way, and have the conviction to stick with that allocation. The big secret behind asset allocation – the secret that most sophisticated investors know and use to their benefit – is that it’s really not all that hard to do. Asset Allocation For Dummies serves as a comprehensive guide to maximizing returns and minimizing risk – while managing taxes, fees and other costs – in putting together a portfolio to reflect your unique financial goals. Jerry A. Miccolis (Basking Ridge, NJ), CFA®, CFP®, FCAS, MAAA is a widely quoted expert commentator who has been interviewed in The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and appeared on CBS Radio and ABC-TV. He is a senior financial advisor and co-owner of Brinton Eaton Wealth Advisors (www.brintoneaton.com), a fee-only investment management, tax advisory and financial planning firm in Madison, N.J. Dorianne R. Perrucci (Scotch Plains, NJ) is a freelance writer who has been published in The New York Times, Newsweek, and TheStreet.com, and has collaborated on several financial books, including I.O.U.S.A, One Nation, Under Stress, In Debt (Wiley, 2008).

A clear look at how to capture investment profits during difficult financial times The U.S. economy has become crippled by the credit and real estate catastrophe. Even though we've all been affected by the calamity and have heard no shortage of news about it, it still seems unfathomable and utterly incomprehensible to most people that the actions of certain mortgage brokers, bankers, ratings agencies, and investment banks could break the economic engine of the world. Now, for the first time, and in terms everyone can grasp, noted analysts and value investing experts Whitney Tilson and Glenn Tongue explain not only how it happened, but shows that the tsunami of credit problems isn't over. The second wave has yet to come. But if you know catastrophe is looming, you can sidestep the train wreck-and even profit. You just need to understand how bad times present opportunity and where to look. More Mortgage Meltdown can help you achieve this goal. The book Breaks down the complex mortgage products and rocket-science securities Wall Street created Addresses how to find investment opportunities within the rubble and position your portfolio to take advantage of the crisis Explains exactly how the combination of aggressive lending, government missteps, and Wall Street trading practices created the perfect economic storm Shows you why the crisis is not yet over and what we can expect going forward More Mortgage Meltdown can help you understand the events that have unfolded, and put you in a better position to profit from the opportunities that arise during these tough financial times.

An authoritative resource for the wealth management industry that bridges the gap between modern perspectives on asset allocation and practical implementation An advanced yet practical dive into the world of asset allocation , Modern Asset Allocation for Wealth Management provides the knowledge financial advisors and their robo-advisor counterparts need to reclaim ownership of the asset allocation component of their fiduciary responsibility. Wealth management practitioners are commonly taught the traditional mean-variance approach in CFA and similar curricula, a method with increasingly limited applicability given the evolution of investment products and our understanding of real-world client preferences. Additionally, financial advisors and researchers typically receive little to no training on how to implement a robust asset allocation framework, a conceptually simple yet practically very challenging task. This timely book offers professional wealth managers and researchers an up-to-date and implementable toolset for managing client portfolios.  The information presented in this book far exceeds the basic models and heuristics most commonly used today, presenting advances in asset allocation that have been isolated to academic and institutional portfolio management settings until now, while simultaneously providing a clear framework that advisors can immediately deploy. This rigorous manuscript covers all aspects of creating client portfolios: setting client risk preferences, deciding which assets to include in the portfolio mix, forecasting future asset performance, and running an optimization to set a final allocation. An important resource for all wealth management fiduciaries, this book enables readers to: Implement a rigorous yet streamlined asset allocation framework that they can stand behind with conviction Deploy both neo-classical and behavioral elements of client preferences to more accurately establish a client risk profile Incorporate client financial goals into the asset allocation process systematically and precisely with a simple balance sheet model Create a systematic framework for justifying which assets should be included in client portfolios Build capital market assumptions from historical data via a statistically sound and intuitive process Run optimization methods that respect complex client preferences and real-world asset characteristics Modern Asset Allocation for Wealth Management is ideal for practicing financial advisors and researchers in both traditional and robo-advisor settings, as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on asset allocation.

A thoroughly revised and expanded update to the book that critics are calling the first true investing book for the «new normal» You entrusted your financial security to the “experts,” and now you’re wondering what it’ll take to recover from the economic crisis and get back on your feet. In this updated and expanded edition of his critically-acclaimed guide to staying rich in good times and bad, financial planner and investment strategist Jason Vanclef delivers more straight answers and solid solutions—and he takes a well-earned poke or two at Wall Street in the process. According to Vanclef, True Asset Class Diversification is the best way to build the solid financial foundation you need for a secure future. And he puts his money where his mouth is with a comprehensive, easy-to-understand and use plan for maximizing your investments—not just cutting your losses. Learn the unvarnished truth about «tried and true» Wall Street practices and why stocks and bonds are not the answer—and which investment vehicles are Find out how to diversify into oil/gas, equipment, ,notes, real estate, bullion and rare coins the way the super-rich do—information that Wall Street doesn’t want you to have Get priceless advice on whether or not to pay off your home or pay cash for a car and how to build your wealth more efficiently Discover the pitfalls of insurance and Variable/Fixed/Index Fixed annuities that agents will never tell you about Get the lowdown on advanced income tax reduction strategies, discounted Roth IRA conversions, and asset protection techniques that will help protect your hard earned wealth.

A leading authority's answer to today's global economic challenges In Global Economy in Turbulent Times, Harvard economist Dr. See-Yan Lin offers his timely and incisive views on today's key economic issues. Adapted from his hugely popular column in the Malaysia Star newspaper, these articles offer fresh and entertaining perspectives on perennial economic problems. The discussion covers the world economy, with particular attention to the US, EU, Japan, and the international monetary system, as Dr. Lin explains how the economy is broken and offers multiple paths to repair. Coverage includes emerging East Asia, ASEAN (especially Malaysia), and BRICS nations, plus the author's own views on global demography, the need for quality education, corporate governance in Malaysia, and more. Dr. Lin's expertise in strategic and financial issues is renown and actively sought in the academic, economic, banking, and business realms. In this book, he presents his observations and analysis of the global economy, and the most pressing issues facing the world's financial future. Consider the issues faced by the world's leading economies Examine the factors underlying inadequacy of political will to act Gain insight into the middle class that's emerging across the globe Get new perspective on CSR and management from a leading authority Opinions on the world's economic problems are abundant, but seldom do they come from such an authoritative source. Dr. Lin draws upon decades of economic experience and the knowledge gained through three post-graduate Harvard degrees to give you a deeper understanding of the current state of the economy. Gain the insight of a multi-awarded scholar and economist with the deep discussion and expert analysis in Global Economy in Turbulent Times.

How to make sensible investment decisions during these turbulent times 2008 changed everything. Now, more than ever, investors need to be proactive in planning for their retirement. To do so, they must look beyond simply investing in stocks and bonds, while avoiding what may be overwhelming and even misleading investment advice. In The Flexible Investing Playbook: Asset Allocation for Long-Term Success, Robert Isbitts–mutual fund manager, investment strategist, newsletter writer, and author of Wall Street’s Bull and How to Bear It–shares the strategies he created and uses with his clients. This approach can potentially allow their portfolios to withstand the volatility of the stock market and subdue the emotional impact of investing, to increase the chances of reaching their investment goals. Along the way, the book: • Reviews the events of the 2008 financial market debacle, and identifies key lessons investors should learn from that experience • Discusses how traditional approaches to diversification are fraught with risks, and how they may endanger the pursuit of a secure retirement • Details why he believes investors cannot live on stocks and bonds alone, while also describing how to properly diversify, without sacrificing precious liquidity The Flexible Investing Playbook, he presents a proactive approach to investing that’s based on the strategies Isbitts created, designed and currently manages.