Skarbeck: Hedge fund fees pile up despite bad performance
Investors continue to pour money into hedge funds, even though their performance has been downright awful.
Ken Skarbeck
Articles
Skarbeck: Trillions raised, invested by private equity players
An estimated 2,700 private equity firms manage some $3.5 trillion in assets. Often called “buyout firms,” they solicit investments from pension funds and other well-heeled investors that are pooled into “funds” and used to acquire public and private companies.
Skarbeck: Understand accounting–or pay the consequences
Throughout history, good accounting practices have promoted trust in government and capitalist systems, while inadequate accounting has led to financial chaos and even revolutions.
Skarbeck: Companies using mergers to sidestep taxes in U.S.
Merger activity has exploded this year, and a key factor behind many of the deals is the ability to use cash stockpiles held overseas.
Skarbeck: Debt levels have shot higher in wake of financial crisis
According to the Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements, aggregate global debt has ballooned more than 40 percent since the financial crisis and is estimated to have reached $100 trillion.
Skarbeck: Being a company director can be a lucrative gig
As another annual report season arrives, the compensation tables in proxy statements clearly show that it pays to be a director of a public company.
Skarbeck: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac roil big investment firms
In 2012, Fannie and Freddie started making money as the housing market rebounded and losses in their mortgage portfolios reversed. By the end of this month, the firms will have returned $203 billion to taxpayers. In the meantime, several hedge funds began acquiring both the preferred shares and common stocks of Fannie and Freddie.
Skarbeck: Tactics have proliferated to gain edge in trading
Critics are divided on whether Regulation NMS has achieved its stated purpose, or whether it has produced unintended consequences.
Skarbeck: Trendy ‘quant’ hedge funds have run their course
For those who feel they missed capitalizing on the bull market in stocks, consider that an elite fraternity of heralded money managers actually lost money for their clients over the past three years.
Skarbeck: Analysts’ quarterly focus can lead investors astray
Wall Street analysts are notorious for their short-term attention spans. This leads to undue scrutiny of a company’s quarterly figures and can lead to poor decisions by investors.
Skarbeck: Decline in listed stocks not likely to continue
The number of traded stocks has been shrinking, but as both the economy and stock market continue to recover, private equity firms will seek to list their holdings as IPOs and the number of publicly traded stocks may once again expand.
Skarbeck: Next wave of regulators needs to keep reforming
Since last year, there have been several personnel changes in key financial and regulatory positions in the federal government.
Skarbeck: Market has way of looking beyond today’s headlines
The stock market has a remarkably perceptive ability to see past inconsequential issues that sometimes dominate the investment environment and instead peer ahead into the future.
Skarbeck: There are no substitutes for buying assets cheaply
The recent white paper issued by investment firm GMO’s James Montier ridicules some of the “innovations” that are popular in the investment field. His criticism addresses concepts like smart beta, risk parity, and real asset inflation hedges.
Skarbeck: Stocks still the best bet among investor choices
Many observers are raising warning flags that stocks are overvalued, and some even say a market bubble is forming. A review of the evidence, in our opinion, doesn’t support their alarm.
Skarbeck: Controversy dogs some public-pension programs
Heated talks are taking place in public-pension boardrooms across the country over issues like risk levels of investments and fees paid to fund managers.
Skarbeck: Use these financial tables to figure retirement goals
There are two key financial tables that can help you plan for retirement. They can be found on the Internet. With them you can input two simple factors—period invested and interest rate earned—and quickly see how your net worth is affected.
Skarbeck: Firms with high ratios could take a tumble
On occasion, it is interesting to study the stocks of businesses that are outliers on the bell curve of business valuation. For a value investor, that means looking at stocks selling at huge multiples above traditional valuation yardsticks.
Skarbeck: SEC turns up spotlight on pay for top brass
The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a rule that would require large public companies to disclose the total annual compensation of their CEO, the median annual compensation of all their employees (excluding the CEO), and the ratio between these two figures.
SKARBECK: Rising interest rates not always bad
Some market constituents benefit from higher rates. For example, payers of fixed cash flows—the consumer who locked in a loan at a lower fixed-rate, companies that issued bonds at lower rates and insurers that pay annuitants fixed rates.