At [i3] Insights, we know that every day, institutional investment professionals are faced with highly complex problems and finding solutions for these problems requires a mixture of deep experience and constant learning. Situations change, organisations change and people change, and setting a long-term investment strategy in this dynamic environment is not easy.
Investors, therefore, often reach out to each other in an effort to solve their collective issues and we like to help them with this by creating opportunities to share their thoughts and knowledge with each other.
The Investment Innovation Institute [i3] has several channels for facilitating investor discussion. Besides our key forums, we also document current institutional thinking through our publication, [i3] Insights.
[i3] Insights is the official educational bulletin of [i3]. Published twice a month, this publication covers major trends and innovations in institutional investing, providing independent and thought-provoking content about pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds across the globe.
Based in Sydney, Australia, [i3] Insights focuses predominantly on asset owners in the Australasian region, but also features some of the leading funds around the world, especially those who form a source of inspiration to our local funds, including the Canadian and Scandinavian pension funds.
With a heavy emphasis on asset owners and the investment issues they are facing, we report on trends such as the insourcing of asset management functions in large pension funds, the influence of regulators on portfolio construction, the ongoing merger activity in the Australian industry, the challenges of the low-return, high-risk environment and many other issues.
An Educational Focus
Some of the most viewed articles include an interview with David Deverall, the Chief Executive Officer of TCorp, the asset manager for the state of New South Wales, on its investment strategy after the merger with icare and State Super. Other popular articles include an interview about AustralianSuper’s effort with machine learning strategies and construction superannuation fund Cbus’s internalisation efforts so far.
As part of our educational focus, we also engage with leading academics in the disciplines of economics, behavioural finance and neurology to gain a better understanding of decision-making and tolerance of financial risks.
For example, we spoke to Nobel laureate Robert Merton about the true meaning of risk. Professor Peter Bossaerts of the Brain, Mind & Markets Lab at the University of Melbourne showed that financial rationality is not the absence of emotion, since people can’t make decisions without emotions. It is about understanding your emotions and being able to control them to the extent that they work to your benefit.
Another all-time favourite dealt with the controversial topic of Modern Monetary Theory. One of the key contributors to this body of work is Professor Bill Mitchell, who was kind enough to sit down with us and explain what this economic framework is really about. A truly fascinating experience!
Launched in 2016, [i3] Insights is led by experienced editor Wouter Klijn, who has almost two decades of experience in financial journalism, the majority of which has been spent writing about institutional investors. Our subscriber base consists predominantly of asset owners, with the balance made up by asset consultants and fund managers.
In many ways, the publication aims to complement [i3]’s educational forums and facilitate ongoing discussion among peers.
For a complimentary subscription, please click here.
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