Valuation Models for Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets

There are currently over 11,000 cryptocurrencies and digital assets. With many experiencing price volatility of over 100% per year, or five times the volatility of stocks, there is substantial disagreement on how to value these assets. Some valuation models used for traditional equity valuation can be used to price these assets. Investors may also find it useful to understand business models, emerging industries, and oligopolistic models.

Conducting Private Portfolio Attribution Analysis

There are many methods for conducting performance attribution with portfolios containing only liquid assets. A lack of periodic asset return data and a clear definition of what constitutes an appropriate market benchmark thwarts efforts to perform similar types of attribution analyses for portfolios of private equity funds (and other illiquid investments). This presentation covered a proposed methodology for decomposing private fund portfolio performance in an article, “Private Portfolio Attribution Analysis,” published in the Fall 2021 edition of The Journal of Alternative Investments.

Using Alternative Data in Financial Markets

Description: Quantitative investors have long used traditional data sources, such as income statements and balance sheets of public firms, to drive stock selection models. With the explosion in the amount and diversity of data in the last five years, alternative data sources are quickly revolutionizing quantitative investing. Alternative data sources can include natural language processing of news and social media content, review of credit card transactions and consumer emails, and geolocation data using cell phone signals and satellite images.

Alex Botte, CFA, CAIA

I studied for the level 2 CAIA exam in mid-2016. At the time, I was an associate on the business development team at AQR Capital Management, a quantitative asset manager that offers alternative funds in liquid vehicles, among other products. As a member of the business development team, I was traveling to the offices of financial advisors talking about how adding liquid alternatives to a traditional stock/bond portfolio could lower risk and enhance both risk-adjusted and absolute returns.

Thomas Garrett, CFA, FRM, CAIA, Chapter Executive

Mr. Garrett is primarily responsible for supporting the firm’s capital markets research efforts, including the creation and oversight of materials for annual market reviews and outlooks, thought leadership on capital market forecasts and models, and the development of top-down portfolio views. Mr. Garrett also assists with the creation and delivery of research materials to the firm’s consulting staff for topics related to capital market opportunities, strategic asset allocation, and active management. He is a shareholder of the firm.

Chronicles: January 2022

It’s everyone’s favorite time of year – forecasting season. Record low interest rates, record high inflation (in recent history), and unprecedented monetary and fiscal policy have made the job of the capital allocator very difficult. Oh, and the global pandemic has moved into its third calendar year in case you had forgotten.

Matt Trimble, CAIA, Chapter Executive

Matt Trimble, CAIA, is a director on the Intermediary Services team at Artisan Partners with responsibility for third-party relationships with institutions and financial professionals within the Mid-Atlantic region of the US. Prior to joining the firm in 2024, Mr. Trimble was a senior vice president at Aristotle covering the RIA, Private Bank, and Family Offices channel.  He has held several business development and client portfolio manager roles at Pacific Funds, OppenheimerFunds, and Hartford Funds. Mr.

ESG in Private Markets - Session 4 of a Series: Portfolio Construction – More than Risk and Return

ESG is no longer a mere add-on in a portfolio or investment strategy. For an increasing number of investors in alternatives, a thoughtful approach to ESG issues has become table stakes. As the industry continues to define the role of ESG and develop approaches to measure and analyze the effect of these issues on their portfolios, industry professionals must continue to educate themselves about the key trends and developments related to ESG across alternative asset classes.