Active Index Investing: Maximizing Portfolio Performance and Minimizing Risk Through Global Index Strategies - Hardcover

Schoenfeld, Steven A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471257079 ISBN 13: 9780471257073

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2004

Synopsis

For over three decades, indexing has become increasingly accepted by both institutional and individual investors.  Index benchmarks and investment products that track them have been a driving force in the transformation of investment strategy from art to science. Yet investors’ understanding of the sophistication of this burgeoning field has lagged the growing use of index products.

Active Index Investing is the definitive guide to how indexes are constructed, how index-based portfolios are managed, and how the world’s most sophisticated investors use index-based strategies to enhance performance, reduce costs and minimize the risks of investing.

Active Index Investing provides a comprehensive overview of (1) the investment theories that are the foundation of index based investing, (2) best practices in benchmark construction, (3) the growing world of index-based investment vehicles, (4) cutting-edge index portfolio management techniq ues and (5) the myriad ways investors can and do capture the benefits of indexing.

Active Index Investing has a unique format that captures the views and perspectives of over 40 of the investment industry’s leading experts and practitioners, while maintaining a holistic view of this complex subject matter. In addition to the Appendix and Glossary within the book, it features an E-ppendix, available at www.IndexUniverse.com

About this title

From the Inside Flap

For over three decades, both institutional and individual investors have increasingly accepted indexing. Index benchmarks and investment products that track them have been a driving force in the transformation of investment strategy from art to science. Yet investors’ understanding of the sophistication of this burgeoning field has lagged behind the growing use of index products. Active Index Investing aims to close that gap.
Active Index Investing is the definitive guide to how indexes are constructed, managed as portfolios, and used by investors. Filled with in-depth insight and practical advice, this book illustrates and analyzes every major asset class and covers the perspectives of index fund managers, index providers, institutional brokers, pension plan sponsors and other asset owners, financial advisors, and individual investors. It skillfully explains how the world’s most sophisticated investors use index-based strategies to enhance performance, reduce costs, and minimize the risks of global investing.
This comprehensive guide captures the views of over fifty leading practitioners from all spheres of the indexing world–while maintaining a holistic and balanced perspective of this complex subject. Besides pulling together the best minds in the investment business, editor and indexing expert Steven Schoenfeld also shares his considerable insights on this broad and important topic.
Active Index Investing is actually five books in one, with thirty-one chapters providing a comprehensive exploration of:

• The theories and practical experience that are the foundations for indexing
• The uses of indexes and best practices in benchmark construction
• The ever-expanding range of index-based investment products and vehicles
• Index portfolio management techniques for equity and fixed-income funds
• Choosing between various index products and the ways in which sophisticated investors harness the overall benefits of indexing

Fittingly, for a subject so broad, the book’s scope doesn’t end with these topics, but continues in the book’s "E-ppendix"–www.ActiveIndexInvesting.com, partnered with the IndexUniverse.com Web site–which expands and updates the information and data provided in the book, facilitating even more perspectives to chronicle the ongoing development of this fascinating and dynamic field.

Active Index Investing is a practical and detailed guide to the art and science of index-based investing. It will show you how index-based strategies can be actively used to both minimize portfolio risk and maximize long-term performance.

From the Back Cover

"Here is everything you ever wanted to know about index investing. Steven Schoenfeld has put together a superb set of chapters written by leading practitioners in the investment industry. Both index and active investors will find a wealth of useful information in these pages."
–Burton G. Malkiel
Professor of Economics, Princeton University
author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street

"There is a great fiction in many parts of the investment industry: that indexing is a ‘passive’ strategy. This book clearly shows why that belief is wrong. Steven Schoenfeld and the broad group of contributors he has assembled lay out a compelling case for why both the management and use of index funds are very active processes.
"Steven is a thought leader in the investment management field, and now he has provided a book that makes his knowledge available to everyone. Anyone involved with money management will want to read this book. It will become a standard reference text for years to come as more investors understand the role of indexing as part of active portfolio management."
–Lee Kranefuss
CEO, Exchange Traded Funds
Barclays Global Investors

"Active Index Investing covers it all and is a must-read for theoreticians, practitioners, and students alike. Schoenfeld’s book provides a breadth of insight about benchmarks and index investing, ranging from the evolution of indexing and the theory of index construction to investment strategies and applications."
–William J. Brodsky
Chairman & CEO
Chicago Board Options Exchange

"The whole discipline of indexing and benchmarking is clearly moving into the next generation of its development and is at the cutting edge of investing practices. Steven Schoenfeld has added to the insights of a virtual who’s who among indexing practitioners his own significant depth and breadth of experience to provide the definitive modern compendium of where indexing currently is and where it is going. As indexing and benchmarking should be a part of every investor’s thinking, Active Index Investing should become their must-have desk reference."
–Paul R. Aaronson
Executive Managing Director, Investment Services
Standard & Poor’s

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0471257079
• ISBN 13: 9780471257073
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 688