Investable Benchmarks and Hedge Fund Liquidity
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Speakers:
Mark A. Hurrell, CFA
Tracker Institutional Sales
&
Marc Freed
Tracker Investment Strategies
Chair: Charlotte Chamberlain, Ph.D
A Portfolio Management Group Event
Good investments outperform relevant benchmarks. Mutual fund investors have recognized that for decades. These investors also realize how difficult it is to identify and invest in those outperformers a priori. Recent developments in financial markets are imposing the same discipline on the growing universe of alternative investments. Our speakers are part of the “Hedge Fund Beta Team” from Van Eck Global. They are responsible for the Van Eck Trackers, investable benchmarks which emulate the returns of targeted hedge fund strategies. They will explain how they identify the alpha in hedge fund returns, address the persistence of hedge fund alpha, discuss the beta in hedge fund returns and demonstrate how hedge fund beta can be captured in a liquid, transparent structure. They will also explain how their analysis exposes the cost to investors of the illiquidity of hedge funds imposed by their restrictive redemption terms.
Mark A. Hurrell, CFA is Director, Tracker Institutional Sales, responsible for business development and client services; he joined Van Eck in June 2012.
Mr. Hurrell has over 20 years of institutional asset management experience split between the alternative investment market and institutional investment consulting. Prior to joining Van Eck, Mr. Hurrell worked at Lyster Watson, and focused his efforts on the development of their “liquid alternative beta” strategies, True Alpha® Trackers. Previously, Mr. Hurrell was at Meridian Capital Partners, Inc. and The Archstone Partnerships, two fund-of-hedge fund managers. Prior to transitioning to the fund-of-hedge-funds business, he was a Senior Consultant for Yanni-Bilkey Investment Consulting where he was responsible for developing investment policy, asset allocation, investment manager selection, and performance evaluation for a broad range of institutional and high net worth investors. Mr. Hurrell has a strong financial background, having also held positions managing the New York Euro CD trading desk for Credit Suisse First Boston and as a money market trader for Pittsburgh National Bank. He also taught financial accounting and investment analysis classes at Carnegie Mellon University while attending graduate school. Mr. Hurrell is a member of the Investment Committee for the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Mr. Hurrell received his B.S. in Business Administration from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and M.B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University (Beta Gamma Sigma) where he was the recipient of the Yuji Ijiri Award for Excellence in Accounting. Mr. Hurrell is a CFA charterholder and member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.
Marc Freed is Portfolio Manager for the Van Eck Trackers investment strategies; he joined Van Eck in June 2012.
Prior to joining Van Eck, Mr. Freed worked at Lyster Watson. In April 2010, he developed the True Alpha® rating and ranking methodology, which was patented. He is a mathematical economist with over 15 years of experience as a bond trader and investment banker and 10 years of experience as a fund of hedge funds portfolio manager. At Salomon Brothers in New York from 1982-1986, he ran the trading desk for U.S. Government zero coupon bonds (CATS® and STRIPS®). From 1986-1988, he created and managed Salomon’s UK Gilt trading desk in London. In 1989, Mr. Freed managed the European government bond trading desk of Morgan Grenfell in London. At Deutsche Bank from 1994-1999, he developed proprietary fixed income pricing models and structured commercial mortgage transactions as co-founder of Deutsche’s Franchise Finance Group.
Mr. Freed graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics. He received his M.S. from the Sloan School at MIT. He completed course work and qualifying exams for a Ph.D. in Economics from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. Mr. Freed specializes in financial economics and game theory. In 2001-2002, Mr. Freed was a Visiting Professor of Economics at Union College.
As a participant in the CFA Institute Approved-Provider Program, the
CFA Society of Los Angeles has determined that this program qualifies
for 1 credit hours. If you are a CFA Institute member, CE credit for
your participation in this program will be automatically recorded in your CE Diary.
Time: 12:00 PM-1:30 PM, Lunch
Location: Omni Los Angeles
251 South Olive Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071
For directions call hotel: (213) 617-3300
Event parking at the Omni $12.00
Dress Code: Business Casual
Payment Information:
Methods of payment accepted: Visa/Mastercard, American Express and Discover. If you prefer to pay by check please register online and select "purchase order" as your payment option and enter your last name as the purchase order number. Mail check to: CFA Society of Los Angeles, 520 S. Grand Ave, Suite 370, Los Angeles CA 90071.
*Credit card payments will only be accepted through the secure online registration, and not by phone or email.