Presentations and full transcripts from the PortfolioConstruction Conference 2004 are now available...

At a recent financial planning conference in Toronto, Burton Malkiel - author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street – answered the question "Will indexing work as well in the next 30 years as it has for the last decade?" and previewed his research into hedge funds…

With inflation gathering steam, US Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) and TIPS funds – essentially inflation-linked bonds – are becoming more popular due to their inflation hedging properties, according to S&P...

According to a new study by Cerulli Associates, while mutual funds remain a central part of US financial advisers' businesses, they are losing ground to hedge funds, private equity funds, ETFs, and, in particular, SMAs. And 60% of younger advisers plan on increasing their usage of non-traditional products...

As advisers strive for lower management fess and better performing investments for their clients, LICs have emerged as a potentially inexpensive and attractive alternative. But what are they, what are the advantages, and more importantly, what should you look for - and look out for...

Hedge funds do not provide the benefits advisers are led to believe, according to an article in the January 2004 issue of the US Journal of Financial Planning...

Active management is proportionately more important now than it ever has been, and new and viable types of active return are emerging, argued David Brown, QIC's senior fund manager strategy at December's Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable. Here are images of David's presentation slides, with full notes...

I'm not sure we got an answer to the question "Should international equities be actively or passively managed?" - at the last Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable meeting of 2003...

A key focus of each Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable program is the question & answer time where our Inquisitors grill the presenters - in this case, QIC's David Brown and ASX's John Elfverson - on the topic - in this case, active vs passive management of international equities...

Active Australian equity fund managers can and do outperform, but international managers struggle to do so, contended John Elfverson, ASX manager quantitative analysis market information at at December's Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable. Here are images of John's presentation slides, with full notes...