Chapter 2 CAIA Flashcards
The Participants in the Alternative Investment Space
the buy side, the sell side, outside service providers, and regulators.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 23). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
The Buy Side
Refers to the institutions and entities that buy large quantities of securities for the portfolios they manage. Buy side entities include asset owners and asset managers.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 23). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Plan Sponsors
A plan sponsor is a designated party, such as a company or an employer, that establishes a health care or retirement plan (pension) that has special legal or taxation status, such as a 401(k) retirement plan in the United States for employees.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 23). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Responsibilities of Plan Sponsors
Plan sponsors are responsible for determining membership parameters and investment choices and, in some cases, providing contribution payments in the form of cash or stock (or both). In many cases, one individual, the plan trustee, is designated with overall responsibility for managing the plan’s assets, whereas the plan administrator is charged with overseeing the plan’s day-to-day operations. Both the trustee and the administrator are identified in the plan’s summary plan description.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 23). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Foundation
A foundation is a non profit organization that donates funds and support to other organizations for its own charitable purposes.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 24). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Endowment
An endowment is a fund bestowed on an individual or institution (e.g., a museum, university, hospital, or foundation) to be used by that entity for specific purposes and with principal preservation in mind.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 24). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Family Office
A family office is a group of investors joined by familial or other ties who manage their personal investments as a single entity, usually hiring professionals to manage money for members of the office.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 24). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Sovereign Wealth Funds
State-owned investment funds held by that state’s central bank for the purpose of future generations and/or to stabilize the state currency.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 24). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Private Limited Partnerships
Private limited partnerships are a form of business organization that potentially offers the benefit of limited liability to the organization’s limited partners (similar to that enjoyed by shareholders of corporations) but not to its general partner. For tax purposes, limited partnerships tend to flow taxable revenue and expenses directly through to their partners rather than being taxed at the partnership level.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 24). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Private Investment Pools
Hedge funds, funds of funds, private equity funds, managed futures funds, commodity trading advisers (CTAs), and the like are private investment pools that focus on serving as intermediaries between investors and alternative investments.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 24). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Separately Managed Accounts
Separately managed accounts (SMAs) are individual investment accounts offered by a brokerage firm and managed by independent investment management firms. The relationship between an investment adviser and a client to which it provides advice is typically documented by a written investment management agreement.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 25). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Five ways that SMA’s are differentiated from funds
A fund investor owns shares of a company (the fund) that in turn owns other investments, whereas an SMA investor actually owns the invested assets as the owner on record.
A fund invests for the common purposes of multiple investors, whereas an SMA may have objectives tailored to suit the specific needs of its only investor, such as tax efficiency.
A fund is often opaque to its investors to promote confidentiality; an SMA offers transparency to its investor.
Fund investors may suffer adverse consequences from other investors’ redemptions (withdrawals) and subscriptions (deposits), but an SMA provides protection from these liquidity issues for its only investor.
Whereas the fund structure may allow investors to have limited liability, the SMA format may allow losses to be greater than the capital contribution when leverage or derivatives are used.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 25). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Mutual Funds
Registered investment pools offering their shareholders pro rata claims on the fund’s portfolio of assets. In the United States, mutual funds that offer their shares for sale to the public are known as ’40 Act funds due to the regulations that permit their offering by registered investment advisers: the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940. In recent years, ’40 Act funds have increasingly offered alternative asset exposures through these retail fund structures. A general discussion is provided in section 2.4, along with more specific discussions throughout Parts 2 through 5.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 25). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Master Limited Partnerships
Master limited partnerships (MLPs) are publicly traded investment pools that are structured as limited partnerships and that offer their owners pro rata claims. Like equities, MLP units are traded on major stock exchanges, but they have legal and tax structures similar to those of private limited partnerships.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (p. 25). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.
Sell Side
Sell-side institutions, such as large dealer banks, act as agents for investors when they trade securities. Sell-side institutions make their research available to their clients and are more focused on facilitating transactions than on managing money.
Chambers, Donald R.. Alternative Investments: CAIA Level I (Wiley Finance) (pp. 25-26). Wiley. Edición de Kindle.