30 May 2018

Adapting to a New Reality: Investment Firms of the Future

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The CFA Institute Annual Conference is an unrivaled opportunity to access high-quality, unbiased educational content that equips investment professionals with the latest thinking on critical industry issues. The 72nd CFA Institute Annual Conference will be held in London on 12–15 May 2019.

Adapting to a New Reality: Investment Firms of the Future

Shifting cultural norms and quantum leaps in technology are accelerating change in the investment management industry. Firms that choose not to adapt by taking a client-first approach are “picking up pennies in front of a steamroller,” says Richard Brandweiner, CFA.

Brandweiner, CEO of Pendal Group, Australia, and former CIO of First State Super, one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, was on hand at the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference to discuss many of the findings of the just-released “Investment Firm of the Future” report with Virginie Maisonneuve, CFA, and Roger Urwin, FSIP, all collaborators on the CFA Institute Future of Finance initiative. Based on a survey of over 2,500 investment management professionals, the report builds on foundational research from an earlier study, “Future State of the Investment Profession,” and prescribes the shifts investment firms will need to make to ensure survival and success over the next decade.

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23 May 2018

The Rise of Active Indexing through ETFs

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The CFA Institute Annual Conference is an unrivaled opportunity to access high-quality, unbiased educational content that equips investment professionals with the latest thinking on critical industry issues. The 72nd CFA Institute Annual Conference will be held in London on 12–15 May 2019.

The Rise of Active Indexing through ETFs

Global assets in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) reached an astonishing $4.5 trillion at the end of 2017.

That’s a remarkable ascent given the relatively brief lifespan of the ETF, and it connotes a startling disruption of the investment management industry. After all, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) only just celebrated its 25th anniversary and the first modern “ETFs,” the Toronto 35 Index Participation units (TIPs), first went on sale in 1990.

But the real ETF-inspired disruption is in active indexing, Joanne M. Hill explained in her presentation at the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference in Hong Kong.

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21 May 2018

ESG Investing’s Growing Influence

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ESG Investing’s Growing Influence

The CFA Institute Annual Conference is an unrivaled opportunity to access high-quality, unbiased educational content that equips investment professionals with the latest thinking on critical industry issues. The 72nd CFA Institute Annual Conference will be held in London on 12–15 May 2019.

The integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into the institutional investment analysis and decision-making process is a mega-trend that investors can no longer ignore, says Emily Chew, ​global head of Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance Research and Integration at Manulife Asset Management.

Speaking at the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference in Hong Kong, Chew noted that there is a mindshift taking place in the financial industry that has both asset owners and managers increasingly treating ESG investing as part of their fiduciary duty. Further, clients are also demanding responsible investing, seeing it not only as a means of doing good, but also as a way to increase portfolio returns and manage risk. Read More

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19 May 2018

Why Everyone Hates Finance, and What to Do about It

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Why Everyone Hates Finance and What We Can Do about It

The CFA Institute Annual Conference is an unrivaled opportunity to access high-quality, unbiased educational content that equips investment professionals with the latest thinking on critical industry issues. The 72nd CFA Institute Annual Conference will be held in London on 12–15 May 2019.

Finance can be a noble profession, yet too many people don’t see it that way.

Mihir A. Desai, the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School and professor of law at Harvard Law School, explained why finance has a trust problem and offered a simple strategy to address it at the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference.

“Finance is being demonized, and it’s being demonized because people don’t understand it,” he said. “If we want to stop demonization, we have to make it accessible . . . And it turns out stories and the humanities are a really powerful way to do that.” Read More

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18 May 2018

Looking for an Asset Management Job in Asia? Time to Measure Up

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The CFA Institute Annual Conference is an unrivaled opportunity to access high-quality, unbiased educational content that equips investment professionals with the latest thinking on critical industry issues. The 72nd CFA Institute Annual Conference will be held in London on 12–15 May 2019.

At the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference in Hong Kong, a panel of executive search and development experts gave their thoughtful, but frank, insights into what regional, and especially Chinese, employers are looking for today. The panel was composed of Sehr Ahmed, founder and CEO of Executive Edge Limited; Nicolas Manset, managing director in the asset and wealth management practice at Russell Reynolds Associates; and Serina Wong, global sector leader for wealth management at Korn Ferry International.

Based on their remarks, you should take note of these key words: convergence, acquisition, agility, flexibility and technology. Oh, and if you want to work in China, think of adding Mandarin to the list. Understand their importance to recruiters, and and how you can meet their requirements. Read More

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17 May 2018

Top 10 Steven Eisman Quotes from Hong Kong

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The CFA Institute Annual Conference is an unrivaled opportunity to access high-quality, unbiased educational content that equips investment professionals with the latest thinking on critical industry issues. The 72nd CFA Institute Annual Conference will be held in London on 12–15 May 2019.

Top 10 Steve Eisman Quotes

Steven Eisman of The Big Short fame delivered an hour’s worth of pithy and insightful comments on the global financial crisis, the markets, and the finance industry at the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference in Hong Kong.

I selected 10 quotes from the session that were particularly compelling and offer a taste of what he covered in his full presentation.

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16 May 2018

Risk and Opportunities in Frontier Markets

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The CFA Institute Annual Conference is an unrivaled opportunity to access high-quality, unbiased educational content that equips investment professionals with the latest thinking on critical industry issues. The 72nd CFA Institute Annual Conference will be held in London on 12–15 May 2019.

Frontier markets are not for the faint of heart. The orderly lanes of a metropolitan city in Europe or North America are a far cry from the roads of a frontier market or emerging market economy. From navigating roads to investing in assets, the levels of uncertainty and volatility of outcomes in many of these markets are much higher.

But there are investors who think that the chaos inherent in these economies can be a source of significant returns. They look to profit from the economic growth that comes from molding disorder into order.

At the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference in Hong Kong, Andreas Vogelsanger, CFA, and Joyce Ng participated in a panel discussion on “Risk and Opportunities in Frontier Markets Investing,” providing an insightful discussion on the importance of this type of investing. Read More

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Decrypting Earnings Calls with Natural Language Processing

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Decrypting Earnings Calls with Natural Language Processing

The CFA Institute Annual Conference is an unrivaled opportunity to access high-quality, unbiased educational content that equips investment professionals with the latest thinking on critical industry issues. The 72nd CFA Institute Annual Conference will be held in London on 12–15 May 2019.

Finance professionals who are familiar with fintech already know that the future belongs to people who collaborate with robots and automated processes, not those who compete with them. David Pope, CFA, managing director at Quantamental Research at S&P Global Market Intelligence, is one collaborator who is ready to claim the future.

At the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference in Hong Kong, Pope discussed natural language processing (NLP) and how it can yield investment insights. NLP harnesses statistics and computerized data analysis to review primary data — in Pope’s examples, transcripts of corporate earnings calls — to reveal new information, say, about a company or its position relative to its peers. Read More

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Chinese Government Bonds: The Elephant in the Room

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The CFA Institute Annual Conference is an unrivaled opportunity to access high-quality, unbiased educational content that equips investment professionals with the latest thinking on critical industry issues. The 72nd CFA Institute Annual Conference will be held in London on 12–15 May 2019.

Chinese Government Bonds: The Elephant in the Room

China’s government fixed-income market constitutes a US $12-trillion opportunity.

Indeed, the growing investable opportunity in Chinese bonds was the primary takeaway from Emil Nguy’s presentation, “Asia’s Fixed-Income Market — The Elephant in the Room,” at the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference in Hong Kong.

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15 May 2018

The Selling Mindset: Career Strategies for Ascending the Ranks

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The CFA Institute Annual Conference is an unrivaled opportunity to access high-quality, unbiased educational content that equips investment professionals with the latest thinking on critical industry issues. The 72nd CFA Institute Annual Conference will be held in London on 12–15 May 2019.

The Selling Mindset: Career Strategies for Ascending the Ranks

Eric Sim, CFA, offered delegates a series of strategies for progressing up the corporate ladder at the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference. He based his advice on his years of experience in finance, culminating in his own managing director role at UBS.

Individually, his strategies may sound familiar, but taken together they offer a valuable road map for navigating an ascent up the professional ranks. Read More

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