Multimedia Library

Hear our expert staff and Members speak on topics ranging from practical strategies in hedge fund investing to the importance of education in the alternatives space.

As the landscape of investments undergoes a remarkable shift with 'alternatives' taking center stage, the CAIA Association is taking a leadership role in the development of a modernized and relevant set of fiduciary practices for investment professionals and capital allocators to embrace. With the launch of our Open Comment Period on March 5, we invited all stakeholders to join us on this transformative journey, recognizing the need for principles that not only align with the industry's current trajectory but also lay the groundwork for a sustainable and responsible future for alternative investments.

To support FDP Candidates and those considering the pursuit of the FDP Charter, we offered a brief, live webinar with our Curriculum team. 

A typical Orientation Session includes the following: 

• Review sample exam questions. 

• Learn exam-taking tips. 

• Have your questions answered by our exam experts. 

Formal remarks of the presentation lasted approximately 45 minutes, with 15 minutes for Q&A. This webinar featured members of the FDP Curriculum Team as well as Candidate Relations. The following topics were discussed: Curriculum materials, exam format, and available resources. For each topic we discussed the required readings, keywords, learning objectives and sample questions. 

By now, you probably know what an NFT is. You have also probably heard of the staggering sums being made by individuals. More recently, several funds have launched that are approaching investing in NFTs in an institutional manner. CAIA is excited to have put together a panel of Funds to discuss the various approaches being used to invest in this emerging asset class. We reviewed the term NFT,  how NFTs are valued as well as some of the investment strategies being employed. This panel will be followed a few weeks later with a practicum on how to buy NFTs.

Diversification and digitalization are key factors in this challenging as well as shifting economy, in which African institutional investors juggle between currency restriction, language barriers and government regulation. During this webinar we speak about how to diversify investments by allocating to Alternative investments while complying to ESG standards.

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.

Listen in as the Japan Alternative Data Accelerator Association and Financial Data Professional Institute have a discussion on the applications of alternative data in financial markets.

Dan Joldzic, CEO of Alexandria Technology and Keith Black, PhD, CFA, CAIA, FDP discussed how machines are interfacing with humans to effect manager selection and private asset secondary sales in this second installment of Turn Text to Alpha. After a quick recap of Part I (https://bit.ly/3r2k8nx), the webinar continued to discuss key questions that sit across technology and finance:

- Can machines actually uncover hidden patterns that escape the human eye and emotions?
- How would the interface between technology applications enhance our ability to pick the best managers and companies?
- What are the limitations on artificial intelligence and other machine learning based models that are most likely to hinder or interrupt results?
- Can AI be used to expedite the secondary sale of private assets?

Just a few years ago, the Financial Data Professional Institute was just an idea. Now, after five exam cycles, there are FDP Charterholders in 41 countries, and the global footprint is growing. CAIA CEO Bill Kelly and Keith Black, PhD, CFA, CAIA, FDP, Managing Director, Program Director, FDP Institute, discuss the curriculum, and why the FDP Institute’s highly specialized body of knowledge resonates with investment professionals.

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.

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.

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.

View Slide Presentation Here

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. CAIA, in partnership with Nuveen, hosted a thought-provoking webinar series organized exclusively for the benefit of institutional investors across the world. In this fourth session, we discussed how asset owners can best integrate some of the most material ESG issues into their portfolios, regardless of asset class.