Low Probability of Loss: Why It Doesn’t Equal Low Risk in Investing
In golf, a hole-in-one is a remarkable feat. The odds? Roughly one in 850,000 from a distance of 150 yards – practically a statistical anomaly. Yet, the 2023 LPGA tour…
From Equities to Real Assets: Key Trends Shaping Multi-Asset Investment
Multi-asset strategies are the supreme discipline in investment management. Managers of these strategies consider all asset classes worldwide as part of their investment universe. For more than 20 years, multi-asset’s…
A Reality Check on Private Markets: Part II
This is Part II of my series on performance measurement for private market funds and in particular on the difficulties of using the internal rate return (IRR) measure as equivalent…
A Guide for Investment Analysts: Working with Historical Market Data
Q: How far back does the US stock and bond record go? A: Good data series are available from the 1790s. This is the first of three posts that are…
Book Review: The M&A Failure Trap
The M&A Failure Trap: Why Most Mergers and Acquisitions Fail and How the Few Succeed. 2024. Baruch Lev and Feng Gu. Wiley. At an early-1980s presentation by a leading investment…
The Tyranny of IRR: A Reality Check on Private Market Returns
Asset owners have dramatically increased their allocations to private markets over the past two decades, driven largely by a mistaken belief that private debt and equity deliver returns that are…
Escaping the Benchmark Trap: A Guide for Smarter Investing
Pim van Vliet, PhD, is the author of High Returns from Low Risk: A Remarkable Stock Market Paradox with Jan de Koning. In the world of professional investing, a scary obsession…
From Darwin to Wall Street: A Rebuttal
This article is a rebuttal to Drew Estes’s “From Darwin to Wall Street: Harnessing Evolutionary Theory for Smarter Investments.” In his post, Estes argues that economics should borrow ideas from…
Retaining Top Investment Talent: Lessons Learned by Large Canadian Pension Plans
The Canadian pension plan system has long been lauded for its robust returns and resilience, especially in the face of volatile markets. One key aspect contributing to this success is…
The Hidden Environmental Costs of Tech Giants’ AI Investments
Global technology leaders including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft are increasingly integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into their product offerings. The substantial energy consumption associated with AI training and…