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The article discusses the impact of high inflation on financial markets and investments and suggests need of relative repricing of asset classes. Topics discussed includ aim of central bankers to return inflation to their targets, discussion over factors that push prices up such as global supply chain disruption and increased defense spending, and investment returns affected by increased inflation.

The article examines the growth of private investments as more and more investors are coming to private equity markets. Topics covered include factors that made investors less willing to invest in public markets, distinction of how private-debt markets operate from public ones, and things that managers of investment markets should be worried about such as how the increase in capital in the private markets would undermine returns.

The article reports on updates in the private equity (PE) market, particularly the expected decline despite the solid returns and major deals being completed. Also cited are the increase in PE funds from pension funds, endowments and insurance firms for investment to 4.6 trillion dollars as of July 2022, and how the stockmarket crash could be used to analyze the PE market.

The article offers investment suggestions to investors. It mentions innovative disruptive firms will eventually provide returns that make any number of temporary setbacks eminently bearable. It also mentions investors who have spent the past few decades betting on long-term, world changing disruption were similarly fortunate.

The article explains the benefit of adding bitcoin to an investment portfolio. According to economist Harry Markowitz, diversification reduces volatility without negatively affecting returns. It mentions the significance of the high average returns of cryptocurrency despite its volatility. It describes the plan of hedge-fund manager Paul Tudor Jones to hold about 5% of his portfolio in bitcoin as sensible.

The article reports on the move by investors as of September 2021 to find strategies to protect their stock and bond portfolios from the effects of potential inflation and the changing economic climate. Also cited are the move by many investors to invest in real assets like property, infrastructure and farmland as these trend upwards as inflation rises, and the BlackRock data showing better returns of private property and infrastructure assets than stocks and bonds.

The article discusses hedge funds. Now that institutional investors are looking towards hedge funds more and more to turn a profit, the funds are losing some of their rough edges as well as their spectacular returns. The institutionalization of hedge funds has changed competition, risk profiles, transparency, and brought about regulation, all of which affect profit margins.

This article offers a look at why some private-equity firms are much more successful than others. From its creation in 1976 to the end of 2003, KKR invested $18.4 billion. Amid much fanfare, in the past 18 months it has returned $9 billion in cash to investors, beating even Carlyle's equally trumpeted cash return of $6.6 billion. This sort of performance makes it easy to see why investors are so keen on private equity. From 1980 to 2001, the average private-equity buy-out fund generated slightly lower returns to investors (after subtracting fees to general partners) than they would have obtained by investing in the S&P 500, according to a recent study by Steve Kaplan of the University of Chicago and Antoinette Schoar of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to the study, these striking differences cannot be explained away by the fact that endowments have been involved in private equity for longer, and thus tend to get better access to new funds being raised by the leading private-equity firms.

The author reports that the venture capital industry is starting to rebound, and asks whether the industry can avoid the excesses of the 1990's. It like only yesterday that start-up companies, preferably doing something internet-related, and the sleek-suited venture capitalists who funded them, were all the rage. They make their money by investing in start-ups and very young companies and then selling these investments on, either to other firms through so-called "trade sales" or to other investors through a stockmarket flotation.The downturn has been more intensely felt because the venture-capital (VC) industry enjoyed an extraordinary period of easy money during the bubble. Now, however, there are signs of revival. That is reassuring investors, for whom the allure of venture capital is the good long-term returns that should come from betting on a portfolio of young, mostly technology-related, companies. While technology investing is becoming fashionable again, VCs never lost their fondness for health-care start-ups. The lure of biotechnology and drug development has always proved irresistible, even though returns, so far, have been disappointing. Like American venture capitalists, European firms are returning to better days, although they never suffered as big a bust. But the real question facing the VC industry is whether, in better times, it can maintain discipline.

The article reports on the growing demand for cancer treatments that triggered an investment boom worldwide. The most straightforward way to invest in treating cancer is tackled which is through shares in companies that sell blockbuster drugs. The developments that explain the highest returns on investment of any therapeutic category are explored including the faster regulatory approvals of cancer than other diseases, the dominance of scientific progress and the demand for cancer treatments.

Considers the possible returns generated by different investment strategies, and suggests how, under idealized circumstances, a United States dollar invested in 1900 could grow to more than nine quintillion dollars. Obstacles to the realization of ideal returns; Investment lessons of the 20th century; Forecasts for the 21st century.

The article discusses the management of Pension Fund Global, Norway's sovereign wealth fund. Topics include the fund's return on investments in relation to its investment strategy, investment and divestment by the fund for reasons of ethical investing, and political factors affecting the management of the fund.

The article discusses why a rules-based approach works best in poker and investing. Topics discussed include the belief that risk in financial markets can be calculated as if it were a game with known odds, uncertainty and irregularity of investment returns which also hold true for poker, and lessons that can be learned from the annual World Series of Poker.

The article focuses on the mutual fund industry in Great Britain and a report from the British Financial Conduct Authority suggesting the industry isn't properly looking after investors' interests. It comments on the lack of competition by fund managers on price and mentions operating margins of 16 fund-managed firms were between 34 and 39 percent in recent years. It states the report found fund manager charges can eat up a third of the investor's returns over 20 years.

The article looks at the performance of hedge funds during 2012. Suggested reasons for poor hedge fund performance include the economic instability in the eurozone, choppy markets affected by politics rather than economics, and governments' monetary policy. Topics include the huge assets hedge funds manage, their long-term stability, and how to diversify a portfolio away from turbulent markets.

The article considers rate of return on investments. A trend is discussed in which the rate of return for both bonds, especially government securities and stocks as measured by dividend yields are well below historic averages for those securities. Declining stock prices in developing countries in 2011 are noted. Real property and commodity prices are examined.

The article, the first in a special section on asset management, discusses the tremendous ongoing growth of the mutual fund management industry, despite the relatively low return for investors compared to the huge profit margins of the managers. Topics discussed include fund performance, fee structures, and investment fund models.

In this editorial the writers examine the growth and power of private equity funds, organizations that control significant amounts of investment capital. Despite the considerable success of these funds, the authors caution against investment in most of the funds and that state that investor access to the best performing funds may be closed. In addition, unless there is a sustained period of low interest and high stock prices, the funds will experience a poor rate of return for investors.

This article discusses the viability of hedge funds. The list of fallen hedge funds is getting longer. At Bailey Coates, a London firm, one hedge fund is believed to have lost more than 20% of its net asset value so far this year. Hedge Fund Research, in Chicago, calculates that hedge funds lost 0.7% on average in the first four months of the year. That still beat the S&P 500, which shed 4%, but was far from brilliant. Other hedge-fund number-crunchers show different figures but a similarly depressing recent trend. Are the funds on the brink of disaster? No, but their glory days may well be behind them. In a sense, they are victims of their own success. As their industry has grown, hedge funds have changed. Many have pushed into less liquid and more esoteric markets (distressed debt and structured finance, for example), as well as into anything but exotic long-only equity investment. They have also begun to use more borrowed money to enhance returns. Today, 70% of hedge funds have the ability to use some amount of leverage, says Hedge Fund Research. Many firms have geared up with debt equal to twice capital and some up to five times capital--though even that is far less than the levels seen in the 1990s. It can be argued that the sharp shock of recent weeks is just what was needed to scare low-quality money out of the hedge-fund business.

Investors in fine art have often kidded themselves that they are making better returns--and getting more pleasure--from the Vincent Van Gogh paintings on the boardroom wall than from the equities in their corporate pension fund. An index of fine-art sales tracked since 1952 shows paintings generally outperforming the S&P 500 index. But woe betide any investor forced to sell at the wrong time. Prices of fine art fluctuate even more wildly than stocks, and transaction costs can be prohibitive, with combined commissions paid at public auctions by both buyer and seller of some 25 percent, to say nothing of the spread between bid and offer in a private sale. An experiment with a fine-art investment fund is under way in London, England, led by Lord Gowrie, a former arts minister, and a number of art dealers. The Fine Art Fund aims to raise $70 million for investment in top-rated paintings and sculptures.

The article focuses on a paper published in the periodical "Journal of Portfolio Management" on the momentum effect, which describes the increase in the market value of a stock due to its popularity. Topics include the dangers of investing in momentum stocks, the annualized return on popular stocks, and trends in securities investment.

The article focuses on increases in stock prices in China's stock market in December 2014. It states that financial analysts at the broker Cinda Securities claim that a 20 percent increase in stock prices in two weeks was tied to 3,500 years of Chinese imperial history and suggested a bull market would be inevitable. It examines the impact that the People's Bank of China's reduction of interest rates and a crackdown on high-yield savings products has had on investments.

The article focuses on the functioning of unlicensed banks in Ghana that promise incredible rates of return. These banks promise to pay back an interest of 30% on the deposited amount. Tens of thousands of people, rich and poor, have put their money in them. Stories abound of people closing their accounts elsewhere, selling their homes, and depositing their life savings at these places. The government recently ordered them to close. While rumors of illegal investments have floated around, a likelier explanation is that these banks are operating simple pyramid schemes, like ones that have come and gone over the past ten years in Nigeria and Liberia.

The article focuses on investment funds of hedge funds and investment funds of private equity firms in the U.S. in 2014. Topics include the specialization of funds of hedge funds, the financial performance of both investment vehicles, and the compliance costs of the investments. Information is provided on the investment returns of the products.

The article looks at the investment return afforded by commercial property when interest rates are low, as in June 2013. Topics include the relationship between rental yields and the property investor's cost of finance, the lack of liquidity offered by real estate investment, and how continued global economic recovery would only increase the return on investment that property offers.

In this article the author comments on the need for long term investment on the part of capitalists and financiers. The central focus of the article is on the author's contention that the final return on an investors money is dependent on when they got into the market. The article provides information from a study by Barclays Capital Equity.

The article examines the various ways financial investors are trying to find new strategies in fund-management and investing. One of the emerging trends by investors is putting money into hedge funds and private equity, which have given high financial returns. The article points out that the problem with this is that as more money flows into an investment category, prices rise and the scope for excess returns diminish, which is why investors are trying to find fields that aren't as congested.

The article claims that investors have done badly in Great Britain under the Labor Party government. Share prices have had a good run in the past few months. Unfortunately for investors, share prices will have to climb a lot higher before the FTSE 100 returns to its all-time peak of 6,930. The last time the stockmarket reached that level was at the end of 1999. The information technology, telecommunications and electronics sectors have done spectacularly badly since early 2000, point out economists at the London Business School in their analysis of long-run global investment returns for ABN Amro, a bank. Yet what is remarkable about the performance of the stockmarket is that equities have done so much worse in Britain than in other countries since Labor came to power in 1997.

This article comments on the American junk bond market and suggests that junk bonds present a poor investment opportunity. There are, possibly, worse investments but, Nigerian scams aside, it is hard to think of a surer way to lose money than buying lowly-rated bonds issued by American companies at their present niggardly yields. While many other markets wobbled in October, prices of junk bonds soared. Spreads over Treasury bonds fell by 40 bps (basis points, or hundredths of a percentage point) in the last week of the month alone. So far this year, high-yield bonds have returned more than 8%. And the weediest credits have turned in the strongest performance: those with a CCC rating, (almost the lowest awarded to companies that are not in default) have soared. For dodgy credits, in any case, spreads are a poor guide to value, especially when yields are low. This is because investors should be looking not at relative value, but for the same high absolute returns that they would require of similarly risky equities. Alas, they are likely to find this out, as they have in the past, the hard way.

Since the stock market bubble burst more than three years ago, investors have had ample time to ponder where to put the remains of their money. Economists and analysts too have been revisiting old ideas. None has been dearer to them than the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), a formula linking movements in a single share price to those of the market as a whole. The key statistic is "beta": the proportion of a given change in the market that, on average, is reflected in the price of the share. Although it is useful for compiling share portfolios--in particular, for working out their overall correlation with the market--it tells you little about share-price performance in absolute terms. In fact, the CAPM's obituary was already being written more than a decade ago when a paper by Eugene Fama and Kenneth French, then both at the University of Chicago, showed that the shares of small companies and "value stocks" (shares with low price-earnings ratios) do much better over time than their betas would predict. Even though shares have recovered some of their losses in recent months, the crash has left investors asking what became of the fabled equity premium, the amount by which they can expect returns on shares to exceed those from government bonds.

The article focuses on international stock market volatility. Price gyrations in American shares have surged back to record levels, after receding somewhat from a record high in the scandal-ridden month of July 2002. In Europe, most equity indices, which seem often to amplify any swings in America, have fallen by around 9% and in Germany by 11%. The volatility of prices has also risen to new peaks. Meanwhile, share-price volatility in emerging markets was a mere 19% in July and has now fallen back to 15%. This strange inversion of volatility may be testing some popular investor notions, notably that higher risk is re- warded by higher returns. While volatility has increased sharply, share returns in rich countries have only sunk lower.

Follows up on `Economist' items about hypothetical investment strategies. Comparison of the rates of return on hypothetical investments in a variety of assets, including equities and currencies.

Presents information on how European firms are reluctant to lower their "hurdle rates" for return on investments. Discussion on how Aegon NV acquired Transamerica Corp. despite lower returns; Focus on how companies outside Europe regularly adjusted their rates; Description of how European managers feel about the theory behind discount rates.

Focuses on United States hedge funds as of late February 1999. Funds' role in, and recovery from, fall 1998 financial market turmoil; Average 1998 United States hedge fund returns, according to George Van of Van Hedge Fund Advisers; Impact of the fall 1998 crisis on hedge fund capital and bank lending; Proposed regulation.