In light of the current fiscal and monetary concerns that are gripping the minds of investors around the world, Institutional Asset Manager asked the heads of some of the world’s leading asset managers to share their thinking on portfolio management trends post-Lehman and beyond 2011 in concise fashion. Catherine Vaughn (pictured), Managing Director and Head of Asset Management, Highbridge Capital Management, examines alternative investments:
"The last three years have been a period of assessment and change for the alternative investment industry. While alternative asset managers continued to focus on generating positive absolute returns in a volatile market, they also invested heavily in building and re-defining risk management and operational processes.
"Managers also re-evaluated their approach to relationships with investors, which led to friendlier terms and improvements in the substance and frequency of portfolio information provided to them.
"As a result, investors can now better evaluate strategy performance from both a risk and return perspective. This newly evolved relationship, coupled with a thorough review of portfolio objectives and internal resources, has allowed investors to take an increasingly customised approach to incorporating alternative investment strategies into their investment portfolios.
"Going forward, we expect investors to continue to favour alternative investment strategies that provide broad portfolio benefits and exposure to differentiated investment opportunities. The alternative asset managers that will benefit from the continued growth of assets in the industry will be those that are able to deliver positive uncorrelated returns while maintaining a strong risk management and operational framework."
