AllAboutAlpha.com spoke to John Zito, portfolio manager for credit opportunities at Brencourt, about some of the strategies Brencourt has employed and continues to employ in its search for alpha. He observed that one of the main investment strategies pursued by the Credit Opportunities Fund in particular is capital structure arbitrage.

There are high hopes that the new UCITS framework that took effect in July could herald rationalisation amongst Europe’s regulated hedge funds. While tax factors could slow down the process, UCITS has plenty of other growth drivers besides cost savings.

You and your neighbour are good friends and, like Dagwood Bumstead and Herb Woodley, you share tools all the time. Then one day it occurs to you that Herb has lots of tools that he isn't using, or using well. Why not, you say, make an offer on his garage and its contents. Of course, Herb will have his own terms and conditions – and maybe extract a price if the deal falls through.

Will they or won't they? BNYMellon Asset Management looks at commercial real estate and speculates on the future of--dare we say it--CMBS....

Alpha isn't always where you'd expect it, especially in the crowded private equity field.

Corporate CEOs aren't the only ones who dread the appearance of activist hedge fund managers on their radar screens. Activists are giving the accounting departments pause as well, according to a new paper by Hall and Trombley.

Fees for alternative investments, particularly for private equity, are a long-standing issue that likely will never be resolved, but investors and managers alike keep trying, according to a recent survey by Preqin.

What's it all about, this alpha? And for that matter, where is it? Dr. Bob Swarup tackles the real meanings of alpha and beta.

If everyone is the best, then no one is the best. A look at private equity performance.

By Christopher Faille On August 11, Credit Suisse’s Asset Management Division issued a new white paper, “Commodities Outlook: Increased Volatility, Increased Opportunity?”  This paper takes the long view of the issue of returns on commodities, taking us back to the 1970s – not to commune with our inner John Travolta or Donna Summer, but in order [...]

The adage that everything in moderation is a good thing doesn't necessarily apply to funds of hedge funds, according to a recent academic report.

By Christopher Faille Hedge funds are accustomed to outsourcing a variety of daily activities, from front to back office. Many do get nervous, though, about how far their outsourcing should go. Their skittishness increases as such proposals encroach upon the way they generate alpha, the matters that must be kept secret: idea generation, supportive research, a [...]

By Christopher Faille A presentation by Samuel Kunz, chief investment officer of the Policeman’s Annuity and Benefit Fund, Chicago, to the CFA Institute 2011 Asset and Risk Allocation conference addressed the pros and cons of “risk parity.”  His presentation makes it seem that risk-parity portfolios (RPP) and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) are sibling rivals. [...]

By Christopher Faille It might be the subject of a Sesame Street episode.  “R is an important letter.  It stands for Rate and Return and Risk-Free and lots of other words!”  Yet, like Oscar the Grouch if deprived of his garbage can, R has lost its fixed abode. Much of the mathematics of finance over the last [...]

By Christopher Faille It is possible to be nostalgic about the era before computerized trading, and thus before high frequency trading (HFT), when the transmission of orders took place by means of a human voice over a landline telephone.  But we must qualify any such nostalgia.  Consider that the market makers at Nasdaq as recently as [...]