Posts Tagged ‘President of Asset Strategies’
GEORGE VITTA TO SPEAK AT AGRIP/NLC-RISC CONFERENCE
Association of Governmental Risk and Insurance Pools (AGRIP) and the National League of Cities Risk Information Sharing Consortium (NLC-RISC) will present an Investment Management & Oversight conference on October 5 & 6, 2011. Members of AGRIP and NLC-RISC will attend education sessions geared toward building a sound investment program for their pooled risk funds.
George Vitta will attend and speak at the conference. In addition to his participation in panel and round-table discussions, George will present a session on Performance Measurement. When managing a risk pool, an important component to success is the ability to assess the portfolio’s performance. George will discuss the concept of benchmarking and how to determine an appropriate benchmark.
The current economic environment has been unpredictable and volatile; making this conference timely and fitting. Other sessions will provide an update on the latest developments in the markets, including current interest rates, yield spreads, and major market trends as they pertain to the public funds investor. Also included will be a review of key economic data and what it indicates about where we are in the economic recovery process.
George Vitta is President of Asset Strategies Portfolio Services, Inc., an institutional, investment consulting firm located in Auburn Hills, Michigan. For more information about our firm, our consultants, or the services we offer, please call 248-373-9900.
Measuring Market Performance at Asset Strategies Portfolio Services
George Vitta, President of Asset Strategies, gives advice on looking at market index performance. “Investors are mislead by the financial press on a daily basis. There is too much focus on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and whether it returns to 10,000 as it recently did, causing us to lose sight of the bigger picture. While the performance of the DJIA continues to be influenced by not only economic and corporate reports, natural disasters, and domestic and foreign political events, this stock index is computed from the daily price change of 30 very select publicly held U.S. companies. Several of the 30 companies are not even part of the U.S. industrial market sector. Further, unlike other stock indexes whose daily performance is based on the change of total market value of each company, the DJIA’s daily performance is based on the change in the price per share of each of the 30 stocks. This means the entire direction and the magnitude of the indexes daily performance can be unduly influenced by one, two, or simply a few stocks.”
A truly meaningful and more accurate approach, which parallels the philosophy of Asset Strategies, is to look at the S & P 500 or Russell 1000 Indices. “First, we believe that the companies represented in either of these indices is a superior representation of our diverse economy”, says George. “Second, we think the method for calculating these indices’ daily performance is more accurate than the DJIA methodology and thus gives a meaningful indication of the U.S. stock market’s daily results. Finally, we hope this critical, yet rational thinking inspires investors to stop and consider what they just heard or read for the benefit of their investment success.”
