This chapter comes from ETF Strategies & Tactics, which provides a detailed account of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), covering how they work, their distinctive characteristics, who trades them, who owns them, and their advantages and disadvantages. The authors present techniques for determining the viability of specific ETF funds, including their value in sector investing and international investing. This authoritative reference will keep you on top of your game by providing focused decision-making techniques that help determine the viability of any ETF, including its value in sector and international investing.
This chapter comes from ETF Strategies & Tactics, which provides a detailed account of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), covering how they work, their distinctive characteristics, who trades them, who owns them, and their advantages and disadvantages. The authors present techniques for determining the viability of specific ETF funds, including their value in sector investing and international investing. This authoritative reference will keep you on top of your game by providing focused decision-making techniques that help determine the viability of any ETF, including its value in sector and international investing.
The Science of Algorithmic Trading and Portfolio Management, with its emphasis on algorithmic trading processes and current trading models, sits apart from others of its kind. Robert Kissell, the first author to discuss algorithmic trading across the various asset classes, provides key insights into ways to develop, test, and build trading algorithms. Readers learn how to evaluate market impact models and assess performance across algorithms, traders, and brokers, and acquire the knowledge to implement electronic trading systems. This valuable book summarizes market structure, the formation of prices, and how different participants interact with one another, including bluffing, speculating, and gambling. Readers learn the underlying details and mathematics of customized trading algorithms, as well as advanced modeling techniques to improve profitability through algorithmic trading and appropriate risk management techniques. Portfolio management topics, including quant factors and black box models, are discussed, and an accompanying website includes examples, data sets supplementing exercises in the book, and large projects. Prepares readers to evaluate market impact models and assess performance across algorithms, traders, and brokers. Helps readers design systems to manage algorithmic risk and dark pool uncertainty. Summarizes an algorithmic decision making framework to ensure consistency between investment objectives and trading objectives.
This publication aims to fill the void between books providing an introduction to derivatives, and advanced books whose target audience are members of quantitative modelling community. In order to appeal to the widest audience, this publication tries to assume the least amount of prior knowledge. The content quickly moves onto more advanced subjects in order to concentrate on more practical and advanced topics. "A master piece to learn in a nutshell all the essentials about volatility with a practical and lively approach. A must read!" Carole Bernard, Equity Derivatives Specialist at Bloomberg "This book could be seen as the 'volatility bible'!" Markus-Alexander Flesch, Head of Sales & Marketing at Eurex "I highly recommend this book both for those new to the equity derivatives business, and for more advanced readers. The balance between theory and practice is struck At-The-Money" Paul Stephens, Head of Institutional Marketing at CBOE "One of the best resources out there for the volatility community" Paul Britton, CEO and Founder of Capstone Investment Advisors "Colin has managed to convey often complex derivative and volatility concepts with an admirable simplicity, a welcome change from the all-too-dense tomes one usually finds on the subject" Edmund Shing PhD, former Proprietary Trader at BNP Paribas "In a crowded space, Colin has supplied a useful and concise guide" Gary Delany, Director Europe at the Options Industry Council
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have become in their 25-year history one of the fastest growing segments of the investment management business. These funds provide liquid access to virtually every financial market and allow large and small investors to build institutional-caliber portfolios. Yet, their management fees are significantly lower than those typical of mutual funds. High levels of transparency in ETFs for holdings and investment strategy help investors evaluate an ETF’s potential returns and risks. This book covers the evolution of ETFs as products and in their uses in investment strategies. It details how ETFs work, their unique investment and trading features, their regulatory structure, how they are used in tactical and strategic portfolio management in a broad range of asset classes, and how to evaluate them individually.
Alternative Investments: A Primer for Investment Professionals provides an overview of alternative investments for institutional asset allocators and other overseers of portfolios containing both traditional and alternative assets. It is designed for those with substantial experience regarding traditional investments in stocks and bonds but limited familiarity regarding alternative assets, alternative strategies, and alternative portfolio management. The primer categorizes alternative assets into four groups: hedge funds, real assets, private equity, and structured products/derivatives. Real assets include vacant land, farmland, timber, infrastructure, intellectual property, commodities, and private real estate. For each group, the primer provides essential information about the characteristics, challenges, and purposes of these institutional-quality alternative assets in the context of a well-diversified institutional portfolio. Other topics addressed by this primer include tail risk, due diligence of the investment process and operations, measurement and management of risks and returns, setting return expectations, and portfolio construction. The primer concludes with a chapter on the case for investing in alternatives.
An Arbitrage Guide to Financial Markets is the first book to explicitly show the linkages of markets for equities, currencies, fixed income and commodities. Using a unique structural approach, it dissects all markets the same way: into spot, forward and contingent dimensions, bringing out the simplicity and the commonalities of all markets. The book shuns stochastic calculus in favor of cash flow details of arbitrage trades. All math is simple, but there is lots of it. The book reflects the relative value mentality of an institutional trader seeking profit from misalignments of various market segments. The book is aimed at entrants into investment banking and dealing businesses, existing personnel in non-trading jobs, and people outside of the financial services industry trying to gain a view into what drives dealers in today’s highly integrated marketplace. A committed reader is guaranteed to leave with a deep understanding of all current issues. "This is an excellent introduction to the financial markets by an author with a strong academic approach and practical insights from trading experience. At a time when the proliferation of financial instruments and the increased use of sophisticated mathematics in their analysis, makes an introduction to financial markets intimidating to most, this book is very useful. It provides an insight into the core concepts across markets and uses mathematics at an accessible level. It equips readers to understand the fundamentals of markets, valuation and trading. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to understand the essentials of successfully trading, structuring or using the entire range of financial instruments available today." —Varun Gosain, Principal, Constellation Capital Management, New York "Robert Dubil, drawing from his extensive prior trading experience, has made a significant contribution by writing an easy to understand book about the complex world of today’s financial markets, using basic mathematical concepts. The book is filled with insights and real life examples about how traders approach the market and is required reading for anyone with an interest in understanding markets or a career in trading." —George Handjinicolaou, Partner, Etolian Capital, New York "This book provides an excellent guide to the current state of the financial markets. It combines academic rigour with the author’s practical experience of the financial sector, giving both students and practitioners an insight into the arbitrage pricing mechanism." —Zenji Nakamura, Managing Director, Europe Fixed Income Division, Nomura International plc, London
The true meaning of investment discipline is to trade only when you rationally expect that you will achieve your desired objective. Accordingly, managers must thoroughly understand why they trade. Because trading is a zero-sum game, good investment discipline also requires that managers understand why their counterparties trade. This book surveys the many reasons why people trade and identifies the implications of the zero-sum game for investment discipline. It also identifies the origins of liquidity and thus of transaction costs, as well as when active investment strategies are profitable. The book then explains how managers must measure and control transaction costs to perform well. Electronic trading systems and electronic trading strategies now dominate trading in exchange markets throughout the world. The book identifies why speed is of such great importance to electronic traders, how they obtain it, and the trading strategies they use to exploit it. Finally, the book analyzes many issues associated with electronic trading that currently concern practitioners and regulators.
Crescenzi makes frequent appearances on CNBC, Bloomberg, and NBC's “Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo” and he has acted as advisor to members of the White House The author is a featured columnist for thestreet.com's” Real Money” and has a strong professional following The book covers all major instruments and investment choices
Since the Global Financial Crisis, the structure of financial markets has undergone a dramatic shift. Modern markets have been “zombified” by a combination of Central Bank policy, disintermediation of commercial banks through regulation, and the growth of passive products such as ETFs. Increasingly, risk builds up beneath the surface, through a combination of excessive leverage and crowded exposure to specific asset classes and strategies. In many cases, historical volatility understates prospective risk. This book provides a practical and wide ranging framework for dealing with the credit, positioning and liquidity risk that investors face in the modern age. The authors introduce concrete techniques for adjusting traditional risk measures such as volatility during this era of unprecedented balance sheet expansion. When certain agents in the financial network behave differently or in larger scale than they have in the past, traditional portfolio theory breaks down. It can no longer account for toxic feedback effects within the network. Our feedback-based risk adjustments allow investors to size their positions sensibly in dangerous set ups, where volatility is not providing an accurate barometer of true risk. The authors have drawn from the fields of statistical physics and game theory to simplify and quantify the impact of very large agents on the distribution of forward returns, and to offer techniques for dealing with situations where markets are structurally risky yet realized volatility is low. The concepts discussed here should be of practical interest to portfolio managers, asset allocators, and risk professionals, as well as of academic interest to scholars and theorists.
