October 2017

Tone Deaf on ETFs

A couple of major announcements in the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) world last week: State Street announced that they slashed the expense ratios on a ton of their ETFs and TD Ameritrade added a ton of ETFs to their ‘no-commission’ platform.  At first glance, this is great news.  Cheaper beta is available to more investors.  However, this is actually tone-deaf and a transparent money grab.  Hopefully, investors will show that they know better. Huh? State Street’s fee reductions are late in arriving.  Vanguard and iShares have been eating State Street’s lunch for years, in large part due to lower expenses.  Will investors flock to State Street now that it is the low-cost provider?  Perhaps the dumb ones will.  Investors who have money with Vanguard or iShares likely have huge gains.  Selling these positions to save a couple of basis points would be penny wise and pound foolish. While it is…


Update on Everyone’s Favorite $37 Billion Hedge Fund

It’s Harvard.  The $37 billion hedge fund is Harvard. More specifically, I’m referencing Harvard’s endowment.  When Harvard announced yet another management change last year, I was skeptical.  It seemed to me that Jane Mendillo inherited a mess created by an intellectual mercenary (who left his next employer under undesirable circumstances as well).  This began a management carousel ending with N.P. “Narv” Narvekar most recently taking over as CEO of the Harvard Management Company (HMC).  Reading the latest endowment report, I think Narv might be able to turn this thing around.  He is looking to improve HMC’s culture, structure, and incentives. The Changes Culture is difficult to change in any setting, especially after so much turnover in management.  Narvekar wants to build a singular team rather than insular tribes.  Getting buy-in from people who have seen several leaders come and go will not be easy.  Narvekar does have an advantage in…