The IFF School of Investment Management
The ultimate investment management training course. Spanning the spectrum of the investment world and focusing on all asset classes, this is the most comprehensive investment management course currently available anywhere around the globe. Always a firm favourite with our investment clients, this course is always oversubscribed.
Course Highlights
Five reasons why you must attend this residential course:
- You will get to grips with the practicalities of cutting edge investment management methodologies
- The residential nature of the course enables you to cover numerous highly-focused case-studies with a particular emphasis on the practical applications
- Taught by the world’s leading investment management practitioners, it will provide you with the chance to learn directly from the experts
- It is tailored specifically to your needs. The intensive programme and case studies will focus on the industries and sectors that YOU choose
- It will provide you with the perfect balance between theory and practice, ensuring you return to work with all the tools you need to be an outstanding success
For details of the course trainer, please download the course brochure
Booking Information
| Dates | Prices | Book This Course | Discount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 - 17 Sep 2010 |
£ 4999 |
 |
-
|
| 07 - 11 Mar 2011 |
£ 4999 |
|
-
|
Course Programme
DAY 1
Introduction to Investment
Investment Fundamentals Reviewed
- Principals of the investment risk return paradigm
- Investment asset classes and historical returns
- Modern portfolio theory - explanation and its shortfalls
- Fiduciary responsibility and investment professionals
- Controlling the investment management process
The Great Market Crash of 2008 and Beyond
- Great market crashes and why 1929, 1987, 2000 and now: lessons learned
- Market rebounds and track records
- Historical overpricing or still valuable
- The behaviour imperative: explaining market direction
- The great market rebound 2009 and its aftermath
Sources of Investment Return Drivers
- The key drivers in markets everywhere
- Cyclical approach to investment management
- Quantifying market direction and investment return
- Further thoughts on behavioral finance
Understanding Investment Statistics
- Alpha, beta and alternative beta
- Volatility and hedging
- Correlations and normal distributions
- Fat tails and extreme events
- Easy risk management measures
- Major investment management measurement ratios
Investment Performance Measurement
- How investment performance is measured
- Benchmarks and the argument for indexing investments
- Selecting appropriate benchmarks global investment benchmarks review
- Investment performance comparisons without benchmarks
- GIPS (Global Investment Performance Standards)
DAY 2
Global Investment Markets – Fixed Income, Equity and others
Drivers of Global Bond returns
- Bonds, credit spreads and interest rates
- Duration revisited and duration matching strategies
- Varying new and complicated instruments
- Bond portfolio management and fixed income arbitrage trading
- Constructing bond portfolios
- Constructing fixed income arbitrage portfolios
- Hedging fixed income portfolios
Equity Valuation and Stock Selection
- Financial analysis and Wall Street investment research
- Forecasting drivers of the equity market
- Understanding the corporate lifecycle and valuation ratios
- Active vs. passive strategies: comparative benchmarks
- Other equity themes: illiquid securities, capitalisation and leveraging investment returns
- The evolving mutual fund sector
- ETFs and trackers - their place in the world
Style Bets in the Markets
- Growth vs. value: size and other style indicators
- Style cycles and the business cycle
- Style bets of geographical diversification
- Top down vs. bottom up stock selection
- Momentum investing and contrarian investing
Investment Analysis and Equity Markets
- Equity analysis and corporate earnings management
- Reading investment research (between the lines)
- Stock selection skill sets and human behaviour
- Irrational exuberance: booms, bubbles, crashes
A mini case study – Reviewing a stock valuation model
Equity Portfolio Construction Methods
- Benchmarked or absolute return portfolio construction
- Tracking error and how active is active portfolio management
- The reverse of equity long only investing: short-sell ing and leveraged investment
- Constructing traditional equity portfolios
- Constructing long short equity portfolios
Case Study: Capacity constraints in equity management
DAY 3
New Financial Instruments and Asset Allocation Theory
Starting out with Derivatives Markets
- Derived returns and option theory
- The options, futures and forwards markets evolution
- Other types of derivatives and their growth
- Hedging tools, portfolio management tools, taking further bets
- Derivative leverage and trade sizing
Group Exercise: A look at stock option chains
Traditional and New Paradigms in Asset Allocation
- Expected returns as per modern portfolio theory
- Forecasting returns and post-modern portfolio theory
- Optimising portfolios with optimisers
- Benchmark, historical risk and return figures
- Evolving risk premia
- Endowment style investment and one percentile investment performance among institutional investors
- Private banking asset allocation
Tactical Asset Allocation Programs and Portfolio Overlays
- Core vs. satellite strategies
- Style allocations
- Tactical asset allocation programs
- Portable alpha strategies defined
- Adding value to the portfolio management process: a review
Interactive Working Session: Designing the right portfolio management strategy/asset allocation plan for your own company
DAY 4
Risk Management and Investment Management Tools
Investment Risk Defined
- Defining investment risk problematic
- Risk measurement and measurement tools
- Managing measured risk
- Tracking error constraints and risk management
- Drivers of investment risks
- Measuring risk by traditional measures, volatility, concentration, holding based analysis
- Diversifiable risk and market risks
- Liquidity, concentration, and the impact of market sell offs
- Fat tail risk and controlling downside risk
- Portfolio hedging programs and their costs
- Using multifactor models to understand investment management bets
- Building portfolios on multifactor models
- Investment management performance analysis
Risk Management Concerns on Global Institutional Investors
- Global institutional investors and pension fund management and their special concerns
- Measuring and modeling assets and liabilities
- Liabilities and funding strategies
- Dynamic portfolio analysis for assets and liabilities
- Liability matching, duration matching
- Risk managing the equity book
-
Risk managing the long short book
The Evolving Role of Global Risk Managers
- The Global Risk Manager and the investment institution
- Fitting the institutional investors into a risk management framework
- Best practices of a risk management department
- Implementing best practices of risk management
- Large institutional investor's risk management process
DAY 5
Understanding Hedge Funds and Other Alternative Investments
Alternative Investments and the Growing Importance as Investment Management Tools
- The benefits of alternatives, private equity, hedge funds and commodities to traditional portfolios
- Correlations arguments overused?
- Illiquidity trading and return analysis of alternative strategies
- Alternative asset alpha vs. beta exposure and return drivers
- The importance of hedged downside protection to traditional portfolios
Hedge Fund Strategies Overview
- Performance characteristics of hedge funds
- Drivers of hedge fund returns
- The convergence between long only and long short strategies
- Quantitative risk management of hedge funds vs. long only funds
- Directional hedge fund strategies
- Event driven hedge fund strategies
- Arbitrage style strategies
- Style multitudes of hedge funds, weather bonds, cats, quantitative trading and CTAs
Case Study: Considerations in screening hedge fund managers
The Other Alternative Assets – Real Estate, Commodities and Private equity
- The commodity indexes and enhanced indexing
- Direct investments - private equity and real estate
- Real estate investment funds and reits
- Hedged and active commodities exposure
Obtaining Alternative Investment Exposure
- Those great correlation arguments
- Hedge funds of funds and the gatekeepers
- Building dedicated hedge fund portfolios
- Hedge fund manager selection and private equity partnership selection
- The due in due diligence
- The hedge fund life cycle
- Investment risk management of alternative investments funds
Home