Historically, alternative investments were only available to institutional and high net worth investors with minimum investments often starting at $500,000 or more. In this private placement world of alternative investments, managers had significant investment discretion with regards to disclosure, fees, liquidity, leverage and derivatives positions. In recent years, a growing number of investment managers have made products available in a "liquid alternatives" format, which complies with UCITS or the Investment Company Act of 1940 regulations. These liquid alternatives products have significant regulatory differences from private placement products, but are widely available to retail investors. The differences in performance and due diligence requirements are also discussed.
About Our Speaker:
Keith Black, Ph.D., CFA, CAIA
Managing Director of Curriculum and Exams
CAIA Association
Keith Black has over twenty-five years of financial market experience, serving approximately half of that time as an academic and half as a trader and consultant to institutional investors. He currently serves as Managing Director of Curriculum and Exams for the CAIA Association. During his most recent role at Ennis Knupp + Associates, Keith advised foundations, endowments and pension funds on their asset allocation and manager selection strategies in hedge funds, commodities, and managed futures. Prior experience includes commodities derivatives trading, stock options research and CBOE floor trading, and building quantitative stock selection models for mutual funds and hedge funds. Dr. Black previously served as an assistant professor and senior lecturer at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
He contributes regularly to The CFA Digest, and has published in The Journal of Wealth Management, The Journal of Trading, The Journal of Investing, and The Journal of Alternative Investments, among others. He is the author of the book “Managing a Hedge Fund,” as well as the co-author of the 2012 and 2015/2016 second and third editions of the CAIA Level I and Level II textbooks. Dr. Black was named to the Institutional Investor magazine’s list of “Rising Stars of Hedge Funds” in 2010.
Dr. Black earned a BA from Whittier College, an MBA for Carnegie Mellon University, and a PhD from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and was a member of the inaugural class of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) candidates.