Carbon portfolio management

The aim of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is that by 2020, emissions from sectors covered by the EU ETS will be 21% lower than in 2005. In addition to large CO 2 emitting companies covered by the scheme, other participants have entered the market with a view of using emission allowances for the diversification of their investment portfolios. The performance of this asset as a stand alone investment and its portfolio diversification implications will be investigated in this paper. Our results indicate that the market views Phases 1, 2, and 3 European Union allowance futures as unattractive as stand alone investments. In a portfolio context, in Phase 1, once the short-selling option is added, there are considerable portfolio benefits. However, our results indicate that these benefits only existed briefly during the pilot stage of the EU ETS. There is no evidence to suggest portfolio diversification benefits exist for Phase 2 or the early stages of Phase 3

Decentralized Portfolio Management

Within a mean-variance model we analyze the problem of decentralized portfolio management. We find the solution for the optimal portfolio allocation for a head trader operating in n different markets, which is called the optimal centralized portfolio. However, as there are many traders specialized in different markets, the solution to the problem of optimal decentralized allocation should be different from the centralized case. In this paper we derive conditions for the solutions to be equivalent. We use multivariate normal returns and a negative exponential function to solve the problem analytically. We generate the equivalence of solutions by assuming that different traders face different interest rates for borrowing and lending. This interest rate is dependent on the ratio of the degrees of risk aversion of the trader and the head trader, on the excess return, and on the correlation between asset returns.

Delegated Portfolio Management

In this paper, we examine optimal portfolio decisions within a decentralized framework. There are many portfolio managers choosing optimal portfolio weights in a mean-variance framework and taking decisions in a decentralized way. However, the overall portfolio may not be efficient, as the portfolio managers do not take into account the overall covariance matrix. We show that the initial endowment that portfolio managers can use within the firm in order to manage their portfolios can be used as a control variable by the top administration and redistributed within the firm in order to achieve overall efficiency.

Portfolio Construction in Global Financial Markets

This paper presents a classroom simulation that can be used to introduce the concepts of portfolio management and asset allocation in the presence of global markets. While there are portfolio management games and stock trading games that are designed to cover an entire semester, this simulation provides a single period introduction to portfolio management. The simulation also creates an environment in which students discover how exchange rate volatility can affect investment returns of global funds.

Active vs. Passive Portfolio Management

In the finance community there is a huge debate about whether or not active portfolio managers can provide better returns than passive managers. While active managers often provide excess returns, the costs of running an active fund offset whatever gains were made in the market. The objective of this report is to figure out whether or not active funds provide larger returns than passive funds on a cost adjusted basis. This report will identify which type of fund is a more cost effective investment, as well as identify different properties of funds and how they operate. The goal of doing this research is to provide information to the average investor, rather than a multi-millionaire, about what kind of fund may be more appropriate for them to invest in. To successfully complete this project I collected quantitative fund data from fidelity, and qualitative information from various finance and business journals. After running a multivariate analysis of variance on my data I found that passive funds in the 1 year period provided significantly greater returns than active funds on a cost adjusted basis. Next, over the 3 year period, there was no significant difference between the returns of active and passive stock funds. However, during the 5 year period return active funds proved to be a more cost effective investment strategy. From my results I have concluded that active portfolio management is not a more cost effective investment tool than passive management

Retirement Savings Portfolio Management

We assess the welfare implications of alternative retirement plan investment options given that households may not invest according to optimal portfolio choice theory but may instead use simple decision rules. We simulate the performance of lifestyle, lifecycle, and other simple strategies for allocating retirement savings. We find that if investors use simple rules of thumb to choose investments, then the impact of these strategies on welfare depend to a large extent on the choice set they are offered. If larger choice sets cause them to undertake more risk, then risk tolerant individuals may tend to be made better off. If larger choice sets cause them to reduce suboptimally low levels of portfolio risk, then the increased choice set may make them substantially worse off. The welfare effects of plan designs that induce lifecycle investing, which tends to be conservative over the lifetime, therefore depend crucially on the counterfactual portfolio composition, as well as preferences and non-retirement wealth.

Delegated portfolio management: a survey of the theoretical literature

This paper provides a selective review of the theoretical literature on delegated portfolio management as a principal-agent relationship. The main focus of the paper is to review the analytical issues raised by the peculiar nature of the delegated portfolio management relationship within the broader class of principalagent models. In particular, the paper discusses the performance of linear vs. nonlinear compensation contracts in a single-period setting, the possible effects of limited liability of portfolio managers, the role of reputational concerns in a multiperiod framework, and the incentives to noise trading. In addition, the paper deals with some general equilibrium dimensions and asset pricing implications of delegated portfolio management. The paper also suggests some directions for future research. JEL Classification: D82, G11adverse selection, agency, Delegated portfolio management, Moral Hazard, principal-agent models

A Project Portfolio Management model adapted to non-profit organizations

As they strive towards greater professionalism in carrying out their activities, non-profit organizations (NPOs) have begun paying attention to project management. The non-profit sector (NPS) has also begun to adopt strategic planning techniques, thus making the acceptance of project portfolio management (PPM) methodology a natural consequence. This article aims to propose a project portfolio management model adapted to the context of NPOs

Parametric Immunization in Bond Portfolio Management

In this paper, we evaluate the relative immunization performance of the multifactor parametric interest rate risk model based on the Nelson-Siegel-Svensson specification of the yield curve with that of standard benchmark investment strategies, using European Central Bank yield curve data in the period between January 3, 2005 and December 31, 2011. In addition, we examine the role of portfolio design in the success of immunization strategies, particularly the role of the maturity bond. Considering multiperiod tests, the goal is to assess, in a highly volatile interest rate period, whether the use of the multifactor parametric immunization model contributes to improve immunization performance when compared to traditional single-factor duration strategies and whether durationmatching portfolios constrained to include a bond maturing near the end of the holding period prove to be an appropriate immunization strategy. Empirical results show that: (i) immunization models (single- and multi-factor) remove most of the interest rate risk underlying a naïve or maturity strategy; (ii) duration-matching portfolios constrained to include the maturity bond and formed using a single-factor model outperform the traditional duration-matching portfolio set up using a ladder portfolio and provide appropriate protection against interest rate risk; (iii) the multifactor parametric model outperforms all the other non-duration and duration-matching strategies, behaving almost like a perfect immunization asset; (iv) these results are consistent to changes in the rebalancing frequency of bond portfolios

Overconfidence and Delegated Portfolio Management

Following extensive empirical evidence about market anomalies and overconfidence, the analysis of financial markets with agents overconfident about the precision of their private information has received a lot of attention.However, all these models consider agents trading for their own account.In this article, we analyse a standard delegated portfolio management problem between a financial institution and a money manager who may be of two types: rational or overconfident.We consider several situations.In each case, we derive the optimal contract and results on the performance of financial institution hiring overconfident managers relative to institutions hiring rational agents, and results on the price impact of overconfidence.portfolio management;financial markets;financial instutions