An innovative approach to post-crash credit portfolio management Credit portfolio managers traditionally rely on fundamental research for decisions on issuer selection and sector rotation. Quantitative researchers tend to use more mathematical techniques for pricing models and to quantify credit risk and relative value. The information found here bridges these two approaches. In an intuitive and readable style, this book illustrates how quantitative techniques can help address specific questions facing today's credit managers and risk analysts. A targeted volume in the area of credit, this reliable resource contains some of the most recent and original research in this field, which addresses among other things important questions raised by the credit crisis of 2008-2009. Divided into two comprehensive parts, Quantitative Credit Portfolio Management offers essential insights into understanding the risks of corporate bonds—spread, liquidity, and Treasury yield curve risk—as well as managing corporate bond portfolios. Presents comprehensive coverage of everything from duration time spread and liquidity cost scores to capturing the credit spread premium Written by the number one ranked quantitative research group for four consecutive years by Institutional Investor Provides practical answers to difficult question, including: What diversification guidelines should you adopt to protect portfolios from issuer-specific risk? Are you well-advised to sell securities downgraded below investment grade? Credit portfolio management continues to evolve, but with this book as your guide, you can gain a solid understanding of how to manage complex portfolios under dynamic events.
An innovative approach to post-crash credit portfolio management Credit portfolio managers traditionally rely on fundamental research for decisions on issuer selection and sector rotation. Quantitative researchers tend to use more mathematical techniques for pricing models and to quantify credit risk and relative value. The information found here bridges these two approaches. In an intuitive and readable style, this book illustrates how quantitative techniques can help address specific questions facing today's credit managers and risk analysts. A targeted volume in the area of credit, this reliable resource contains some of the most recent and original research in this field, which addresses among other things important questions raised by the credit crisis of 2008-2009. Divided into two comprehensive parts, Quantitative Credit Portfolio Management offers essential insights into understanding the risks of corporate bonds—spread, liquidity, and Treasury yield curve risk—as well as managing corporate bond portfolios. Presents comprehensive coverage of everything from duration time spread and liquidity cost scores to capturing the credit spread premium Written by the number one ranked quantitative research group for four consecutive years by Institutional Investor Provides practical answers to difficult question, including: What diversification guidelines should you adopt to protect portfolios from issuer-specific risk? Are you well-advised to sell securities downgraded below investment grade? Credit portfolio management continues to evolve, but with this book as your guide, you can gain a solid understanding of how to manage complex portfolios under dynamic events.
The practice of institutional bond portfolio management has changed markedly since the late 1980s in response to new financial instruments, investment methodologies, and improved analytics. Investors are looking for a more disciplined, quantitative approach to asset management. Here, five top authorities from a leading Wall Street firm provide practical solutions and feasible methodologies based on investor inquiries. While taking a quantitative approach, they avoid complex mathematical derivations, making the book accessible to a wide audience, including portfolio managers, plan sponsors, research analysts, risk managers, academics, students, and anyone interested in bond portfolio management. The book covers a range of subjects of concern to fixed-income portfolio managers--investment style, benchmark replication and customization, managing credit and mortgage portfolios, managing central bank reserves, risk optimization, and performance attribution. The first part contains empirical studies of security selection versus asset allocation, index replication with derivatives and bonds, optimal portfolio diversification, and long-horizon performance of assets. The second part covers portfolio management tools for risk budgeting, bottom-up risk modeling, performance attribution, innovative measures of risk sensitivities, and hedging risk exposures. A first-of-its-kind publication from a team of practitioners at the front lines of financial thinking, this book presents a winning combination of mathematical models, intuitive examples, and clear language.
State-of-the-art techniques and tools needed to facilitate effective credit portfolio management and robust quantitative credit analysis Filled with in-depth insights and expert advice, Active Credit Portfolio Management in Practice serves as a comprehensive introduction to both the theory and real-world practice of credit portfolio management. The authors have written a text that is technical enough both in terms of background and implementation to cover what practitioners and researchers need for actually applying these types of risk management tools in large organizations but which at the same time, avoids technical proofs in favor of real applications. Throughout this book, readers will be introduced to the theoretical foundations of this discipline, and learn about structural, reduced-form, and econometric models successfully used in the market today. The book is full of hands-on examples and anecdotes. Theory is illustrated with practical application. The authors' Website provides additional software tools in the form of Excel spreadsheets, Matlab code and S-Plus code. Each section of the book concludes with review questions designed to spark further discussion and reflection on the concepts presented.
Praise for SYSTEMATIC INVESTING in CREDIT "Lev and QPS continue to shed light on the most important questions facing credit investors. This book focuses on their latest cutting-edge research into the appropriate role of credit as an asset class, the dynamics of credit benchmarks, and potential ways to benefit from equity information to construct effective credit portfolios. It is must-read material for all serious credit investors." —Richard Donick, President and Chief Risk Officer, DCI, LLC, USA "Lev Dynkin and his team continue to spoil us; this book is yet another example of intuitive, insightful, and pertinent research, which builds on the team's previous research. As such, the relationship with this team is one of the best lifetime learning experiences I have had." —Eduard van Gelderen, Chief Investment Officer, Public Sector Pension Investment Board, Canada "The rise of a systematic approach in credit is a logical extension of the market's evolution and long overdue. Barclays QPS team does a great job of presenting its latest research in a practical manner." —David Horowitz, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Agilon Capital, USA "Systematization reduces human biases and wasteful reinventing of past solutions. It improves the chances of investing success. This book, by a team of experts, shows you the way. You will gain insights into the advanced methodologies of combining fundamental and market data. I recommend this book for all credit investors." —Lim Chow Kiat, Chief Executive Officer, GIC Asset Management, Singapore "For nearly two decades, QPS conducted extensive and sound research to help investors meet industry challenges. The proprietary research in this volume gives a global overview of cutting-edge developments in alpha generation for credit investors, from signal extraction and ESG considerations to portfolio implementation. The book blazes a trail for enhanced risk adjusted returns by exploring the cross-asset relation between stocks and bonds and adding relevant information for credit portfolio construction. Our core belief at Ostrum AM, is that a robust quantamental approach, yields superior investment outcomes. Indeed, this book is a valuable read for the savvy investor." —Ibrahima Kobar, CFA, Global Chief Investment Officer, Ostrum AM, France "This book offers a highly engaging account of the current work by the Barclays QPS Group. It is a fascinating mix of original ideas, rigorous analytical techniques, and fundamental insights informed by a long history of frontline work in this area. This is a must-read from the long-time leaders in the field." —Professor Leonid Kogan, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Professor of Management and Finance, MIT "This book provides corporate bond portfolio managers with an abundance of relevant, comprehensive, data-driven research for the implementation of superior investment performance strategies." —Professor Stanley J. Kon, Editor, Journal of Fixed income "This book is a treasure trove for both pension investors and trustees seeking to improve performance through credit. It provides a wealth of empirical evidence to guide long-term allocation to credit, optimize portfolio construction and harvest returns from systematic credit factors. By extending their research to ESG ratings, the authors also provide timely insights in the expanding field of sustainable finance." —Eloy Lindeijer, former Chief of Investment Management, PGGM, Netherlands "Over more than a decade, Lev Dynkin and his QPS team has provided me and APG with numerous innovative insights in credit markets. Their work gave us valuable quantitative substantiation of some of our investment beliefs. This book covers new and under-researched areas of our markets, like ESG and factor investing, next to the rigorous and practical work akin to the earlier work of the group. I'd say read this book—and learn from one of the best." —Herman Slooijer, Managing Director, Head of Fixed Income, APG Asset Management, Netherlands
Features expertise from an international team of 35 contributors, including Moorad Choudhry, Panikos Teklos, and Tamar Frankel Provides much-needed, timely information for institutional investors and professional portfolio, asset, and hedge fund managers as the fallout from the credit bubble continues to plague the institutional finance sector Includes important discussion of new risk management techniques and standards, including Basel II
The introduction of the euro in 1999 marked the starting point of the development of a very liquid and heterogeneous EUR credit market, which exceeds EUR 350bn with respect to outstanding corporate bonds. As a result, credit risk trading and credit portfolio management gained significantly in importance. The book shows how to optimize, manage, and hedge liquid credit portfolios, i.e. applying innovative derivative instruments. Against the background of the highly complex structure of credit derivatives, the book points out how to implement portfolio optimization concepts using credit-relevant parameters, and basic Markowitz or more sophisticated modified approaches (e.g., Conditional Value at Risk, Omega optimization) to fulfill the special needs of an active credit portfolio management on a single-name and on a portfolio basis (taking default correlation within a credit risk model framework into account). This includes appropriate strategies to analyze the impact from credit-relevant newsflow (macro- and micro-fundamental news, rating actions, etc.). As credits resemble equity-linked instruments, we also highlight how to implement debt-equity strategies, which are based on a modified Merton approach. The book is obligatory for credit portfolio managers of funds and insurance companies, as well as bank-book managers, credit traders in investment banks, cross-asset players in hedge funds, and risk controllers.
Quantitative equity portfolio management combines theories and advanced techniques from several disciplines, including financial economics, accounting, mathematics, and operational research. While many texts are devoted to these disciplines, few deal with quantitative equity investing in a systematic and mathematical framework that is suitable for
Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management brings the orderly structure of fundamental asset management to the often-chaotic world of active equity management. Straightforward and accessible, it provides you with nuts-and-bolts details for selecting and aggregating factors, building a risk model, and much more.
Discover foundational and advanced techniques in quantitative equity trading from a veteran insider In Quantitative Portfolio Management: The Art and Science of Statistical Arbitrage, distinguished physicist-turned-quant Dr. Michael Isichenko delivers a systematic review of the quantitative trading of equities, or statistical arbitrage. The book teaches you how to source financial data, learn patterns of asset returns from historical data, generate and combine multiple forecasts, manage risk, build a stock portfolio optimized for risk and trading costs, and execute trades. In this important book, you’ll discover: Machine learning methods of forecasting stock returns in efficient financial markets How to combine multiple forecasts into a single model by using secondary machine learning, dimensionality reduction, and other methods Ways of avoiding the pitfalls of overfitting and the curse of dimensionality, including topics of active research such as “benign overfitting” in machine learning The theoretical and practical aspects of portfolio construction, including multi-factor risk models, multi-period trading costs, and optimal leverage Perfect for investment professionals, like quantitative traders and portfolio managers, Quantitative Portfolio Management will also earn a place in the libraries of data scientists and students in a variety of statistical and quantitative disciplines. It is an indispensable guide for anyone who hopes to improve their understanding of how to apply data science, machine learning, and optimization to the stock market.
