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Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment
by: David F. Swensen

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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.6
EAN: 9780684864433
ISBN: 0684864436
Label: Free Press
Manufacturer: Free Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 364
Publication Date: May 15, 2000
Publisher: Free Press
Sales Rank: 8373
Studio: Free Press

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
During his fourteen years as Yale's chief investment officer, David F. Swensen has transformed the management of the university's portfolio. Largely by focusing on nonconventional strategies, including a heavy allocation to private equity, Swensen has achieved an annualized return of 16.2 percent, which has propelled Yale's endowment into the top tier of institutional funds. Now, this acknowledged leader of fund managers draws on his experience and deep knowledge of the financial markets to provide a compendium of powerful investment strategies.

Swensen presents an overview of the investment world populated by institutional fund managers, pension fund fiduciaries, investment managers, and trustees of universities, museums, hospitals, and foundations. He offers penetrating insights from his experience managing Yale's endowment, ranging from broad issues of goals and investment philosophy to the strategic and tactical aspects of portfolio management. Swensen's exceptionally readable book addresses critical concepts such as handling risk, selecting investment advisers, and negotiating the opportunities and pitfalls in individual asset classes. Fundamental investment ideas are illustrated by real-world concrete examples, and each chapter contains strategies that any manager can put into action.

At a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to cope with the relentless challenges provided by today's financial markets, Swensen's book is an indispensable roadmap for creating a successful investment program for every institutional fund manager. Any student of markets will benefit from Pioneering Portfolio Management.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Insightful and structured review of institutional money management
David Swensen has written a commendable book. Perhaps most commendable is his focus on ethical money management with a focus on fiduciary responsibility to the investor--a Birkshirean theme worth reiterating over and over.

The principal value of this book derives from its discussion on the use of alternative investments--such as private equity, market neutral strategies, and venture capital. Indeed, in the first paragraph of the books cover it is noted that "Largely focusing on nonconventional strategies, including a heavy allocation to private equity, Swensen has achieved an annualized return of 17.4%." Ironically, however, within the book Swensen writes in detail how and why private equity investing provides inferior risk adjusted returns vs. investment in plain vanilla marketable securities (e.g. S and P 500 index). This information is especially interesting given the recent investment by the ... Read More

Rating:

- As good as everyone else says.
I have recommended this book to numerous colleagues at work. We use it as a great summary of our investment philosophy and as a touchstone for investment values and sanity checks. We have purchased mutiple copies which we give to stakeholders to spread the word and bring them up to speed with these investment truths.

I've been a professional f.m. for 25 years and I wish I'd read this book closer to year 1 than year 25.

BTW we got far less incremental value out of Swensen's second book

Rating:

- Passionate yet level-headed
The marketing/techno-speak of the investment management industry sometimes gets to be overwhelming, this book can be an antidote. Swensen focuses on policy objectives, manager incentives, relative market (in)efficiencies and fundamental asset class characteristics to write a valuable resource for anyone considering the plethora of modern-day investment vehicles. Practically every concept is explained in language that is intelligible to someone with a basic understanding of the current investment markets. Absolutely worth the purchase.

Rating:

- Good insights; Perhaps DS cannot see his own hubris though
This is an excellent book about the workings of an institutional portfolio and the various influences pulling at investment decisions.

Lots of good anecdotal stories of mis-steps by *other* institutions. I would love to hear about some mistakes that DS has made during his tenure.

He deals implicitly w/ agency issues that exist in most money management situations. For a more detailed explication of agency conflicts, read, "Unconventional Success".

He attributes a lot of manager success to luck. However, how much of DS's and Yale's success is due to luck? He does not subject his own performance (that of managing the managers) to any sort of benchmark.

Finally, he gives very short shrift to the back-office and operational issues (1 page at the end of the book). This is the achilles heel of 80% of management firms. They cannot scale, control, and maintain quality as ... Read More

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