Dimensional Fund Advisors Case

DFA’s investment strategy is based on their belief in the principle that stock market is efficient. They attempt to match a broad-based, value-weighted small-stock index and position themselves in the market as a passive fund manager that still claimed to add value by capturing specific dimensions of risks identified by financial science. DFA’s investment strategy incorporates elements of both passive and active management. It is passive in the sense that like many other index managers, it focuses on the importance of diversification, lower turnover and lower fees than actively managed portfolios. It is active in the sense that it develops its small-value stock focus based on academic research and uses certain techniques (such as

This paper will assess my ability to maximize my personal return on investment with an allocation of $1,000,000. The overall goal of this exercise is to obtain the highest return possible within the next 12 months. I am limited to the following asset classes for allocation of all investments:

Grove Street Advisors (“GSA”) is a leading fund-of-funds, focused on investing in “low risk” top-tier private equity funds that are not excessively large nor highly levered. GSA is faced with a number of strategic alternatives to help catalyze the firm’s next stage of growth. We propose that GSA expand globally and continue to build expertise in relatively underserved global PE markets such as China and India to help meet its objectives of satisfying customer needs, enhancing its international reputation, staying responsive to trends in private equity, and ultimately maximizing profitability.

“The Benefits of diversification are clear. Portfolio theory has played a crucial role in explaining the relationship between risk and return where more than one investment is held. It also enables us to identify optimal and efficient portfolios.”

How does this compare to the previous year? Explain where the largest gain or loss was from the previous year?

Davo Corp Ltd is a large investment company, which has investments in two of the following industries:

Our approach is an active security selection with passive asset allocation. We invest heavily in common stocks, but vary our holdings to include companies of all sizes and industry groups. We seek to achieve sufficient diversification by abstaining from investing more than 5% of the total assets in a single security unless it has significant upside potential, and we make an exception for ETFs and index funds as they represent a basket of securities. Our main goal is to identify and invest in common stocks with high potential for both short- and long-term capital appreciation. Our secondary goal is to invest in common stocks with steady income. When potential for rewards are high, we also enter into derivative

Answer: Comparing the direct labor and overhead costs from 1988 and 1989 the actual savings were 270% (as detailed in Table 1)

3. The partners gave up equity in their company -- part of the ownership -- to get help they needed. Was this a good idea? Why or why not?

DFA’s founders believed in two principals (outside of efficient markets): the value of sound academic research, and the ability of skilled traders to contribute to a fund’s profits even when the investment was inherently passive. By working closely with the academic world, DFA is able to exploit opportunities generated from academic research before others are able to; this creates opportunities for short and long-term excess return. Also, working in stocks that other mutual funds do not participate (micro, small-cap) allows DFA to exploit opportunities in otherwise illiquid stocks. By having a large presence in this market, the company is able to take advantage of trading opportunities with counterparts (liquidity discounts from block purchases).

1. To what extent has the firm been taking care of these sort of cases?

Established in January 1999, Pine Street Capital (PSC) was a market-neutral hedge fund that specialized in the technology field, facing market risk and trying to decide whether and which way to use in order to hedge equity market risk. They choose technology sector because the partners of PSC felt that they have enough ability to evaluate this sector and specially be good at picking out-performing stock. Short-selling of NASDAQ and options hedging strategy are the two major hedging choices for PSC. Either strategy has its own advantages in different economic periods and conditions. The fund has just through one of the most volatile periods in NASDAQ 's history, and it was trying to decide whether it should continue its risk management

Further, our strategy involved paying attention to current events and attempting to use them to generate a return. For example, Horizon Pharmaceuticals’ stock price took a nosedive after an October 19th New York Times article suggested that Horizon was attempting to thwart Express Scripts’ attempts to lower the price of prescription drugs. The decision was made to buy 100 shares of stock in Horizon when its price spiraled down to a measly $14.62 per share, as we expected Horizon would do something to stop the bleeding, and historically has been a pretty volatile stock. Horizon came back with a scorching rebuttal in an open letter later that day, spiking its stock price more than 30% on October 23rd, and by October 28th, this move landed us our greatest return of any stock that we purchased and held until the end of the period: 18% (see appendix).

A trust who share a common financial goal which pools the savings of a number of investors.

Mutual funds are an easy, convenient way to invest, without having to worry about choosing individual stocks. A mutual fund can be defined as a single portfolio of stocks, bonds, and/or cash managed by an investment company on behalf of many investors. The investment company manages the fund, and sells shares in the fund to individual investors. When one invests in a mutual fund, they become a part-owner of a large investment portfolio, along with all the other shareholders of the fund. The fund manager invests the contributions when shares are purchased, along with money from the other shareholders. Every day, the fund manager counts up the value of all the fund's holdings, figures out how many shares have been purchased by