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Blog
Cogency's Blog
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Written by Administrator
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Friday, 03 May 2013 00:00 |
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Cogency Software has been winning new deals on the strength of our comprehensive accounting, portfolio management, and manager communication platform for portfolios comprised of hedge fund positions, private equity positions, and daily-traded equities, fixed income and derivatives. We provide technology, implementation services, subject matter expertise and business process support for clients that include endowments & foundations, pensions, outsourced CIOs, fund of funds, and wealth managers. This summer, come see us at one of these upcoming conferences:
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Written by Jeffrey Axelrod
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Tuesday, 12 February 2013 00:00 |
Timing Is Everything
… when it comes to pricing an alternative investment portfolio
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As a San Franciscan who has daily contact with people in New York and throughout the world, I’ve learned to qualify all communication regarding ‘time’ with a date and time zone. When I do that, I experience smooth conference calls, and when I forget, I receive an unexpected phone call in the middle of a sound sleep. I appreciate that it is not our different perspectives on the current time that is the problem, but rather our lack of identifying and respecting those differences. |
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Similarly, if you are responsible for pricing a portfolio of alternative investments at an endowment, family office, fund of hedge fund, or other institution, you are aware of the differences in valuation timing and qualification that come from the managers, compared to your own. This in itself isn’t a problem, but there are most definitely challenges around identifying and respecting these differences. If you handle these differences well, you have consistency in your reporting; if you don’t, then it becomes very difficult to clearly report performance numbers to your stakeholders, to your portfolio management team and to your fund accounting team.
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A clear vocabulary around valuation timing is the first step in articulating and addressing the challenge. Primary areas that warrant attention include:
l Valuation data quality, estimates vs. finals
l Net vs. Gross valuation
l Timing of manager NAV relative to the portfolio NAV
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Written by Jeffrey Axelrod
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Monday, 20 August 2012 00:00 |
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Having recently added the equalization methodology to our fund accounting and investor allocation module, I have gone through much thinking and doodling around the best way to explain, document and present both the concepts and the specifics of this feature.
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Written by Jeffrey Axelrod
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Monday, 25 June 2012 00:00 |
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Everywhere you turn, you hear it… pensions and endowments are turning to Alternative Investments , be it hedge funds, private equity, real estate, timberland, or other exotic or esoteric holdings. As the equity markets remain volatile and unpredictable, with macro trends overshadowing stock picking skills, institutions seek an alternative to the current low return environment in traditional assets. It is clearly happening -- alternative are becoming more mainstream; and with this expansion, comes Risk.
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Written by Jeffrey Axelrod
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Tuesday, 10 April 2012 00:00 |
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In a Multi-Asset-Class portfolio, the taxonomy you use is the palate for the picture you paint for your investors and board with your performance reports. The reports showcase your work – they should provide clarity and eliminate any distractions. Your audience should be able to use them both for an overview of your success in running the portfolio and to drill down into details, extrapolating facts about your process. A first-class portfolio taxonomy will help you do all this.
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Written by Jeffrey Axelrod
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Saturday, 01 October 2011 00:00 |
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Cogency's Portfolio Management and Fund Accounting modules have added support for investments into Private Equity funds. Now your portfolio positions in Private Equity Funds are accurately tracked with all portfolio and accounting attribes: commitment, cost, gains, returns, etc.
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Written by Jeffrey Axelrod
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Saturday, 16 April 2011 00:00 |
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The upheaval of 2008 may be in the rearview mirror, but for multi-manager investors, the need to keep up with manager redemption terms and avoid exposing their fund to a liquidity mismatch is as critical as ever. Their investors have come to expect it, for one thing, and it’s a key part of the operational diligence that makes for sleepful nights.
That’s all very well. But gathering the information needed for a liquidity schedule that accurately reflects redemption possibilities is a challenge—especially given their ever-changing nature. To pull it off, an investor into hedge funds needs to take a multipronged approach to record keeping:
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