Comparative Asset Allocation: Private Clients
Our biannual report summarizes asset allocation for 85 of Cambridge Associates’ US-based private clients.
Research Publications Archive
Annual Analysis of Independent Schools Investment Pool Returns: Fiscal Year 2014
This year we’ve added new exhibits on asset class–level performance and outperformance versus policy benchmarks. We’ve also added exhibits and commentary that explore drivers of investment performance. As with past years, this report also reviews investment returns, asset allocation trends, spending rules, investment manager structures and implementation, and other topics pertinent to endowment managers at…
Has the Rapid Rise in the US Dollar Changed Our View on Currency Hedging for US$ Investors?
We continue to believe US$-based investors should hedge a portion of non-US$ currency exposure, particularly that associated with tactical positions in non-US$ assets.* Strategic hedging to mitigate currency volatility may also be appropriate for investors with large allocations (e.g., 20%–25% or higher) to foreign currencies.** We maintain this recommendation even as we regard the US…
Everything Old Is New Again: Portable Alpha in Theory and Practice
Executive Summary In an environment of low equity and bond returns, investors may again be looking to portable alpha as a possible solution. However, portable alpha is complex and comes with many risks, not the least of which is identifying the sources of alpha, as well as ensuring the liquidity of the alpha sources, monitoring…
Annual Analysis of Cultural and Environmental Investment Pool Returns: Fiscal Year 2014
This year we’ve added new exhibits on asset class–level performance and outperformance versus policy benchmarks. We’ve also added exhibits and commentary that explore drivers of investment performance. As with past years, this report also reviews investment returns, asset allocation trends, spending rules, investment manager structures and implementation, and other topics pertinent to endowment managers at…
What Are the Implications of Negative Interest Rates and Why Are Investors Accepting Them?
Several important central banks—most notably the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank—have recently broken the “zero bound” for interest rates by moving their official policy rates decisively into negative territory, causing rates on some money market funds and wholesale deposits denominated in those currencies to also go negative. At this pace, it may…
What’s Next for the US Dollar?
This chart book provides context on previous US dollar rallies and where the dollar is in the current cycle.
US High-Yield Bonds: Our Interest Remains Limited
We continue to find high-yield bonds uncompelling; select opportunities in high-yield energy credit may offer attractive alpha Solid credit fundamentals and 6%+ yields in a low-return environment have lured some investors back to high-yield bonds, but current coupons will serve to cap future returns and offer little protection in the (somewhat unlikely) event the credit…
Making Waves: The Cresting Co-investment Opportunity
Executive Summary Co-investing is gaining popularity and theoretically offers investors cost advantages and higher return potential. This report frames the opportunities and common pitfalls of co-investing, leveraging our aggregated data on co-investments and funds generating co-investment. Our analysis shows that co-investment returns have the potential to outpace private fund investment returns. Of over 100 buyout co-investments…
Time to Batten Down the Hatches?
Over periods of prolonged prosperity, the economy transits from financial relations that make for a stable system to financial relations that make for an unstable system. —Hyman Minsky, “The Financial Instability Hypothesis,” May 1992 Stability Is Destabilizing —Minsky T-shirt Over the past several years, one of the most interesting market developments has been the virtual…