...Investment Funds and Securities Bloomberg Exercises 1. Learn about the different types of funds and their classifications by going to the Bloomberg’s FUND screen: FUND <Enter>; click “Fund Functions” and “Fund Lookup”; or enter MFOD and click type: Equity, Debt, Money Market, Real Estate, Commodity, or Alternative. 2. The performances of funds by type (e.g., mutual, hedge fund, ETFs, and unit investment trust) can be found on the Fund Heat Map Screen, FMAP. Use the screen to identify the top performers based on total return for several types: FMAP <Enter>, Click “Fund Type” in “View By” dropdown. 3.) alternative) can be found on Bloomberg’s Fund Heat Map Screen, FMAP. Use the screen to identify the top performers based on total return for several objectives: FMAP <Enter>, Click “Objective” in “View By” dropdown. 4. Use the Bloomberg fund search screen, FSRC, to search for the following types of equity-type funds and ETFs: a. Fund Type: Open-End; Classification (Asset Class Focus): Equity; Fund Strategy: Growth or Growth and Income; Analytic criterion: Input total return for one year of greater than X% (e.g., 20%) b. Fund Type: Closed-End; Classification (Asset Class Focus): Equity; Country of Domicile: select (e.g., U.S.); Analytic criterion: input total return for one year of greater than X% (e.g., 20%) c. Fund Type: Open-end; Classification: Industry Focus: Select industry (e.g., technology); Analytic criterion: input total return for one...
Words: 793 - Pages: 4
...Case Problem 3: Bock Investment Services(Estimation) Lisa Rae Bock started Bock Investment Services (BIS) in 1994 with the goal of making BIS the leading money market advisory service in South Carolina. To provide better service for her present clients and to attract new clients, she has developed a weekly newsletter. Lisa has been considering adding a new feature to the newsletter that will report the results of a weekly telephone survey of fund managers. To investigate the feasibility of offering this service, and to determine what type of information to include in the newsletter, Lisa selected a sample random sample of 45 money market funds. The Data File “Bock”, reports fund assets and yields for the past seven and 30 days. Before calling the money market fund managers to obtain additional data, Lisa decided to do some preliminary analysis of the data already collected. Managerial Report 1. Use appropriate descriptive statistics to summarize the data on assets and yields for the money market funds. 2. Develop a 95% confidence interval estimate of the mean assets, mean 7-day yield, and mean 30-day yield for the population of money market funds. Provide a managerial interpretation of each interval estimate 3. Discuss the implication of your findings in terms of how Lisa could use this type of information in preparing her weekly newsletter. 4. What other information would you recommend that Lisa gather to provide the most useful information to her clients? ...
Words: 256 - Pages: 2
...Market Funds 2012 The World Behind Fitch’s MMF Ratings by Charlotte Quiniou, CFA, Director in Fitch Ratings Fund and Asset Manager Rating Group Fitch money market fund (MMF) rating is far more than just a stamp on a fund. Its value for investors comes from the depth and breadth of the underpinning rating analysis and process. A key component of a Fitch MMF rating is also the regular, independent surveillance performed by Fitch’s analysts, which supports ongoing dialogue with fund managers, so that systematic mechanical reactions are avoided. To better serve investors, Fitch provides information on rated MMFs and developments in the money market industry, notably based on MMF surveillance information, through freely available periodic publications and online tools. A Disciplined procedures ensure consistency Fitch conducts analysis and assigns ratings on MMFs following a consistent, disciplined process that is applied globally. The diagram in Figure 1 provides a summary view of the major steps followed by Fitch when assigning or reviewing a MMF rating. At the start of the rating process, each MMF is assigned to a group of two analysts: the primary (or lead) analyst, and the secondary (or back-up) analyst. Analysts are responsible for leading the analysis and formulating a rating recommendation. The primary analyst is typically responsible for the continuous surveillance of the rating, once it has been assigned, and maintaining the dialogue with the fund manager...
Words: 2130 - Pages: 9
...and investment trusts. Firstly, it will shortly introduce the definitions of two different funds, then after identifying the main difference between them, it will talk about the advantages and disadvantages for each other. Finally, it will come up with a conclusion. Unit trusts and investment trusts are two types of funds that people can invest in as a private investor in the world. They together form the very fundamental way of how funds operate. Unit trusts are‘open-ended’funds, which means that the size of the fund and the number of units depends on the amount of money investors put into the fund.(Arnold,2012:30) Moreover unit trust fund is an investment scheme where money from many investors is pooled together for collective investments, and is invested towards a specified goal as stated in the investment objective of the fund.(Fig1.1) (ambmutual.com) Arnold(2012) also claimed that investment trusts differ from unit trusts-they are companies able to issue shares and other securities rather than units. Investors can purchase these securities when the investment company is first launched or purchase shares in the secondary market from other investors. These are known as closed-end funds because the company itself is closed to new investors – if you wished to invest your money you would go to an existing investor to buy shares and not buy from the company. An open-end fund does not restrict the amount of shares that can be issued or redeemed at any time. Usually,...
Words: 1018 - Pages: 5
...23 1. Mutual funds are attractive to small investors because they are able to diversify their portfolio for a minimum investment of $250 to $2,500 (p. 609). The investors must rely on the fund’s portfolio manager to make the investment decisions though. Mutual funds generate returns in three ways: through dividend payments to shareholders, distribute capital gains resulting from the sale of securities within the fund, and through mutual fund share price appreciation (p. 611). 2. Open-end mutual funds differ in the fact that they are open to investors which means they will sell shares to investors at any time (p. 609). They also allow investors to sell the shares back to the fund at any time which closed-end cannot (p. 609). 3. Load funds are promoted by registered representatives of brokerage firm, who earn a sales charge upon the investments in the fund between 3 and 8.5 percent (p. 615). No-load funds are promoted strictly by the mutual fund of concern, thereby avoiding an intermediary (p.615). 6. The ideal mutual fund for investors who wish to generate tax-free income and a low degree of risk would be a short-term municipal bond fund (p.620). 9. If the mutual fund distributes at least 90 percent of its income to its shareholders, the fund itself is exempt from federal taxation (p.625). 11. Money market funds differ from other types of mutual funds based on the composition, maturity, and risk of their assets (p. 625). The most common money market funds are commercial...
Words: 507 - Pages: 3
...Neuberger Berman survive and thrive since the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Neuberger Berman was knocked around more than most asset managers in the treacherous seas of the 2008 financial crisis. The 73-year-old firm had only recently been lashed to Lehman Brothers when the investment bank foundered and ultimately failed. Buyout firms proposed a lifeline, but they fell short as the financial crisis deepened, leaving Neuberger's leaders to improvise an employee buyout during the most punishing financing environment in memory. Yet, four years later, Neuberger is freshly invigorated and focused on the essentials in the way disaster survivors tend to be. Its business is in sturdy condition, its fund performance is outpacing most peers and its strong investment culture has been affirmed. If the new Neuberger is in some ways "a $200 billion start-up," as one executive characterizes it, it is also one of the country's premier and most deeply rooted asset managers. Roy Neuberger, a founding partner and guiding force of the firm, died just two years ago, at the age of 107. Until he was nearly 100, he came into the office every day. For all the drama Neuberger has undergone in the past 15 years -- going public in 1999 after 60 years as a partnership, being absorbed by Lehman in 2003 and then set adrift five years later -- Neuberger is in some ways now much closer to the firm that Roy Neuberger ran than it has been in years, with its focus squarely on its client base, and not on the demands...
Words: 2436 - Pages: 10
...Should retail investors invest in index-tracker funds rather than actively-managed funds? As we all know that there are two main institutional investments which are index fund and actively managed fund. However, it seems to be a hard problem when a retail investor who wants to make an institutional investment, perhaps most of them do not know which one deserve their investment. Index funds refers to a kind of fund buying all or part of securities according to a standard formed by certain index, which aims to achieve the same level of returns of following the returns , and catch up the market growth at the same time. The index fund is a kind of passive management fund which is just opposite to the actively management fund. There are many characteristics of index fund. 1, Index Investing uses passive operation of tracking the benchmark index, which can make the costs of the fund's operating and transaction into a minimum. Portfolio strategy can be adjusted by According to the change of the index’s Composition, and what’s more, no fees will be paid about the investment research and analysis. So a lower management fee will be charged. On the other hand, the index investors tend to buy long-term holders of stocks, as opposed to active management by actively trading the formation of high turnover and must pay higher transaction costs, the investment of index funds does not take any adjustment to the investment portfolio initiatively, and the low cost of turnover transaction will...
Words: 1968 - Pages: 8
...management are the two classes in which the investment strategies are categorized. Active management is whereby financial professionals try to outperform a specific benchmark. Passive funds like the exchange traded funds (ETFs) are whereby the index is tracked with no active stock selection (Barr, 2009). The risk of a failing a benchmark or index can be reduced through passive investment. Passive investment also reduces the cost. The active investment has the potential of boosting returns through outperforming some benchmarks. However, there are increased risks and also there are no guarantees that the benchmarks will be exceeded or matched. In a well-diversified portfolio, active and passive investment can flourish. The role of ETFs which is an important building block for dynamic and diverse portfolios is to offer access to equities and fixed income across large developed economies and the emerging markets. ETFs can be traded like share, thus similar liquidity is offered hence it allows the investor to adjust to their portfolios. In the context of investors’ specific objective, active management allows risks to be managed properly (Barr, 2009). Passive funds don’t neutralize risks, but they introduce benchmark risks and concentrated risks to investors and in relation to exchange-traded fund. The concept of market efficiency holds that there can be no over-valued or under-valued securities because of the market factors of discount which at all times influence the pricing of...
Words: 354 - Pages: 2
...in access to capital markets, a relatively new type of investment called an ETF is allowing ordinary investors to participate in the stock market with greater ease than they were able to do previously. Individual investors have been able to participate in the broad market for many years. They basically had two options before the advent of the internet. They could call a stockbroker and place an order for a particular stock, (usually paying a commission of about $100.00 - $200.00 dollars per trade), or they could invest (buy shares) in a mutual fund which held many different stocks and offered diversification to the investor, many (but not all) mutual funds do not charge a commission. If the investor wanted to spread their risk among many different parts of the economy, a mutual fund was the main and most cost-effective way to accomplish that objective. ETFs have some similarities to mutual funds, but this article will highlight some of the differences between ETFs and mutual funds. ETFs and mutual funds are both investment companies, (legally classified as “open-end” companies), but ETFs and mutual funds function differently, and the difference in the way they function is what allows ETFs to be able to be more tax-efficient than a mutual fund. Mutual funds “pool together” investors’ funds and buy stocks in proportion to the total amount invested. The size of the fund can vary based on inflows and outflows by investors. Usually a fund is large enough so that buys and sells do not...
Words: 1173 - Pages: 5
...management are the two classes in which the investment strategies are categorized. Active management is whereby financial professionals try to outperform a specific benchmark. Passive funds like the exchange traded funds (ETFs) are whereby the index is tracked with no active stock selection (Barr, 2009). The risk of a failing a benchmark or index can be reduced through passive investment. Passive investment also reduces the cost. The active investment has the potential of boosting returns through outperforming some benchmarks. However, there are increased risks and also there are no guarantees that the benchmarks will be exceeded or matched. In a well-diversified portfolio, active and passive investment can flourish. The role of ETFs which is an important building block for dynamic and diverse portfolios is to offer access to equities and fixed income across large developed economies and the emerging markets. ETFs can be traded like share, thus similar liquidity is offered hence it allows the investor to adjust to their portfolios. In the context of investors’ specific objective, active management allows risks to be managed properly (Barr, 2009). Passive funds don’t neutralize risks, but they introduce benchmark risks and concentrated risks to investors and in relation to exchange-traded fund. The concept of market efficiency holds that there can be no over-valued or under-valued securities because of the market factors of discount which at all times influence the pricing of...
Words: 354 - Pages: 2
...1. What implications do you draw from the graph for mutual fund investors? It seems like less than 30% of the mutual funds have beaten the Vanguard 500. In reality, there has been an accelerating trend in recent decades to create passively managed mutual funds that are based on market indices, known as index funds. Advocates claim that index funds routinely beat a large majority of actively managed mutual funds (this is proved by the graph provided); one study claimed that over time, the average actively managed fund has returned 1.8% less than the S&P 500 index - a result nearly equal to the average expense ratio of mutual funds (fund expenses are a drag on the funds' return by exactly that ratio). Since index funds attempt to replicate the holdings of an index, they obviate the need for active management, and have a lower churn rate. 2. Is the graph consistent or inconsistent with market efficiency? Explain carefully. The graph is consistent with market efficiency. The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) states that it is not possible to consistently outperform the market by using any information that the market already knows, except through luck. Information or news in the EMH is defined as anything that may affect prices that is unknowable in the present and thus appears randomly in the future. Market efficiency hypothesis is the simple statement that security prices fully reflect all available information. A precondition for this strong version of the hypothesis is that...
Words: 513 - Pages: 3
...was to begin his prison sentence, Mr. Israel’s car was found abandoned on the Bear Mountain Bridge, about 40 miles north of New York City, with “Suicide is Painless” written in the dust on the hood of his car, and with a suicide note left inside his car. He had told his girlfriend, Debbie Ryan, that he was driving himself to a federal prison in Ayer, Massachusetts. She was later also arrested and charged with helping him escape. On Wednesday, July 2, 2008, Israel turned himself in to police (USA Today). On October 28, 2008, Israel avoided prison once again by pleading an addiction to painkillers, making him incompetent to enter a plea. He is ordered to undergo 90 days of psychiatric evaluation in a medical prison facility in North Carolina. (NYDailyNews.com) Bayou Management, LLC, which was headquartered in Stamford, CT, is a group of companies and hedge funds founded in 1996 and managed by Samuel Israel, III and co-founder, James G. Marques. They raised funds from investors with the goal of investing in short term trades, but defrauded investors from the start by misappropriating funds for personal use. Investors were initially promised that the fund would grow to about $7.1m within ten years. According to Bloomberg.com, Bayou “had problems from the very beginning. In 1996, Israel managed to cobble together just $1.2 million for his fund from friends and former colleagues. Even as the U.S....
Words: 2072 - Pages: 9
...Mackenzie Lamm Finance 450 11/18/14 Mutual Fund Paper Analysis of Northern Small Cap Value Fund The following information will outline and overview the Northern Small Cap Value Mutual Fund and whether or not the fund should be chosen as one of the investments currently offered for the employees’ 401-K plan at Rick Lamm and Associates. This report will first, cover the category and nature of the mutual fund, the strategy involved, and what type of investor would be interested. Second, the performance of the mutual fund, comparing the fund’s various returns to its respective category and index. Third, analyze the risks of the fund, and compare those risks with category averages. Fourth, the costs of the fund and how they compare with other funds of its nature. Fifth, the funds’ manager. To conclude, a recommendation will be offered whether or not the Northern Small Cap Value Mutual Fund should or should not be included in Rick Lamm and Associates’ 401-K plan. The Northern Small Cap Value Fund is an open ended mutual fund which looks for value potential (worth more than indicated current prices) by in the stocks of smaller companies. According to Northern Trust, the fund has 500 holdings and is mainly made up of four economic sectors. 37.5% of those holdings in financials, 15% in industrials, 12.2% in information technology, and 10.2% in consumer discretionary goods and services (Northern Trust). As stated on Northern Trust, the funds strategy to gain capital appreciation is to...
Words: 1882 - Pages: 8
...Gregory Connor and Mason Woo An Introduction to Hedge Funds Introductory Guide 1 Introduction International Asset Management (‘IAM’) is the proud sponsor of the IAM Hedge Fund Research Programme of the Financial Markets Group. Within this programme the LSE team undertakes independent research into aspects of the hedge fund industry. It is hoped that the results of this research will give greater understanding about this growing area of financial innovation. This research paper gives a broad introduction to the hedge fund industry, the historical background to the evolution of hedge funds, the fund of funds industry and provides an explanation of some of the terminology used within this area. As an overview of the industry the document does not attempt to address the use of hedge funds within the broader context of portfolio management such as organisational risk or other areas of concern for the investor. This is a nontechnical paper and as such is intended for students or practitioners seeking a general introduction and reference tool. It is not a survey of the research literature and citations are kept to a minimum. If you wish to keep updated on the IAM Hedge Fund Research Programme please let us know. If you have any questions please contact IAM at our London office or visit our website: 34 Sackville Street London W1S 3EF Tel. +44 (0)20 7734 8488 www.iam.uk.com For information about the research activities of the Financial Markets Group see the following page...
Words: 10299 - Pages: 42
...Analysis of how Mutual Funds can be used as a dynamic tool for diversification.. INTRODUCTION There are a lot of investment avenues available today in the financial market for an investor with an invest-able surplus. He can invest in Bank Deposits, Corporate Debentures, and Bonds where there is low risk but low return. He may invest in Stock of companies where the risk is high and the returns are also proportionately high. The recent trends in the Stock Market have shown that an average retail investor always lost with periodic bearish tends. People began opting for portfolio managers with expertise in stock markets who would invest on their behalf. Thus we had wealth management services provided by many institutions. However they proved too costly for a small investor. These investors have found a good shelter with the mutual funds A mutual fund is an investment vehicle that comprises a pool of funds collected from a large number of investors who invest in securities such as stocks, bonds, and short term money market instruments. The portfolio of a mutual fund is structured and maintained by fund managers. Diversification means spreading out money across many different types of investments. When one investment is down another might be up. Diversification of investment holdings reduces the risk tremendously A mutual fund is a group of investors operating through a fund manager to purchase a diverse portfolio of stocks or bonds. Mutual funds are highly cost efficient...
Words: 4777 - Pages: 20
