ACTIVE MANAGEMENT
Investors who chase performance by switching asset managers may find that such a short-term view will serve only to make matters worse in the long run.

Investment platform
Overvalued in the boom, infrastructure assets are now relatively cheap, and carefully managed can yield a stable long-term income, writes Charlotte Thorne.

Despite constant criticism in cases of recent market volatility, industry insiders are quietly supportive of HFT firms and their improvements in market efficiency.

A realignment of sovereign and corporate debt has created several bond market opportunities for companies and investors in central and eastern Europe.

American General deal:
Subprime is at the core of 2007’s crash in many people’s eyes, but some firms are keen not to let whatever value these mortgages have go to waste.

EMERGING MARKET DEBT:
Forecasts of a strong year ahead, along with Brazil’s new-found investment grade status, has convinced many schemes that EM bonds are a sound investment.

Bank’s launch announcement comes at a peculiar time, as Europe is saturated with multilateral trading facilities chasing limited liquidity.

Norway’s government pension fund has selected a mix of strategies, raising the question of whether anyone can really say which is more effective.

A meeting this month in the heart of London’s Docklands laid out EU plans to scrutinise, limit and retain capital on securitisation exposures of investors.

Cash in money markets funds has switched to higher yielding bond funds, equity funds and balanced funds over the last 12 months, new data reveals.

Following its relative hiatus in new activity, independent private equity firms are staging a comeback, but some pension funds remain reserved.

The total AUM of pension funds is on the rise again, and the ones who came out of the crisis the least injured will look to consolidate to create larger funds.

2010 forecast

‘Mr Beta’ predicts that exchange traded funds and private equity firms will be bang on the money next year, as banks continue to ditch funds by the dozen.

Economic outlook

Useful financial predictions don’t come easy at the best of times, and while 2010 is expected to improve on the previous year, the nature of recovery remains mysterious.

To truly help Africa reach its potential, the world must view it less as a continent-sized charity case and more in line with its reality as a key growth region.

Despite a no-show from regional SWFs at a recent Saudi conference, asset managers had a lot to say about investor confidence and hunger for cash.

An Asian futures trader awaits its fate as the regulator decides whether its actions in advising clients to take a locking position were material or not.

Caution and fear of future volatility seem to have put paid to product launches and innovation, but this return to the simple life could have many benefits.

12 months on from the start of the financial downturn, have investment bankers learnt their lesson, or are they still trying to flog the riskiest of products?

For years, many have questioned the usefulness of GDP as a yardstick of an economy’s health, and its flaws are also reflected in company profit analysis.

A cautious approach to investment in IT and reporting systems in the past is of little comfort now that there is no budget for improving client software.

Splitting portfolios to combine long-term stable returns with short-term speculation may protect more institutional funds from future volatility.

With some assistance, the Iraqi Stock Exchange has taken a leap forward in technology terms, but its neighbours haven’t had it quite as easy.

It seems no one can escape the draw of the Twitter-sphere, and now FT Mandate is using the channel as a further method to update and get updated.

Could it be that in 20 years’ time traders will complete buy and sell transactions by merely thinking about them? Academics certainly think so.

There is no obvious reason why sovereign funds should not reveal their results, yet they persist in hiding from the rest of the world.

Everyone is looking for someone to pin the blame on, but no one was complaining when the times were good, writes Nat Mankelow.

There may be plenty of opportunities available, but until investors regain their confidence there will be no recovery, writes Spencer Anderson.