The Role Of Active And Passive Portfolio Strategies And Their Link With The Theory Of Efficient Capital Markets

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

So according to the Efficient Market Theory it is impossible for any investor to “beat the market” that is earn more profit or get more return than what the market is actually offering. Therefore the investor can only earn greater profits on his investment if the investment portfolio includes a high proportion of risky investments that is those with higher standard deviations and betas but with a good capability of yielding high returns as well (Stephens, C.R., 2010).

This was a simulation project related to application of different tools of portfolio management. The project was applied by using stocktrak.com platform. This website provides the students and teachers with a real time simulation platform for learning the portfolio investment. A specific allocated amount was used in this simulation project for portfolio investment. A portfolio was created of different securities like stocks, bonds and currencies. These bonds and securities were from different sectors of economy like technology industry, financial industry, consumer goods industry, services industry, health industry, industrial goods industry, utilities industry, and basic materials industry. The top performing stocks in this simulation project were Bank of America Corporation, Hersha Hospitality trust, Deans Food Company, Loews Corporation, and Pepsi Co Inc. The study also found that the percentage return on portfolio remained above the return realized on Dow Jones ETF during the timeline of the project.

With Reference to this statement, describe, discuss and illustrate the principles of portfolio theory. Your essay should include coverage of the Markowitz Efficient Frontier and the Capital Market Line.

Chapter seven: What does the efficient market theory have to do with Financial markets? Discuss the positives and negatives of the theory. Why do Wall-Street types not like it? Explain the coin flipping experiment, as it relates to investment diversification.

Chapter seven: What does the efficient market theory have to do with Financial markets? Discuss the positives and negatives of the theory. Why do Wall-Street types not like it? Explain the coin flipping experiment, as it relates to investment diversification.

I strongly advocate tactical asset allocation process and diversification over several different income and growth strategies. I believe that risk management and protection of investor's endowment are major objectives. In my portfolio, stocks may occupy a large portion and the

What is the efficient-markets hypothesis? What does it imply about the role of portfolio managers?

Definition: In an active portfolio strategy, a manager uses financial and economic indicators along with various other tools to forecast the market and achieve higher gains than a buy-and-hold (passive) portfolio.

By analyzing monthly returns of all 10 portfolios from 1927-2012 and 2000-2012, we can see that there is a general pattern that stocks with higher momentum have higher return, which confirms the momentum strategy. The average return of stocks with high minus low momentum is a little lower than that

To reduce a firm’s specific risk or residual risk a portfolio should have negative covariance or rather it should have no variance at all, for large portfolios however calculating variance requires greater and sophisticated computing power. As such, Index models greatly decrease the computations needed to calculate the optimum portfolio. The use of such Index models also eliminates illogical or rather absurd results. The Single Index model (SIM) and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) are such models used to calculate the optimum portfolio.

From September 3rd, 2015 to October 28th, 2015, our group was given the opportunity to manage an investment portfolio, with the goal of maximizing the value of the portfolio through acquiring, holding, and selling stock. The beginning cash balance of the portfolio was $100,000, and our group had the ability to make up to 500 trades. During this time period, our group made 20 stock purchases and sold stock twice. At the close of business on October 28, 2015, the value of our group’s portfolio increased from $100,000 to $106,785.33, yielding a return of  6.78% (((106785.33/100,000)-1) x 100)). In comparison to the S&P 500 returned at 7.16% and the Dow Jones having a return of 8.65% (Yahoo).

According to the CAPM model:R_i=α+βR_m+ε, α represent the abnormal return gained by the portfolio. If the market is efficiency, the α has to be zero.

On the other end of the spectrum choosing an active approach presents its own issues. Finding consistent performing active fund managers who can deliver returns greater than the market is very rare. According to Standard & Poor’s SPIVA Australia scorecard in 2012, approximately 69 percent of active retail Australian equity funds failed to beat the S&P/ASX Accumulation index and 72 per cent of active international equity funds failed to beat the benchmark. This coupled with high premiums charged for active management and lack of transparency in managing processes diminishes the appeal of active management approach further.

The objective of studying this case is to understand the concepts of diversification and the efficient frontier by analyzing Harvard Management Company’s application of portfolio theory for managing the endowment of Harvard University. Please read the case carefully and be prepared to discuss the following questions in class on Monday, October 11.