Security Analysis and Portfolio Management Flashcards
Functions of Portfolio Management.
Types of Client.
Functions:
- Portfolio structuring and analysis
- Adjustment
Performance measurement
Clients:
- Institutional Investor (Banks, investment companies…)
- Individual Investor (High net wealth)
Why passive portfolio management?
For investors willing to accept market returns. Works best in bull markets
What is active portfolio management?
Attempts to meet investment objectives through asset allocation investing and strategies that fit the portfolio owner.
Mixed active/passive portfolio management
i. Security selection style management: certain asset class.
ii. Asset allocation style: mix of assets for optimal risk-return balance.
iii. core-satellite management: minimise cost and volatility while aiming to outperform broad stock market. satellites added to passive portfolio in form of active investments
iv. Contingent immunisation: switch to defensive strategy if returns drop below predetermined point
Continuation strategy
Buying stocks doing well in short period and sell those with poor momentum. Bad in 2000 dot com bubble
Contrarian strategies
Buy bargains.Tries to do opposite of what the ‘herd’ is doing using behaviour science studies measuring technical indicators like consumer sentiment.
Indexation
Technique to adjust income payments by means of a price index, in order to maintain purchasing power
Quantitative investment management
i. AI/Machine learning strategies - algorithms
ii. Factor-investing strategies
iii. Value based quants
Factors Affecting investor objectives
- consumption preference - investment horizon
- Taxation - dividends and capital gains
- Inflation
- Risk tolerance
- Age
Equity passive strategies
Buy and Hold
Index matching - expensive, what do do with income payments.
Might chose to ‘go active’ if clients preferences change, or market risk and return changes
Equity Active strategies
- Security selection - Positive alpha. Higher ERB
- Market timing - buy at ideal moment. Controversial and expensive
- Portfolio Adjustment
Market timing methods
- Trading shares: Increase beta if expecting market to go up. (could lead to bad diversification) Difficult
- Borrowing/Lending and trading shares: Overall beta uses borrowing/lending plus investment in risk (βo = wA(βA) ). reduce beta, invest at Rf more.
- Use futures
Hedging against price falls (equity)
- Sell stock index futures on shares
- Buy stock index put options on shares
- Sell stock index call options on shares
- Synthetic Short future (buy puts and sell calls)
Limitations of hedging with stock index futures - 6
Value locked in at price of futures contract
Only market risk is hedged
Hedge not exact unless basis = 0
Indivisibility of futures contracts
Effect of margin payments
Basis risk
Debt passive management strategies
- Indexation
- Immunisation
Indexation for debt portfolio
Match composition of well diversified bond index.
Problems with bond indexation
Cost.
Thin trading
Income payments
Bond immunisation strategies
Insulate portfolio from interest rate risk.
- classical immunisation= same duration as clients liabilities
- Cash flow matching= match cash flows of portfolio with clients liabilities
Bond immunisation
Each liability is matched with bond with same duration
Eg want 5 years
Focused: Bonds with duration close to liability like 4 and 6
Barbell: Durations far from liability like 1 and 10
Advantages and disadvantages of cash flow matching
A. No need for duration matching
A. no need to rebalance
D. Finding sufficient bonds with appropriate maturities and coupons
What is horizon matching
Combines cash flow matching and immunisation. Near liabilities are cash flow matched and remainder are immunised
Active Bond strategies
Bond picking
Market timing
Portfolio adjustment
Bond picking
High weighting in high alpha bonds.
What is alpha?
Difference between actual return and required return. Remember bonds have different equation (using duration) but both are given
Bond market timing and how
Adjusts relative duration of portfolio over time.
1. Trading bonds= increase D buy buying long D and sell short D
2. Use bond futures= Increase D buy bond futures
Portfolio Adjustment
Purchase and sale of bonds and is known as bond switching
1. Anomaly switching - buy underpriced, sell over priced. take advantage of mispricing
2. Policy switches - changes to client expectations or requirements
Hedge against fall in bond price (due to rise in interest rates
- Sell bond futures
- Buy Put options
- Sell call options
- Synthetic future (Buy puts, Sell calls)
How does buying 50 put contracts hedge against bond prices falling?
Protects against fall in value but preserves the gains from increase in value at the cost of the premium
Objectives of portfolio performance measurement (4)
Assess if objectives of investor have been achieved
Comparison with other portfolios
Assess competency/honesty of managers
Evaluation of investment strategy
Sharpe Ratio
Excess return to volatility. Based on total risk
M squared
Measures return investor would have earned if portfolio was altered by lending or borrowing to match STD of market portfolio
For the same amount of risk as the market, how much more return you get.
Considering total risk.
Treynor measure
Excess return to beta, based on systematic risk, therefore considered more appropriate.
per unit beta, what is the return.
Jensen differential performance index
Rank portfolios based on alpha. Want alpha more than 1.
Excess return over CAPM. Based on specific time period