Author: chartoftheweek

ALM & Investment Strategy at Redington. Watcher of financial markets, lover of volatility.

Liability Driven Investment: assets, strategies & innovation, a roundtable discussion

March 25, 2014

Reading Time: 6 minutes I recently had the pleasure of attending a roundtable discussion on Liability Driven Investing, hosted by Pensions Expert. the group covered the following four questions : How do you approach LDI with schemes that do not already have it in place? Once an LDI programme is in place, does it get more sophisticated as it … More Liability Driven Investment: assets, strategies & innovation, a roundtable discussion

What Lies Beneath: The hidden cost of pension fund equity risk

March 24, 2014

Reading Time: 4 minutes Read the full paper here update, this paper was quoted in a front page article in Financial News in the weeks of 7th April 2014. The online version can be found here A recent change to the banking regulatory landscape brought pension risk to the fore… On 29th November 2013, following a consultation, the Prudential … More What Lies Beneath: The hidden cost of pension fund equity risk

What is the purpose of a pension scheme?

January 29, 2014

Reading Time: 3 minutes This was written as a response to this post on mallowstreet.com, which itself was a summary of a presentation given at the annual TUC pensions conference which made several points including advocating pension schemes reject Liability Drive Investing as a “distraction”, and focus instead on future income streams. The blog also questioned the relevance of … More What is the purpose of a pension scheme?

PPF 7800 Index funding level increases 15% in 2013

January 15, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes The December update of the PPF’s 7800 index of pension fund assets and liabilities revealed a sharp increase in funded position for schemes in aggregate over the course of 2013, from a funding level of 83% at the end of 2012, to 98% at the end of 2013. These levels compare to the low point of … More PPF 7800 Index funding level increases 15% in 2013

Happy 30th FTSE!

January 3, 2014

Reading Time: 2 minutes The FTSE 100 index celebrated its 30th birthday on the 3rd of January 2014, my, hasn’t time flown! The index started life at a level of 1,000 and closed on the 2 January 2014 at 6,717, meaning an investment made at the start would be worth over 6 times as much (not counting dividends, as … More Happy 30th FTSE!

2013 In Review: Asset Class Returns and Key Drivers

January 2, 2014

Reading Time: 5 minutes As we close the year of the Snake, and move into the year of the Horse, we are again reviewing the major asset class moves, from a UK pension fund investment perspective, in a similar way to what we did last year. UK Inflation Long term inflation expectations increased, with the 30 year zero-coupon RPI … More 2013 In Review: Asset Class Returns and Key Drivers

Book review: The Undercover Economist Strikes Back

December 27, 2013

Reading Time: 2 minutes Happily, I received this book as a stock-filler on Christmas day and promptly got stuck into it straight after lunch, by the end of boxing day I had finished it, in more or less two sittings. Having read and enjoyed Tim Harford‘s first book The Undercover Economist I was familiar with his chatty easy-to-read style as well as … More Book review: The Undercover Economist Strikes Back

Most Read in 2013

December 22, 2013

Reading Time: 2 minutes Last year I made a resolution to start a blog on things that interested me, now that blog is  nearly a year old, I’m really happy (and amazed) to report the stats from the last 12 months – over 4,000 unique page views from 30 separate entries, with 8 entries receiving over 100 views. The blog … More Most Read in 2013

Update: Good News now really is Good News

November 12, 2013

Reading Time: 2 minutes Mohamed El-Erian of PIMCO put out a great blog piece a few days ago, the gist of which was, to paraphrase: – Major equity markets reacted negatively to the seemingly better-than-expected US Q3 GDP print, and twitter IPO on Thursday November 7th – Major equity markets reacted positively to the better-than-expected October jobs report on Friday November … More Update: Good News now really is Good News