A Practitioner's Guide to Asset Allocation

Praise for A Practitioner's Guide to Asset Allocation Asset allocation is the most important yet challenging decision faced by every investor. By masterfully bridging theory and practice, Kinlaw, Kritzman, and Turkington have produced a modern guide to the topic that will be useful to practitioners and scholars alike.-Robin Greenwood, George Gund Professor of Finance and Banking, Harvard Business School A Practitioner's Guide to Asset Allocation is an exceptionally comprehensive treatise on the subject, as can be seen from just a sampling of the chapter headings-Fallacies (of which there are many), Time Diversification (not as easy as it may seem), Factors (points out some issues with this current hot trend), Illiquidity (what does it really cost), Risks (not just at-horizon, but also within- and beyond-horizon), and perhaps most important of all, Regime Shifts. This book has a lot to say, and a page-by-page read may be a bit much for the typical 'Practitioner,' but the authors provide a very readable chapter of Takeaways that should perhaps be the first point of entry. But even these more compact Takeaways are full of fresh insights into this truly important topic that is all too often given too short a shrift.-Martin L. Leibowitz, PhD, Vice Chairman - Research, Morgan Stanley Will Kinlaw, Mark Kritzman, and Dave Turkington have a long history of discovering and very clearly describing surprising and useful investment results. This book continues that tradition by correcting several common myths about asset allocation and presenting the latest thinking about this fundamental issue. All investors who practice asset allocation for a living will benefit from reading this.-Ronald N. Kahn, Global Head of Scientific Equity Research, BlackRock One of the best books ever written on applied research for asset allocation. This outstanding effort provides the missing link between academic research and practice. With remarkable clarity, the authors explain how to put risk at the center of portfolio construction. Speaking from experience advising some of the largest pools of assets in the world, they bring the practice and science of risk-based investing to a whole new level, and challenge conventional wisdom along the way. Everyone involved in asset allocation should read this book, including CIOs, quants, non-quants, academics, consultants, portfolio managers, advisors, individual investors, and plan sponsors. It will become a reference for the next wave of innovation in our industry. Bravo!-Sébastien Page, CFA, Head of Asset Allocation, T. Rowe Price, and coauthor of Factor Based Investing and Asset Allocation, CFA Institute Research Foundation Everything you ever wanted and need to know about asset allocation but were afraid to ask, written by three accomplished practitioners who put their money where their mouths are.-Andrew W. Lo, Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management