Introduction to Asset Management

Role of Asset Managers on Financial Markets

• Functions and responsibilities.
• Stakeholders: clients, counterparties, depository, regulators
• Investments: securities and derivatives

Players in Asset Management Companies

• Investment managers
• Sales and marketing
• Back office and middle office
• Compliance and legal
• Support staff: finance and control, audit, HR, IT

Management Styles

• Direct (discretionary account) / collective (UCITS)
• Traditional / alternative
• Benchmarked / absolute performance
• Active / index performance
• Traditional / quantitative

• Practical studies

• Read and interpret a UCITS simplified prospectus

Fixed Income Management

• Fundamentals: interest rate curve, sensitivity, credit risk
• Active management of interest rate and credit risk
• Benchmarked fixed-income management and asset-backed products
• Money market and bond management

• Practical studies

• Calculate a bond’s risk from its modified duration

Equity Management

• Equity returns in relationship to market (alpha, beta)
• Top Down/Bottom Up Approaches
• Company valuation: ratios and financial analysis
• Growth, Value and GARP styles

• Practical studies

• Sort funds according to their management style and risk

Balanced Management

• Asset allocation: Mean Variance optimisation
• Sharpe - Markowitz Theory and the efficient frontier (CAPM)
• Risk budgeting and Core/Satellite management

Specialised management

• Structured products
• Portfolio insurance and guaranteed funds
• Private Equity, real estate, hedge funds, commodities

• Practical studies

• Determine the impact of equity market and interest rate fluctuations on the price of a structured product

Portfolio Monitoring

• Risk/performance indicators
• League tables

• Practical studies

• Calculate Sharpe ratios, information ratio and compare different funds