Thinking Outside the Benchmark
Twenty years ago, Mark authored an article published in The Journal of Portfolio Management titled "Thinking Outside the Benchmark" to describe a new way of pension fund management. He concluded the...
Fiscal Year-End and Mid-Year 2024 Market and Investment Review
Over the last 12 months, the global stock markets demonstrated remarkable resilience and growth despite several challenges, including persistently high interest rates, geopolitical instability, and...
Year-End Update and 2024 Investment Outlook
The long and winding road This was a year to catch our breath. After the S&P 500 Index fell 18.1 percent in 2022, and the Bloomberg Aggregate Bond Index fell 13.0 percent, we all needed a break....
Fiscal Year-End and Mid-Year 2023 Market and Investment Review
The end of fiscal year 2023, and mid-point of the calendar year, marks the end of the pandemic years. At this point, many have returned to the workplace, at least part time, in-person meetings have...
Commonfund Forum 2023 Welcome Address
Commonfund hosted its 25th annual Commonfund Forum in Boca Raton, Florida. Mark Anson, Commonfund's Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, opened the conference with a welcome...
A Message from our CEO - Advancing DEI at Commonfund
Commonfund Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report - A Message from our CEO For the past two years, we have been living in a digital world of Zoom, MS Teams, WebEx and other video formats. It has...
Fiscal Year-End and Mid-Year 2020 Market and Investment Review
As we enter the new fiscal year, and Commonfund’s 50th year of operations, we leave behind what will likely be remembered as one of the most challenging and memorable fiscal years for the...
When Will this Crisis End? 3 Keys to Recovery
When will this crisis end? Following are three key issues fiduciaries should keep in mind concerning COVID-19 and this pandemic recession and recovery. The path and trajectory of COVID-19 This is...
Examining the Sustainability Conundrum
Sustainable investing, sometimes called ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) investing, has been a hotly contested topic for years. And the debate continues with both supporters and naysayers...
Market Commentary: Impact of the Coronavirus on Markets and Portfolios
After a strong calendar year 2019, the S&P 500 reached its most recent all-time high on February 19, up nearly 5 percent since the year began. Now, a week later, the global equity markets have fallen...
Bonds: Unwanted and Unloved but not Unnecessary
Well, the party may finally be over. Like the college dean who shuts down the campus party, the Fed has finally taken away the interest rate punch bowl that investors have enjoyed for so long. It may...
Baring Their Teeth – FAANGs Take a Bite Out of the Equity Market
Narrow market leadership in the U.S. and Emerging Markets proves challenging for active managers Narrow markets are not uncommon to equity investors. They tend to manifest themselves during the best...
Hedge Fund Land: An Expensive Amusement Park?
In a series of articles, we have addressed two recent investment “fatigues” experienced by institutional investors: Active vs. Passive; and Global (ACWI) vs. US benchmarks. In this article, we tackle...
Flexing Your Global Portfolio Can Lead to ACWI Fatigue, but Don't Throw in the Towel Yet
Like the build-up of lactic acid in your muscles after a strenuous workout, the underperformance of Morgan Stanley Capital International All Country World index (MSCI ACWI) vs. the Standard & Poor’s...
CIO Roundtable: Is the Endowment Model a Crowded Trade?
Stuck in the past or ever-evolving? The endowment model gets a hard look eight years into the current market cycle. With core tenets of the endowment model seemingly under stress for the last several...
Unhedged Commentary: The $3 Trillion Question
Reprinted from Institutional Investor’s Alpha Spring 2016 issue The growth of the hedge fund industry over the past decade has been tremendous, with more and more institutional and retail investors...
Asset Allocation with Private Equity
Reprinted from Volume 17, Number 1, 2016 of The Journal of Investment Consulting by Mark J.P. Anson Private assets such as private equity and venture capital have long been a thorn in the side of...
Is Currency an Asset Class?
Currency risk can best be described as the surprise impact that currency exposure has on an investment portfolio. Although currency risk typically confounds investors, it is easy to measure – it is...
Educational Alpha Podcast: A Conversation with Mark Anson