Day one of this event focused on portable alpha, while day two (Thursday) will focus on 130/30.  Trying to draw a link between the two days has been left up to Alpha Male as moderator of a panel called “A side by side look at portable alpha and short extension strategies”.  Wish me luck.

Blazing a trail for me today were several regular portable alpha commentators including the following…

Yoshiki Ohmura, head of portable alpha strategies at GAM, told the crowd here that portable alpha strategies don’t actually overlay alpha onto beta, but overlay beta onto an alpha source.  While it may sound pedantic, this interpretation supports the view that portable alpha is as much about betas as it is about alphas (as discussed above).  In addition, he said that alpha often contains extranious betas (what other, more saucy commentators have called dirty beta).

Man Investments’ Angelo Calvello led an interesting panel on whether portable alpha had lived up to the hype.  A fierce advocate of alpha-centric investing, Calvello argued that portable alpha is anything but a fad.  While bristling at the term paradigm shift, he did pronounce to the audience that shift happens!.

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