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Book Review – “Investment Performance Measurement – Evaluating and Presenting Results” by Philip Lawton and Todd Jankowski (editors)

Here’s the handbook for the professional investment manager or for those who want to have in their libraries a reference volume: “Investment Performance Measurement – Evaluating and Presenting Results” not only contains almost 1,000 pages of technical articles, but it is also nicely organized.
In a sense, “Investment Performance Measurement – Evaluating and Presenting Results” represents a complete reference for the CFA (“Chartered Financial Analyst”) who wants to keep in touch with some technical issues. The book contains 5 parts, which take you from the introductions to the portfolio and risk management theories to the latest developments in the field (part 5 is named “Global Investment Performance Standard”, a right adagio for the cross-continental savvy manager).
It is hard for me to start somewhere with this review – and this is because of the content richness. “Investment Performance Measurement – Evaluating and Presenting Results” contains lots of articles on investments performance, some of them very mathematical, others very behavioral and others … well, unusual.
A very mathematical chapter (yet a very interesting one) is called “On the Performance of the Hedge Funds”, which combines a mathematical approach with a risk methodology in order to give the reader a better view on how to approach a fund. It is not easy, since a hedge fund tries to balance actually the risks inherent in the portfolio with a need for strong and constant returns. The fact that few hedge funds manage to have a constant performance over the long term just lays the nature of the game. Yet, when you invest lots of money in such a vehicle, I think you should at least try to understand its composition and the formula to calculate the average returns on the fund (or the yield of it). But the authors of the article go beyond this – they actually run a regression to see if the various fees paid to the mangers have an impact on the performance. Guess what – yes they have an effect and it is quite substantial – for the rest of the details I will just let you read the article itself.Read More »Book Review – “Investment Performance Measurement – Evaluating and Presenting Results” by Philip Lawton and Todd Jankowski (editors)

An Investment Book Review –“International Corporate Finance” by J. Ashok Robin

Well, this came as almost a treat – corporate finance, which in itself is an investment topic to be studied, on an international context. There are many textbooks on the market which study the corporate finance topics, from the main financial decisions of a corporation to financial instruments or the (in)famous weighted average cost of capital (WACC). In an international context, there are quite few study texts.
The field of International corporate finance deals with the various financial activities of international corporations or multinational companies. This book is even more focused – it concentrates on the multinational companies (MNC’s or MNE’s) and on their blood who keeps pumping and make them grow –the flow of money.Read More »An Investment Book Review –“International Corporate Finance” by J. Ashok Robin

A DVD Review – “Harnessing Explosive Market Turns: Finding Profitable Set-ups with Fibonacci, Lucas, Elliott Wave, and Candlesticks” by Jeff Greenblatt

I am already a veteran reviewer of Jeff Greenblatt’s opera magna, since I already did a review for his well known book “Breakthrough Strategies for Predicting Any Market” :). In the beginning, I must admit I was a bit confused by the cryptic language and by the unorthodox approaches used by Jeff in that book. But since then I read a few other books on trading and the light started to shine at the end of this tunnel. So here I am, with a new review on Greenblatt’s latest DVD trading series of videos, “Harnessing Explosive Market Turns”.Read More »A DVD Review – “Harnessing Explosive Market Turns: Finding Profitable Set-ups with Fibonacci, Lucas, Elliott Wave, and Candlesticks” by Jeff Greenblatt

A Book Review – “The Only Three Questions You Need to Ask” by Ken Fisher

Well, a book on investing on shares by a Forbes columnist who has more experience than my professional age? Could be interesting, don’t you think?

 

And indeed it was. Ken Fisher writes in a somehow difficult manner. He sidetracks with his three questions back and forth on the same subject. And repeats quite obsessively some of his ideas in the 400+ pages of this project. But at the end of the day I found “The only 3 questions you need to ask” informing and well documented. And full of (arguably) useful insights on shares investing.

 

What is the book about?

 

Well, about investing in shares and about how you can sustainably beat the markets. Read More »A Book Review – “The Only Three Questions You Need to Ask” by Ken Fisher