Market risk
From Russia... with gloves on
Shareholder activism in Russia has historically been a distinctly dangerous pastime, but for investors in The Hermitage Fund and its manager William Browder, it has produced returns of 990% since 1996.
Meeting the challenge of Basel II head on
Banking sector
Found in translation
While risk managers have become focused on value-at-risk and similar risk metrics,these may not be the best way of communicating risk to stakeholders. BrettHumphreys discusses how to improve communications
Forum emerges from the pack
LW Asset Management's Mark Weiss explains the case for emerging markets and the firm's Forum Absolute Return Fund
Maximum drawdown
The maximum loss from a market peak to a market nadir, commonly called the maximum drawdown (MDD), measures how sustained one’s losses can be. Malik Magdon-Ismail and Amir Atiya present analytical results relating the MDD to the mean return and the…
Views from the bridge
Governments
Captain currency
Profile
The misdirected directive?
Germany's financial regulator, BaFin, tried to steal a march on its European rivals by implementing a new directive that should open the door to asset managers investing in new products and using over-the-counter derivatives. But did it get it wrong?
The oil baron whodigs gold
HFR talks to Daniel Masters of Global Advisors about prospecting for profit as the fissures open up in oil, energy and metals prices
Systematic profits
Trading in around 100 futures markets, Aspect Capital's Trading Fund has produced a net return of 45% since its inception in 2000. While the programme behind the fund is completely systematic, Martin Lueck, research director at the London firm, explains…
Low implied volatility hampers activity
New Angles
The misdirected directive?
Asset management
Europe's insurers get used to a stricter regime
Regulators are increasingly bearing down on insurers as the market looks to establish better risk management practices. With the Solvency II proposals being drafted, what are insurance companies doing to make sure they can comply with the stricter…
Viva lost vegas
Weather risk
Estimating economic capital allocations for market and credit risk
Value-at-Risk (VAR) measures often are used as a basis for setting so-called"economic capital" or buffer stock measures of equity capitalization requirements.VAR measures do not account for the time value of money or theequilibrium required return…
The drivers of risk
Strategies
Collateralization: A safety net for investors?
The proliferation of credit derivatives has given rise to the widespread use of collateralization—posting collateral against the risk of default. But as Saskia Scholtes reports, this practice may be creating its own risks.
Collateralization: A safety net for investors?
The proliferation of credit derivatives has given rise to the widespread use of collateralization—posting collateral against the risk of default. But as Saskia Scholtes reports, this practice may be creating its own risks.
The Monte Carlo mindset
There is a rich seam to be mined in the provision of tools to calculate counterparty credit risk. Clive Davidson looks at what's on offer so far, and what could be coming on to the market.