Conference proceedings amount to alpha-centric radar screen

15 July 2007

In the spring, we told you about a couple of conferences put on by Pensions & Investments “the international newspaper of money management”.  The twin events were called the “Absolute Return / Alpha Conferences” and were held during consecutive weeks in both San Francisco and New York in May.

P&I recently posted the conference proceedings and most of the slideware from the event on their website.  Naturally, it’s hard to follow many of these presentations without the benefit of having heard them yourself.  But for those of us who were busy those weeks, the presentation materials are still somewhat indicative of major trends and issues in alpha-centric investing. 

The agendas for both events were basically the same (with one notable exception - see below).  Here is a listing of some of the more alpha-centric agenda items along with links to related AllAboutAlpha.com content:

• Using Fixed Income as an Alpha Source: Prudential’s Peter Cordrey discusses fixed income portable alpha (see related posting)  
• Alpha, Beta, Absolute Return, Relative Return: Jargon or Helpful Concept?: Conference chair Diane Garnick performs a much needed reality-check (see related posting). 
• Why Institutions Can’t Get Enough Alternative Investments: Casey Quirk’s Kevin Quirk presents findings from the 2006 BNY-sponsored study of institutional demand for hedge funds (see related posting) 
• 130/30 Strategies: Myths and Realities: New York Life present an overview of 1X0/X0 (see related postings, and 1X0/X0 research dossier)
• Portable Alpha Solutions: The Next Generation: GAM presents what it calls a “paradigm shift in institutional asset management.  “Next generation” of portable alpha echoes Man Investments’ “bundled portable alpha” (see related posting)
• Global Portable Alpha: ING on constructing portable alpha solutions from global assets.  Also includes quite a few slides on mixing portable alpha with LDI. (see related postings on tactical asset allocation and LDI, and LDI research dossier)

The East Coast rendition included a solo by Harvard’s Randy Cohen.  Alpha Male is a fan of Cohen and has spoken at some of the same alpha-centric conferences in the past.  We covered one of Cohen’s articles last fall - see “Are Hedge Fund Fees a Bargain? And Other Conundrums of Balancing Active & Passive Management” and we think his slide presentation from this P&I event is also well worth a read.

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