
Setting the Standard
When deciding to outsource or host software solutions with vendors it pays to know how they intend to deliver such a service. Software vendors write software, what makes them capable of hosting that s

The Future Landscape of Performance Attribution
It is now 20 years since the publication in the Financial Analysts Journal of the “Determinants of portfolio performance” by Brinson, Hood and Beebower, and together with “Measuring non-US equity port

Building a compliance culture in turbulent times
The Financial crisis has focused investment firms more than ever on the need to better monitor and manage risk. The conveyor-belt of ever more complex investment products has slowed and firms face inc

When box ticking goes too far
“Computer says no!” is how I felt when told of the decision of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a subsidiary of Riskmetrics, to declare that all our Non-Executive Directors (NED) were not “in

How sharp is the Sharpe ratio?
Any discussion on risk-adjusted performance measures must start with the grandfather of all risk measures the Sharpe Ratio or Reward to Variability which divides the excess return of a portfolio in ex

The Real Cost of Software
Software costs money. This cost is pretty visible, you get an invoice from your software vendor depending on the model; one off license costs, annual support agreements, annual subscriptions, upgrades

What’s the benefit – putting performance and attribution into context
People form habits and after a while they tend to lose focus on why they do things. They do them because they do them. Asset managers do performance measurement so they buy performance measurement. Th

Money Weighted versus Time Weighted Attribution
In one sense there ought not to be too much discussion about the relative merits of money-weighted or time-weighted attribution, the attribution methodology must be consistent with the methodology use