10
Dec
2007
Absolute-return investing: time for clarity
Fans of absolute-return investing claim it represents ‘the future of asset management’, its attackers that it is just a fad. Most investment fads are intellectually lazy: they describe concepts but appeal to emotions. The most appealing of investment concepts are versions of the free lunch: the ‘something for nothing’ culture. For absolute-return products, the claimed USP is that you can generate much more upside return than you risk in absolute loss and that this is more efficient and rational than harvesting long-term risk premiums from volatile assets by accepting large interim losses.
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