Media – Whitepapers
April 1, 2008
Aside from our own clients, in 17 years of helping guide Treasurers through the cash investment markets, I have never seen the corporate landscape littered with more casualties than today. Of all of the companies holding auction rate securities (ARS) today, an estimated 70% are experiencing regular auction failures and
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February 1, 2008
Introduction In its most basic form, investing is all about understanding and managing risk. For fixed income securities, it’s more about managing credit and interest rate risk. And, understanding credit is of particular importance for corporate cash investors whose primary concerns are principal stability and liquidity, while attractive yield potential
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January 2, 2008
Executive Summary Our five core themes for the risk-averse, short-duration, and buy-and-hold corporate cash investor are: Economy and Interest Rates: Looming Recession Risk and Lower Rates Corporate Credit: Battered and Cheapened, but Not Down and Out Market Technical Factors: A Wary Market Short on Liquidity Asset-backed Securities (ABS): Show Me
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November 1, 2007
Executive Summary The concurrent use of commingled and separate accounts may help in optimizing corporate cash management. In corporate cash management, separate account management has a limited following - about 20% vs. 76% in money funds and 22% in other funds. Six Advantages of Separately Managed Accounts: Tailored Risk Management
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July 2, 2007
Executive Summary Ratings don’t tell the whole story. A basket of bad apples won’t make a good pie. Hidden leverage may sneak up on you. Not all repos are alike. Extension risk may cost you more. Structured notes equal speculation. Do you want to “buy” or “sell” protection? Hedge funds
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March 7, 2007
Executive Summary Superior returns do not happen by chance all the time, so it is relevant to identify active strategies to help achieve them. We focus on the three broad investment strategies used by most fixed income managers: duration management, sector rotation, and credit selection. Excess return potential from active
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January 2, 2007
Executive Summary As 2006 drew to a close, corporate cash investors found themselves in a surprisingly benign market. Despite the 100 basis-point increase in the Fed funds rate, major short-duration bond indices brought in positive returns almost universally. As managers of corporate cash investments, we picked five trends that reflect
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December 1, 2006
Executive Summary We set out to answer 10 of the most common questions related to investment policy statement writing for cash portfolios. In doing so, we will provide a number of peer group data comparisons to further add helpful insight in the process. The questions address the following investment subjects:
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October 1, 2006
Executive Summary Results of three studies examining investment returns show that, in aggregate, investors with tax rates above 23% received higher returns from tax-exempt securities than from taxable investments over the last nine years. The annual return advantage for taxpayers in the top tax bracket (35%) was approximately 0.26%. While
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September 1, 2006
Executive Summary Few financial executives have a firm grasp of what liquidity means in a portfolio of individual cash assets. The two main criteria in measuring liquidity are: 1. how long it takes to convert an asset to cash, and 2. how much of a price “haircut” must be taken
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