A recent paper inspired me to put together a series of charts that detail the market-adjusted and absolute performance of private equity (both buyout and venture capital). I have to say the performance numbers for Venture Capital were unimpressive: most of the gains over the last three decades were from late 1990's vintage funds. The average VC underperformed the S&P 500 in 16 of 29 years covered in the data!Details over at Verisi Data Studio.

I published a new article over at Verisi Data Studio this weekend:Just as I emphasized dollar-weighted returns in an earlier article, I think it's imperative that investors use the metric defined above, when evaluating (alternative) investment opportunities: share of total profits captured by insiders.

New article over at Verisi Data Studio:Investors, particulary ones who employ investment professionals (e.g., institutional investors & pension funds), should be using dollar-weighted returns in their fund/manager selection process.

I just came across this incomprehensible quote from Sarah Palin, that at first blush I thought was a misquote:“I think what Rick Perry having dropped out and that patriot having done well for the front-runner, whom I will call Newt Gingrich now, being the front-runner, having endorsed him, was a good smart move,” Palin said on Fox News. “He kind of took one for the team there, the conservative team, when he dropped out.”But then the same article contains an embedded video that shows the above...

In a year when the S&P 500 finished flat, many hedge fund managers once again failed to produce -- so much for absolute returns. 2011 was a tough year, but three styles stood out: Global Macro, Fixed Income Arb, Equity Market Neutral managers were able to eke out modest end-to-end returns.(Click to enlarge)In addition, when viewed over a longer time-horizon only two styles (Global Macro, Fixed Income Arb) produced impressive end-to-end performance numbers when compared to the S&P 500. (Click...

With the 1990's dotcom period no longer part of the most recent 10-year window, VC returns have come crashing down. In a recent article over at Verisi Data Studio, I compare VC's to Hedgies and a series of financial benchmarks. See the complete article for details:(Click to enlarge)

I have a new post up on the Maximal Information Coefficient, over at Verisi Data Studio. Go to this page for details.

Here are the latest performance numbers for the Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Indices: November was a tough month for all trading styles. The top performer (Fixed Income Arb) returned half a percent. On the other hand, given the turmoil in the markets due to uncertainty in the EU, the worst performer (Emerging Markets) was only down 2.7%. The top performer in 2011 has been Global Macro (up 6% for the year, and flat in November):(Click to enlarge)Global Macro also leads the way over the...

Steve Hsu pointed me to a recent discussion on recruiting practices of elite professional service firms (investment banking, consulting and law firms), nicely summarized by Robert Teitelman.I have two quick comments:The results from Lauren Rivera's survey of elite professional service firms fits nicely with what Karen Ho documented in her ethnographic study of investment banking firms. See here for my review of Karen's book.I am a technical quant (nowadays I'm more fashionably referred to as a...

Here's a sampling of factoids I heard at the sessions I attended this week.Sean Parker:Recorded music annual revenue has gone from about $48B to about $12B annuallyValidation for Secondmarket prices: The Forbes list of the richest people in the US, contains several early Facebook investors.Retail industry & ebay stats from John Donohoe:Customers use their phones to buy 2,600 cars on ebay each week (mostly via ebay's mobile app).Paypal has over 100M customers with at least two financial accounts...