At the end a recent GIPS® 2020 webinar, I included a slide like the one above. It was, in a sense, a “word from your sponsor.” This is the time of year when many firms begin to think about their next year’s verification. Before you get too far down that path,...
Performance Perspectives Blog
Thoughts on performance measurement from David Spaulding and other members of our team.
Is it time to start something new in 2019? Perhaps a switch to Spaulding Verification Services!
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GIPS Composite Presentations: If you’re going to cheat, make sure you pick someone who knows what they’re doing
You've probably seen this bumper sticker that reads something like "Don't follow me, I'm lost too." Well, an analogous idea arises in school, when you look at what a neighboring student answered to an exam question, thinking that they surely got it right. But what if...
Is it time to rethink the famed benchmark criteria?
For some time I've grown tired of seeing the seven (now eight) benchmark criteria credited to Bailey, Richards & Tierney (2007. "Evaluating Portfolio Performance"). I first learned of them when I took the then CGIPS now CIPM(r) Principles Exam, roughly 11 years...
A Rebalancing Act: Rebalancing Quarterly Benchmarks
The following question was recently sent to me: suppose a firm uses a blended benchmark that rebalances quarterly… how should they calculate external dispersion? I guess I hadn't given much thought to the possible challenges with rebalancing quarterly benchmarks, but...
Standard deviation: a measure of variability, too!
One thing that is often overlooked is that William F. Sharpe, PhD, in his paper that introduced the now eponymously named "Sharpe ratio," referred to his measure as "reward to variability." He contrasted this with Jack Treynor's earlier published method, which he...
Shouldn’t GIPS 20/20 have a logo?
Shouldn't GIPS® 20/20 have its own logo? That thought occurred to us a couple of months back. In fact, I sent a note to the CFA Institute suggesting it. However, I suspect they're probably a tad too busy to be worrying about a logo. And so, we decided to design one....
Is your GIPS transparency too revealing?
Erring on the side of transparency In a recent Wall Street Journal editorial ("A Scarlet Title IX Letter," May 8, 2018), the writer spoke of the potential requirement that universities reveal the names of students, past and present, who have "been found responsible...
A Dozen PMAR Secrets Revealed
A thought occurred to me while I was driving to Bethesda, Maryland today (I will be doing a GIPS® verification here tomorrow). Chances are, most performance measurement professionals, even those who've attended one or more PMAR (Performance Measurement Attribution...
PMAR is the best performance measurement conference, says who? Well, just read some of the comments from attendees and speakers!
It's not difficult for a performance measurement conference promoter to claim their conference is the best. The Spaulding Group has, for many years, claimed that its PMAR (Performance Measurement, Attribution & Risk) conferences are the best. In a recent...
Some thoughts on GIPS Policies & Procedures
I never had any ambition to write. In fact, I had little interest in studying English, grammar, or any of its related topics. I was always a "math guy," and had somehow concluded (falsely, as it turns out) that you can either be good at math or English, but not both....