Events

MAY 13

2021

CFA Society Boston and New Frontier Institute Present
© Distinguished Lecture Series, Spring 2021: 
Who Owns and Trades Bitcoin: Evidence from the Blockchain

with Antoinette Schoar, Stewart C. Myers-Horn Family Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management

Cryptocurrencies have had a remarkable growth in valuation and attention over the last decade. The promise of a decentralized system of payments and storage of value outside the traditional nexus of government scrutiny is their distinguishing characteristic. While more than 4,500 cryptos are now in circulation, Bitcoin remains the largest market with market cap in excess of $750 billion. But we still know little about participants or utilization. The talk will present new research on ownership, balances, and volume of the major groups of participants, with a particular focus on the behavior of miners, exchanges, illegal uses, scams, and large hodlers.

APR 13

2021

CFA Society Boston and New Frontier Institute Present
© Distinguished Lecture Series, Spring 2021: 
ESG Confusion and Stock Returns:  
Tackling the Problem of Noise and Divergence in ESG Measures

with Roberto Rigobon, Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management and Professor of Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management

An exploration of the challenges of using ESG ratings in the construction of portfolios and the estimation of returns. The discussion began with an examination of the discrepancies that exist in measurement, how they can be interpreted as a problem of noise, and how rating agencies can help resolve this noise. The presentation concluded with an explanation of how returns may be better computed, and considers how this method can be used to construct more robust portfolios.

APR 9

2021

College of Charleston Strategic Investment Symposium: 
Value Investing, Quant Investing, Business Culture

Robert Michaud has been invited to speak at The College of Charleston's Strategic Investment Symposium on April 9, 2021 at 1PM where he will take part in a breakout session on the topic of "Value Investing, Quant Investing, Business Culture."

MAR 17

2021

CFA Society Boston and New Frontier Institute Present:
© Distinguished Lecture Series, Spring 2021:
"Do Stocks Outperform Treasury Bills?"

with Hendrik Bessembinder, Professor and Francis J. and Mary B. Labriola Endowed Chair in Competitive Business

It is well documented that broad stock markets have provided long-term returns that far exceed those on low risk investments such as U.S. Treasury bills.   In fact, the degree of stock market outperformance is so large that there is widespread reference to the “equity premium puzzle.”  Yet, the fact is that most stocks underperform Treasury bills in the long run.  Indeed, the median long run return to an individual stock is negative, and the modal outcome is a total or near-total loss of investment.   Stated alternatively, the positive long run return premium to the broad stock markets is driven by extreme returns on a relatively few stocks.   While the original study documenting these results considered U.S. stocks since 1926, this presentation provided results for global stocks and also for U.S. equity mutual funds since 1990.   Implications for portfolio strategies and the evaluation of investment performance was also discussed.

FEB 17

2021

Presentation CFA Society Boston and New Frontier Institute Present:
© Distinguished Lecture Series, Spring 2021:

"Pension Lessons Learned from the Pension Crisis"

with Ron Ryan, CEO and Founder, Ryan ALM, Inc.

An overview of the circumstances that have pushed the pension industry to the brink of insolvency today as well as discuss policy solutions that may help stave off a potential systemic crisis.

APR 16

2020

Presentation: "Estimation Error and the Fundamental Law of Active Management"

with Dr. Richard Michaud and Dr. David Esch

Our Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Richard Michaud, and Managing Director of Research, Dr. David Esch, presented their research demonstrating that applications of the Grinold (1989) "Fundamental Law" theory for optimized portfolio design are often unreliable and self-defeating. Presented by the CFA Society Boston.

A transcript of the webinar is available here.

JUN 11

2019

Research Conference: "Finance's Wrong Turns"

with Dr. Richard Michaud

An intensive one-day research conference sponsored by CFA Society Boston, offering a critical look at the issues that are facing active asset management, what that means for modern financial theory and practice, and how we could potentially move forward.

MAR 21

2019

Workshop: "Mastering Asset Allocation: From Estimation to Rebalancing"

with Robert Michaud and Dr. Richard Michaud

A full-day workshop covering solutions to a range of asset allocation topics.