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Tag Archives: 2013

Dec 30, 2013

Commodities Countdown: Top 13 of 2013

Despite another year of flat performance from the S&P GSCI, it was a roller-coaster year with energy holding up the broad index while gold had its worst year since 1981.  Below are the top 13 stories from 2013: 13.  Risky Assets, Safe Havens or Lost Identities?   All commodities in the S&P GSCI and the DJ-UBS…

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Dec 19, 2013

Eighty-one years later…

Harbouring year-end reviews and final accounts, the last weeks of December are infused with nostalgia. In this seasonal spirit, I’d like to draw your attention to an under-celebrated piece of work, completed in the year that Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Shirley Temple saw their debuts on the silver screen. In 1932, Fred had not…

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Dec 13, 2013

Volquakes

Volatility can feel like an earthquake. As many investors can painfully testify, the chart below is typical of volatility.  A period of relative calm is disturbed first by a few small tremors, then by a precipitous rise.  At this point, risk breaks all connections with its normal level and climbs rapidly to a crystalized zenith…

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Dec 3, 2013

Passively Active: A Passage to India

Globally, over 6 billion U.S. dollars are invested in India Equity ETFs, although less than 200 million via products listed in India.  It’s reasonable to suppose that Indian demand is reflected in the local figures, transferring wealth across Indian borders is both difficult and expensive.  Thus, on the face of it, these figures suggest general…

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Oct 31, 2013

Where’s my free lunch?

Ever since Harry Markowitz published his June 1953 paper on portfolio selection, investors both institutional and retail have subscribed to the theory that diversification – and its use in combination with mean-variance optimized allocations – universally widens and almost always improves the possibilities of risk and return. At its core, the theory states that an…

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Oct 22, 2013

Passive Risk Management

In major cities at this time of year, an army of street vendors bristling with umbrellas await their chance to emerge in entrepreneurial fervour, providing tourists and commuters alike with immediate respite from unanticipated rain. It’s a viable business strategy: the chaotic nature of weather means that occasional rainfall remains practically impossible to predict*, hence…

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Sep 17, 2013

If it ain’t broke, don’t VIX it

Within the last week, we’ve read about threats of another war in the Middle East, collapsing currencies across emerging markets, imminent rumblings of yet another Greek bailout.  As of this writing, there is one day left until the Fed’s much anticipated pronouncement on the “end” of QE.  Talk abounds of September being the worst month…

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Sep 10, 2013

Man Bites Dog

Everyone wants to invest with the ‘smartest guys in the room’. But what do the smartest guys invest in? Well, a poll of mutual fund professionals suggests a very surprising result. As regular readers of this blog will know, while there are plenty of managers who can show attractive returns over the past few quarters…

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