Free CFA-Level-III Exam Braindumps (page: 40)

Dan Draper, CFA is a portfolio manager at Madison Securities. Draper is analyzing several portfolios which have just been assigned to him. In each case, there is a clear statement of portfolio objectives and constraints, as welt as an initial strategic asset allocation. However, Draper has found that all of the portfolios have experienced changes in asset values. As a result, the current allocations have drifted away from the initial allocation. Draper is considering various rebalancing strategies that would keep the portfolios in line with their proposed asset allocation targets.
Draper spoke to Peter Sterling, a colleague at Madison, about calendar rebalancing. During their conversation, Sterling made the following comments:
Comment 1: Calendar rebalancing will be most efficient when the rebalancing frequency considers the volatility of the asset classes in the portfolio.
Comment 2: Calendar rebalancing on an annual basis will typically minimize market impact relative to more frequent rebalancing.
Draper believes that a percentage-of-portfolio rebalancing strategy will be preferable to calendar rebalancing, but he is uncertain as to how to set the corridor widths to trigger rebalancing for each asset class. As an example, Draper is evaluating the Rogers Corp. pension plan, whose portfolio is described in Figure 1.

Draper has been reviewing Madison files on four high net worth individuals, each of whom has a $1 million portfolio. He hopes to gain insight as to appropriate rebalancing strategies for these clients. His research so far shows:
Client A is 60 years old, and wants to be sure of having at least $800,000 upon his retirement. His risk tolerance drops dramatically whenever his portfolio declines in value. He agrees with the Madison stock market outlook, which is for a long-term bull market with few reversals.
Client B is 35 years old and wants to hold stocks regardless of the value of her portfolio. She also agrees with the Madison stock market outlook.
Client C is 40 years old, and her absolute risk tolerance varies proportionately with the value of her portfolio. She does not agree with the Madison stock market outlook, but expects a choppy stock market, marked by numerous reversals, over the coming months.

Which of the following statements is most accurate regarding rebalancing strategies? The constant:

Lucy Sakata, CFA and Gary Lowenstein, CFA are portfolio managers for the Murray Funds, a provider of investment funds to institutional and wealthy individual investors. Murray frequently indexes in developed markets, but uses full blown active management in less efficient markets and when they think their analysts have a particular expertise. The vast majority of Murray's clients attempt to minimize tracking error.
One of the Murray's funds invests in a Hong Kong index and is marketed as a way for investors to participate in the growth of the Asian economies. The index represents the best known Hong Kong stocks and Murray uses a full replication strategy for the fund. The index is a market cap-weighted index and ten firms represent over 70% of the index's total market cap._Sakata would like to market the Hong Kong fund to institutions with a required minimum investment of $50 million. Many potential clients are institutions who outsource their foreign equity management and are subject to maximum holdings on individual stocks.
Murray also has a Canada fund that invests in an index which represents the 25 largest cap stocks in Canada. It is marketed as a way for investors to exploit the growth in demand for commodities. The index adjusts for stock splits and repurchases as necessary. Most of the index's return has come from capital gains, rather than dividends, due to the tremendous increase in global demand for commodities. To encourage long-term holding, Murray places a back-end load of 3% on fund redemptions that are made within two years of initial investment. Sakata and Lowenstein discuss the fundamental law of active management and how it applies to three hypothetical managers who invest against the broad large-cap U.S. market, as represented by the S&P 500 index.
• Manager A under-weights and over-weights the 500 individual stocks of the S&P 500 index as she sees appropriate, keeping industry exposures similar to those of the index. She has an information coefficient of 0.05 and is restricted to long-only positions.
• Manager B holds cash and long S&P 500 futures. He tries to generate excess returns by altering the duration of the cash position and has an information coefficient of 0.05.
• Manager C has an information coefficient of 0.07, and she uses a long-short strategy for the 500 stocks in the S&P 500 index.
Sakata is consulting with the trustees of the Powell Foundation. The foundation has a position in the three Murray funds described in Exhibit 1 below.
Exhibit 1: Powell Foundation Holdings


Murray has a value fund that invests in stocks in the U.S. Lowenstein is considering several equity style index providers as a benchmark for the fund. The characteristics of the index providers and the methodologies they use to construct equity style indices are described in Exhibit 2 below.

Exhibit 2: Comparison of Index Providers

In regard to the index providers, Lowenstein makes the following statements:
Statement 1: "I would like to use the indices from either provider in a returns-based style analysis. Based on the information in the table, I believe that if I regress a value manager's returns against Provider B's indices, the manager's selection return will appear artificially large."
Statement 2: "If an index provider uses buffering rules, a fund tracking that index will experience lower transactions costs."

Determine which of the following is the most likely reason that the Hong Kong fund will be inappropriate for the institutional investors.

Lucy Sakata, CFA and Gary Lowenstein, CFA are portfolio managers for the Murray Funds, a provider of investment funds to institutional and wealthy individual investors. Murray frequently indexes in developed markets, but uses full blown active management in less efficient markets and when they think their analysts have a particular expertise. The vast majority of Murray's clients attempt to minimize tracking error.
One of the Murray's funds invests in a Hong Kong index and is marketed as a way for investors to participate in the growth of the Asian economies. The index represents the best known Hong Kong stocks and Murray uses a full replication strategy for the fund. The index is a market cap-weighted index and ten firms represent over 70% of the index's total market cap._Sakata would like to market the Hong Kong fund to institutions with a required minimum investment of $50 million. Many potential clients are institutions who outsource their foreign equity management and are subject to maximum holdings on individual stocks.
Murray also has a Canada fund that invests in an index which represents the 25 largest cap stocks in Canada. It is marketed as a way for investors to exploit the growth in demand for commodities. The index adjusts for stock splits and repurchases as necessary. Most of the index's return has come from capital gains, rather than dividends, due to the tremendous increase in global demand for commodities. To encourage long-term holding, Murray places a back-end load of 3% on fund redemptions that are made within two years of initial investment. Sakata and Lowenstein discuss the fundamental law of active management and how it applies to three hypothetical managers who invest against the broad large-cap U.S. market, as represented by the S&P 500 index.
• Manager A under-weights and over-weights the 500 individual stocks of the S&P 500 index as she sees appropriate, keeping industry exposures similar to those of the index. She has an information coefficient of 0.05 and is restricted to long-only positions.
• Manager B holds cash and long S&P 500 futures. He tries to generate excess returns by altering the duration of the cash position and has an information coefficient of 0.05.
• Manager C has an information coefficient of 0.07, and she uses a long-short strategy for the 500 stocks in the S&P 500 index.
Sakata is consulting with the trustees of the Powell Foundation. The foundation has a position in the three Murray funds described in Exhibit 1 below.
Exhibit 1: Powell Foundation Holdings


Murray has a value fund that invests in stocks in the U.S. Lowenstein is considering several equity style index providers as a benchmark for the fund. The characteristics of the index providers and the methodologies they use to construct equity style indices are described in Exhibit 2 below.

Exhibit 2: Comparison of Index Providers

In regard to the index providers, Lowenstein makes the following statements:
Statement 1: "I would like to use the indices from either provider in a returns-based style analysis. Based on the information in the table, I believe that if I regress a value manager's returns against Provider B's indices, the manager's selection return will appear artificially large."
Statement 2: "If an index provider uses buffering rules, a fund tracking that index will experience lower transactions costs."

Determine which of the following strategies would be the most appropriate for constructing the Canada fund.

Lucy Sakata, CFA and Gary Lowenstein, CFA are portfolio managers for the Murray Funds, a provider of investment funds to institutional and wealthy individual investors. Murray frequently indexes in developed markets, but uses full blown active management in less efficient markets and when they think their analysts have a particular expertise. The vast majority of Murray's clients attempt to minimize tracking error.
One of the Murray's funds invests in a Hong Kong index and is marketed as a way for investors to participate in the growth of the Asian economies. The index represents the best known Hong Kong stocks and Murray uses a full replication strategy for the fund. The index is a market cap-weighted index and ten firms represent over 70% of the index's total market cap._Sakata would like to market the Hong Kong fund to institutions with a required minimum investment of $50 million. Many potential clients are institutions who outsource their foreign equity management and are subject to maximum holdings on individual stocks.
Murray also has a Canada fund that invests in an index which represents the 25 largest cap stocks in Canada. It is marketed as a way for investors to exploit the growth in demand for commodities. The index adjusts for stock splits and repurchases as necessary. Most of the index's return has come from capital gains, rather than dividends, due to the tremendous increase in global demand for commodities. To encourage long-term holding, Murray places a back-end load of 3% on fund redemptions that are made within two years of initial investment. Sakata and Lowenstein discuss the fundamental law of active management and how it applies to three hypothetical managers who invest against the broad large-cap U.S. market, as represented by the S&P 500 index.
• Manager A under-weights and over-weights the 500 individual stocks of the S&P 500 index as she sees appropriate, keeping industry exposures similar to those of the index. She has an information coefficient of 0.05 and is restricted to long-only positions.
• Manager B holds cash and long S&P 500 futures. He tries to generate excess returns by altering the duration of the cash position and has an information coefficient of 0.05.
• Manager C has an information coefficient of 0.07, and she uses a long-short strategy for the 500 stocks in the S&P 500 index.
Sakata is consulting with the trustees of the Powell Foundation. The foundation has a position in the three Murray funds described in Exhibit 1 below.
Exhibit 1: Powell Foundation Holdings


Murray has a value fund that invests in stocks in the U.S. Lowenstein is considering several equity style index providers as a benchmark for the fund. The characteristics of the index providers and the methodologies they use to construct equity style indices are described in Exhibit 2 below.

Exhibit 2: Comparison of Index Providers

In regard to the index providers, Lowenstein makes the following statements:
Statement 1: "I would like to use the indices from either provider in a returns-based style analysis. Based on the information in the table, I believe that if I regress a value manager's returns against Provider B's indices, the manager's selection return will appear artificially large."
Statement 2: "If an index provider uses buffering rules, a fund tracking that index will experience lower transactions costs."

Determine which of the three managers will most likely have the highest information ratio.