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Tail risk can be reduced by improving a portfolio's overall risk-return characteristics. Often this approach will blend several distinct strategies: broader diversification, volatility-based risk management, and drawdown control, perhaps combined with active management strategies such as managed futures or low-beta equities.

It will take years for state and local governments to return to pre-recession fiscal health. And yet, despite ongoing struggles, financial risks appear to be stabilizing. The mechanisms that state and city issuers have in place – particularly the balanced budget requirement, powers of taxation, and independent treasury management – are working as i...

Index-based global portfolios may offer a more efficient way to capture exposure to developed and emerging markets than having separate portfolios for each of the two. By consolidating these two market segments into a single integrated portfolio, investors benefit from lower portfolio turnover and reduced operating costs.

The second quarter played out close to expectations with weak market returns, few unanticipated shocks, and investor worries never escalating to panic. Expectations for capital market returns are now lower, although emerging markets offer growth for patient investors, real assets are a hedge against further monetary devaluation, and the environment...

Local currency emerging market debt funds have enjoyed robust asset growth in recent years as the investable universe has expanded and liquidity has sharply improved. This growing asset class provides diversification benefits and an attractive risk/reward profile for fixed-income and multi-asset portfolios.

Investment portfolios with diversified allocations exhibit beta spikes, which are commonly believed to be the result of increased portfolio correlation to U.S. equity. However, the fundamental mechanism driving beta to stress levels is the portfolio volatility ratio relative to equities, rather than the portfolio correlation itself.

When domestic safe-haven markets no longer seem to provide comfort, investors may want to consider diversifying by adopting a global approach to fixed income and currencies. Desirable countries to consider are those with better credit quality where higher official rates are already priced in and the currency has the potential to rally.

A move from one investment manager to another comes with costs that are not easy to identify but should be considered before making the switch. A transition manager can help in assessing the issues and coordinating the logistics and the execution process.

Investors often overestimate the cyclical risk involved with high-yield bonds. Buying these bonds today with a 12- to 18-month horizon makes sense. An analysis of prior cycles shows that investors with such a horizon or longer can hold on and eventually see the benefits of declining spreads and current income.

The authors have contended since late 2008 that the global deleveraging process is likely to occur in multiple stages and last until 2014 or 2015. Investors need to be aware of this cycle in allocating assets and to focus on capital preservation while resisting the temptation to be swayed by short-term volatility.

Zero economic activity, confidence and effective policymaking are likely to keep market volatility levels elevated as well as pressure risky asset prices in the near future. However, this uncertainty offers the opportunity for investors to rebalance their portfolios by taking advantage of attractive prices for risk assets.

The author examines why investors often embrace misperceptions preventing them from making corrective portfolio reallocations at critical junctures, attempts to put the recent 30-year fixed-income bull market into historical perspective, identifies underlying changes in long-term trends, and discusses how prime consumer lending may help reduce over...

The authors discuss their criteria for choosing alternative investments, the number of these investments to include in a portfolio, how to allocate strategically and when to change that allocation, and the practical challenges for implementation.

Two harsh realities threaten to compromise most investment objectives: first, markets are unpredictable and, second, investors can sometimes be their own worst enemies. A well-diversified portfolio seeks the highest potential return while striving to manage a given level of volatility. Goals, markets, and circumstances are all fluid; even a well-di...

Real estate has long been recognized as a diversification vehicle within investment portfolios and often is held in one of two ways: physical real estate and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). Although REITs were first created in the early 1960s and have played a notable role for investors since the 1990s, they have not always been a requiremen...