CFA Book 4 Copy Flashcards
(138 cards)
alt investments | 6 types
Traditional:
- real estate (including infrastructure funds)
- private equity (including buyout funds)
- commodities Modern:
- hedge funds
- managed futures
- distressed securities
alt investments | 3 roles AI can play in portfolio
- exposure to risk factors and return unavailable with stocks and bonds: real estate, long commodities
- exposure to special strats and manager skill: hedge funds, managed futures
- combo of 1 & 2: PE and distressed securities
alt investments | common features across alt investments
- low liquidity
- good diversification (low corr)
- due diligence costs
- difficult performance evaluation
alt investments | evaluation process
Assess:
- plausibility of market opportunity
- investment process / manager edge
- organization
- people
- investment terms and structure
- service providers
- review documents
- write up review results
alt investments | issues for private wealth clients
- taxes
- suitability (eg. time horizon)
- communication: many investors not sophisticated
- decision risk: emotionally abandoning a strategy at the point of maximum loss
- concentrated positions (rem: large taxable gains)
alt investment | real estate: direct and indirect investment
- direct: direct ownership of real estate; direct management of assets
- indirect: well defined middle group managing assets
alt investment | real estate: indirect investments
- companies that manage and develop real estate
- REITs: publicaly traded like stock, liquid
- CREFs: for wealth investors
- Separately managed accts: similar to CREFs
- Infrastructure funds: buy public infrastructure; stable, low return
alt investment | real estate: pros & cons
pros:
1. low corr w stocks and bonds
2. low volatility
3. inflation hedge
cons:
1. high information and trans costs
2. tax law changes
3. high op costs
4. can’t subdivide invesment
5. each asset has idiosyncratic risk
alt investment | private equity: traits
- aka PE
- ownership interest in non-public company
- limited to the wealthy or institutions
- investment: pref shares, VC, buyout funds
alt investment | private equity: 2 main types
- venture capital: startups
◎ high risk - buyout funds: buy existing public companies from shareholders
◎ middle market buyout fund: buy spin-offs
◎ mega-cap: buy whole pubic companies
◎ infrastructure: buy public infrastructure (roads, airports)
◎ less risk than VC
alt investment | private equity: return / risks
return:
1. restructure mng and ops
2. buy company for less than intrinsic
3. leverage or restructure existing debt
risk:
1. high risk, many failures
2. low liquidity
alt investment | private equity: exit from investment
- IPO
- private placement
- dividend recapitalization: company exchanges equity for debt in cap structure >> investors extract cash from company, retain ownership
alt investments | commodities: direct vs indirect
- direct: direct purchase of commodity or derivatives
- indirect: invest in business associated with commodities
- indirect has shown poor tracking with commodity prices
- most common is direct with derivatives
alt investments | commodities: pros & cons
pros:
1. uncorr with stocks and bonds
2. inflation hedge
3. fairly liquid
• business cycle sensitivity is also trait (???)
alt investments | hedge funds: traits
- funds that pool money to take non-systemic risk
- target absolute return uncorr to mkt
- initially, long-short funds
- unreg
- high fees
- “exploit arbitrage opportunities”
alt investments | hedge funds: 9 types
- equity market neutral
- convertible arbitrage
- fixed-income arbitrage
- distressed securities
- merger arbitragge
- hedged equity
- global macro
- emerging markets
- fund of funds (FOF)
alt investments | managed future funds: traits
- similar to hedge fund: structure, 2/20
- invests only derivatives
- vehicles are private commodity pools, CTAs (SMA’s), public commodity futures funds
- risk: equity > futures fund > bonds
- negative, low corr with equities, positive, low corr w bonds
alt investments | managed future funds vs hedge funds
- only derivatives (MMF) vs any asset, spot and futures (HF)
- macro (MMF) vs micro (HF)
alt investments | managed future funds: strats
- systematic trading strats
◎ trend following rules
◎ contrarian rules (rare) - discretionary
- focus on mkt (eg. financial or currency or diversified)
alt investment | real estate
- residences, commerical, raw land and associated industries
- low liquidity
- high diversification
alt investment | commodity investments
agri products, oil, metals
alt investments | distressed funds
- debt or equity
- hedge fund (more liquid) or PE (less liquid)
alt investments | real estate: benchmarks
• direct: NCREIF index
◎ value weighted
◎ annual appraisal >> downward vol bias
• indirect: NAREIT index
◎ cap-weighted
◎ live, up-to-date
• downward bias in vol, risk
• good diversification vs equity, bonds (REITs somewhat less so)
alt investments | PE: benchmarks
- Cambridge Assoc., Thompson Venture Economics, custom
- few price points >> appraisal >> downward vol bias
- vintage year corr >> comparisons by year