Fundamentals of Fund Management Training Course

Attend this three-day intensive training course and equip yourself with a clear practical understanding of:

• Different types of fund management and investment styles
• Various investment products and their respective markets
• Asset allocation within the investment decision making process
• Benchmarking and risk control
• Investment performance measurement and verification

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Understanding the fundamentals of investment

• Investors: their requirements and objectives
• Understanding risk, diversification and inflation
• Examining the investment assets
  - characteristics
  - historical returns
  - projecting returns

Understanding the fund management process

• The theories behind fund management
• Role and responsibilities of fund managers
• Planning for optimal portfolio returns
  - setting investment objectives
  - the constraints of the fund manager
  - strategic asset allocation to enhance portfolio performance
• Implementing strategies to maximise performance
  - mandate definition
  - how and why benchmarks must be specified
• Business models changes due to the credit problems and regulatory changes
• Effective management for ultimate results
  - tactical asset allocation
  - securities selection
• Controlling the process
  - performance measurement
  - attribution analysis

Examining types of funds and investment products

• Explaining different types of funds and their characteristics
  - conventional funds
  - pension funds
  - mutual funds and unit trusts
  - collective investment schemes (OEICS)
  - tracker/index funds
  - hedge funds
  - money market funds
• Examining investment products and their applications
  - equities – domestic and overseas
  - bonds
  - commodities
  - derivatives: swaps, futures, options and more

Linkage between economic activity and investment markets

• The key drivers and government impact
• The business and investment cycles
• Economic growth and recession/depression
• A cyclical approach to investment: exploiting the investment cycles
• Sentiment, excesses and crashes – regulatory response to recent events

Analysing equity fund management styles

• Examining the most common styles fund managers use to achieve their investment objectives
  - asset class and geographic diversification
  - active strategies
  - passive strategies
  - top down approach
  - bottom up approach
  - sector rotation style
  - growth investing
  - value investing
  - momentum style
• Small capitalisation style
• Comparing fund management styles

In detail: fixed income fund management

• Styles of bond fund management
• Understanding bonds pricing
• Mastering the concepts of duration & convexity
• Examining bond swapping techniques
• Learning the theory and practice of portfolio switching
• Bond portfolio management

In detail: equity fund management

• Understanding the fundamentals of equity analysis
  - financial analysis
  - key accounting and valuation ratios
  - interpretation of valuation ratios
  - qualitative considerations
• Comparing active vs passive equity fund management
• Examining index funding or tracker funds

Examining other types of fund management

• Cash fund management
• Money market funds
• Alternative investment
  - real estate
  - venture capital
  - unlisted equities
  - commodities

Asset allocation within the investment decision making process

• Determining clients aims and objectives
• Asset/liability management
• Strategic and tactical asset allocation
• The decision making levels
  - assets
  - currencies
  - countries
  - sectors
  - stocks

Understanding modern portfolio theory

• Evolution, insights and applications
• Understanding mean-variance analysis
  - expected returns
  - historical variances
  - historical correlation
• The benefits of diversification across portfolios
• Controversies and weaknesses arising from the application of MPT to fund management practice

Investment performance evaluation

• Successfully measuring investment returns
• Risk-adjusted measures to optimise portfolio strategy
• Benchmarks – what are they and when should they be used
• Attribution analysis to ensure effective measurement and control
• The importance of client reporting
• GIPS

This course covers the entire spectrum of the fund management process, detailing all the main principles and explaining all the jargon used. Fully updated to include the effects of the post-credit crunch world, you will learn about how the markets have been restructured and how they have been affected by the cycle of economic slowdown and recovery. If you would like to minimise risk, exploit the data to its maximum potential and increase the funds under your management, this course is for you.