Currency overlay is the management of the currency exposure inherent in cross-border institutional investments. Exposure to foreign currencies increases the volatility of their returns, without increasing the returns themselves and academics and consultants recommended that the currency exposure should be stripped out of international portfolios and eliminated as far as practicable. This book provides a comprehensive description of currency overlay, its history and possible future developments and growth, the reason for its emergence, the debates and controversies, the different styles of currency management, and the industry's performance track record. This is a subject of international appeal and is an area of particular growth potential for institutional investors. Coverage includes: The theoretical case for eliminating currency risk in international portfolios The interplay between asset returns and currency returns, and the effect of this on hedging decisions Benchmarks - their construction and strategic role Least-cost passive overlay The structure of the currency market, and its 'inefficiencies' Active overlay styles Active overlay both restricted and unrestricted (currency alpha) Uses diagrams, charts, tables and explanatory boxes to explain concepts

This volume provides comprehensive coverage of currency overlay management in investment portfolios while alerting you to all of the various methods and models you will need to stay at the forefront of this challenging field.

Currency Strategy, Second Edition develops new techniques and explains classic tools available for predicting, managing, and optimizing fluctuations in the currency markets. Author Callum Henderson shows readers ho to use mathematical models to assist in the prediction of crises and gives practical advice on how to use these and other tools successfully. Given there such huge focus on China at the moment, the timing of this new edition is particularly important. The new edition will feature a thorough update on the key developments in the past 3 years, new chapters on emerging markets, an in-depth review of the markets of China and India and their currencies and much more.

Portfolio Management in Practice, Volume 1: Investment Management delivers a comprehensive overview of investment management for students and industry professionals. As the first volume in the CFA Institute’s new Portfolio Management in Practice series, Investment Management offers professionals looking to enhance their skillsets and students building foundational knowledge an essential understanding of key investment management concepts. Designed to be an accessible resource for a wide range of learners, this volume explores the full portfolio management process. Inside, readers will find detailed coverage of: Forming capital market expectations Principles of the asset allocation process Determining investment strategies within each asset class Integrating considerations specific to high net worth individuals or institutions into chosen strategies And more To apply the concepts outlined in the Investment Management volume, explore the accompanying Portfolio Management in Practice, Volume 1: Investment Management Workbook. The perfect companion resource, this workbook aligns chapter-by-chapter with Investment Management for easy referencing so readers can draw connections between theoretical content and challenging practice problems. Featuring contributions from the CFA Institute’s subject matter experts, Portfolio Management in Practice, Volume 1: Investment Management distills the knowledge forward-thinking professionals will need to succeed in today’s fast-paced financial world.

Since the advent of floating exchange rates the management of currency risk has grown in importance and investors increasingly implement active currency overlay strategies in order to enhance overall risk-adjusted returns. Accordingly, much research has been devoted to the development and analysis of currency strategies, which are either based on fundamental or technical factors. However, most studies focus on strategies that are based on one factor only, whereas my approach is to analyze the profitability of active currency overlay strategies that are based on multiple factors. In particular, I forecast exchange rates with four different factor combinations and implement the resulting multifactor signals by means of four different currency allocation strategies. My results show that all tested active currency overlay strategies outperform the corresponding benchmark strategies even if transaction costs are accounted for.

Campbell, Serfaty-De Medeiros, and Viceira (2010) propose an optimized method to hedge currency risk in portfolios of international equities. In a demanding out-of-sample test, incorporating transaction and rebalancing costs, and margin requirements we find their method reduces risk in real time, but also underperforms economically a naïve alternative or even a purely domestic portfolio. We propose modeling the currency hedging strategy as a function of characteristics proxying for expected returns and risk. We find that using currency momentum, value, carry, and autocorrelation significantly reduces the cost of hedging. Proxies for risk, such as volatility, skewness, beta on volatility, and equity sensitivity are irrelevant in our optimizations. Our optimal strategy is close to a fully hedged portfolio, but with a sizable 38% gain in Sharpe ratio.

This book analyses investment management policies for institutional investors. It is composed of four parts. The first one analyses the various types of institutional investors, institutions which, with different objectives, professionally manage portfolios of financial and real assets on behalf of a wide variety of individuals. This part goes on with an in-depth analysis of the economic, technical and regulatory characteristics of the different types of investment funds and of other types of asset management products, which have a high rate of substitutability with investment funds and represent their natural competitors. The second part of the book identifies and investigates the stages of the investment portfolio management. Given the importance of strategic asset allocation in explaining the ex post performance of any type of investment portfolio, this part provides an in-depth analysis of asset allocation methods, illustrating the different theoretical and operational solutions available to institutional investors. The third part describes performance assessment, its breakdown and risk control, with an in-depth examination of performance evaluation techniques, returns-based style analysis approaches, and performance attribution models. Finally, the fourth part deals with the subject of diversification into alternative asset classes, identifying the common characteristics and their possible role within the framework of investment management policies. This part analyses hedge funds, private equity, real estate, commodities, and currency overlay techniques.