• Carrying out the necessary due diligence

• Assessing ETFs in an institutional context

• Assessing the liquidity and volume of ETFs

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• Are fees, and a need for large allocations, a barrier for institutional investment?

• Using ETFs within a core-satellite strategy

• portfolio rebalancing / as a complementary exposure

• Manager transition and exposure to nice markets

• Taking advantage of market movements

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• Assessing growth and examining the benefits

• Marketing buzzword or the next big thin?

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• Perceptions of the impact of climate change on institutional investment
• The risks climate change brings to a pension scheme
• Adopting an holistic approach, or investing via specialist funds
• How the holistic approach might work

• How should institutional investors approach environmental, social and governance issues?
• Will the UN principles for responsible investment (PRI) achieve their objectives?
• How can asset owners scrutinise fund managers’ claims of responsible investing?
• Should fund managers’ approach to responsible investing be benchmarked? If so, how?

• Widening our opportunity set beyond mainstream assets
• Establishing building blocks
• What to own versus what to trade
• Market timing or risk timing?
• Special asset class considerations

• How fundamentals and investor behaviour interact
• Adding behavioural factors to an orthodox approach
• How institutional investors are reacting to the credit crunch

• Do UK consultants have too much power?
• How will implemented consulting develop?
• Does fiduciary management imperil the consultant’s relationship with asset managers?
• Conflicts of interests – pressure points and how to mitigate the dangers
• The shifting role of consultants in the manager selection process
• Is alpha “really” a zero-sum game?
• Which new ideas and techniques will win gain intellectual pre-eminence?

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• The attractions of separating alpha and beta
• Managing diversified beta exposures in a dynamic fashion
• TAA alpha vs. security selection alpha
• Implementation of enhanced indexing to AA strategies
• Using portable alpha to enhance returns

• Separating alpha and beta in practice
• Building a better beta portfolio
• Strategies in GTAA
• Impact of governance budget

• Trends towards separation of alpha & beta by institutional investors
• Finding & sustaining alpha – the most difficult part
• Why use multiple sources?
• Implementing a multi-manager alpha stream

• 130/30 – the rationale
• What’s driving the130/30 market and where is it going?
• Why are quant managers best suited?
• 110/10, 120/20 or 130/30?
• Practical considerations when implementing 130/30

• Overview of exchange-traded derivatives
• Portfolio overlay - switching investments between fixed income markets and between fixed income and equity markets.
• Adjusting portfolio duration and portfolio beta
• Volatility - the perfect asset class for the equity fund manager?
• Relative value strategies - generating alpha
   

• What risks are longevity and an ageing society posing to pension schemes?
• Implementing structural changes to prepare the industry for new challenges
• New and future product developments
• What practical and cost effective steps can pension schemes take to manage mortality risk?

• Why introduce active and passive currency management?
• Framing the objectives for currency management
• Risk issues and practical implementation

• What do we mean by “alternative beta?”
• Which “alternative betas” do we consider
• Forecasting risk and return from “alternative beta” risk premia
• Assessing returns in different scenarios
• Diversification benefits in an equity market crash
• Integrating alternative beta exposures into an existing fund 

• Is gold relevant for UK and European pension funds? 
• What drives price performance? 
• The case for gold as a long-term or strategic investment.
   

• Are commodities really a long-term investment?
• The absence of income - does it matter?
• Estimating the long-term outlook for energy prices
• Determining the best way to access commodities
• But shouldn’t we wait for prices to fall?
• What about the recession?

• How the US credit crunch became a global crisis with global consequences
• Might unintended consequences from US policy lead to a reprise of the early 1970s?
• Why the commodity story and Asian and European decoupling are at risk
• What will the financial services sector look like when the crisis has passed?
• How the business models of non-financial companies may face the biggest change
• Where are the winners and losers in the global markets?

• Implications of the dollar losing reserve currency status
• Can the Euro take over the mantle?
• Sovereign wealth: where will it go?
• The future of Asian currencies
• Eastern backlash – will problems in the new accession countries undermine the euro?
• Will more oil exporters revalue or depeg?

• Will higher oil prices prove recessionary or inflationary?
• Will a move to LDI by US pension schemes depress long-dated bond yields, as in the UK? 
• Are sovereign wealth funds losing their appetite for government bonds?
• Is money in danger of losing its intrinsic value? 
• Where does value lie in global bond markets?

• The evolving power shift from West To East
• The commodity cycle, the geopolitics of energy, and soft commodities
• Polarisation as a precursor to conflict
• Nuclear proliferation and the new arms race
• Climate change as a catalyst for increasing change
   

• A review of August 2007 and January 2008
• Constructing portfolios that are resilient to periods of market turbulence
• Identifying pockets of risk
• Dealing with "fat tail" risk
• Measuring risk throughout the investment horizon
• Developing more robust models of risk management

• Building a diversified portfolio for real returns
• Where are the safe havens and opportunities in global markets?
• Hedge funds – myths and realities
• Gold – a special case?
• Finding value in equity markets
• “Let’s all look like Yale” 
• Avoiding the more obvious conflicts of interest

• China's excess savings have been the key global driver since 97
• …but the borrower economies have now exhausted their debt capacity
• ...while the Chinese economy is overheating
• Beijing holds the key to the future of the global economy”

• How will a US economic downturn impact the commodity bull market?
• What part is investment demand playing in the price of commodities?
• How far must the oil price rise before demand is choked off?
• Will biofuels and alternative energy impact meaningfully on demand for oil in the next 5-10 years?

• How are trends in demand for commercial property shifting in a global, multi-asset environment?
• Where are the bubbles?
• Where does “fair value” lie in the G7 property markets?
• Where are the opportunities in emerging markets for a long-term investor?

• Global equities outlook
• Global bonds outlook
• Currency outlook
• Commodities outlook