Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,0, Texas A&M University (Texas A&M University-Commerce), language: English, abstract: This thesis examines optimized portfolios of three investor types during four different time intervals ranging from 1998 to 2013 to determine if the inclusion of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) has benefits for institutional investors such as pension plans, university endowments, foundations and sovereign wealth funds. The three investor types used in this study differ in their risk tolerance, with the more risk-averse investor type choosing not to include certain asset classes in his investment portfolio. The efficient frontier algorithm, developed by Prof. Harry Markowitz, is used to determine whether the inclusion of TIPS improves the risk/return profile of the portfolio. Sharpe ratio, developed by Prof. William Sharpe, is used to measure a portfolio’s risk adjusted performance. The study found that the benefits of the inclusion of TIPS in a portfolio vary by time period and investor type. While all investors were able to improve their risk return profile, the more risk-averse investor type benefits to a larger degree from the inclusion of TIPS. Furthermore, a significant increase in the financial efficiency was only observed in the 1998 to 2002 period. Therefore, the researcher concludes that the TIPS market is quite dynamic and investors need to take into account forward-looking information to profit from the inclusion of TIPS in investment portfolios.

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).

This book is essential in understanding, investing and risk managing the holy grail of investments - structured products. The book begins by introducing structured products by way of a basic guide so that readers will be able to understand a payoff graphic, read a termsheet or assess a payoff formula, before moving on to the key asset classes and their peculiarities. Readers will then move on to the more advanced subjects such as structured products construction and behaviour during their lifetime. It also explains how to avoid important pitfalls in products across all asset classes, pitfalls that have led to huge losses over recent years, including detailed coverage of counterparty risk, the fall of Lehman Brothers and other key aspects of the financial crisis related to structured products. The second part of the book presents an original approach to implementing structured products in a portfolio. Key features include: A comprehensive list of factors an investor needs to take into consideration before investing. This makes it a great help to any buyer of structured products; Unbiased advice on product investments across several asset classes: equities, fixed income, foreign exchange and commodities; Guidance on how to implement structured products in a portfolio context; A comprehensive questionnaire that will help investors to define their own investment preferences, allowing for a greater precision when facing investment decisions; An original approach determining the typical distribution of returns for major product types, essential for product classification and optimal portfolio implementation purposes; Written in a fresh, clear and understandable style, with many figures illustrating the products and very little mathematics. This book will enable you to better comprehend the use of structured products in everyday banking, quickly analyzing a product, assessing which of your clients it suits, and recognizing its major pitfalls. You will be able to see the added value versus the cost of a product and if the payoff is compatible with the market expectations.

Where to invest for growth can be a daunting decision for even an experienced investor. For a beginner, it can seem downright impossible. The author covers in this investment guide all kinds of investments including the stocks, treasury securities, municipal and corporate bonds, mutual funds and exchange traded funds and introduces even the master limited partnerships and real estate investment trusts. Some of the highlights of coverage are the concept of compounding and dollar cost averaging selection and analysis of stocks using the fundamental approach to stock evaluation supplemented with technical analysis selection and analysis of mutual funds and ETFs asset allocation, diversification and rebalancing guidelines for buying and selling the securities evaluating market levels and the discussion of market volatility and crash economic and tax considerations in investing

Many people devote their time to choosing “the right” stocks. Yet they bypass an important step that will have an even greater impact on their portfolio’s performance: asset allocation. The Standard & Poor’s Guide to the Perfect Portfolio is the definitive road map to diversifying your financial holdings in order to get the highest returns with the lowest risk and ensure a secure financial future. You can beat 90% of money managers with a properly balanced portfolio of mixed investment classes. Investment expert and columnist Michael Kaye presents a clear and reliable approach to asset allocation. He helps investors at every level to better understand all the major investment products available and how to best use them to achieve investor’s specific goals. Kaye shows you five essential steps to allocate your assets: Identify your goals and objectives Choose the right asset classes for your portfolio Determine how much of your assets belong in each class Pick your investment products Monitor your portfolio and make adjustments as needed The Standard & Poor’s Guide to the Perfect Portfolio is packed with examples of portfolio mixes that illustrate many ways to balance your assets based on different risk profiles and investment goals. A range of relevant, reliable advice shows you how to successfully consider such factors as where you are in your career, what your financial needs are, and your personal tolerance to risk.