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Conference day one - Wednesday, December 3, 2008
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8.30am | Registration and breakfast
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9am | Chairperson’s introduction
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| BULLS, BUBBLES OR BUST: GLOBAL COMMODITY MACRO |
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9.10am | Panel session: Beyond futures and hedging – the new
commodity investment landscape
- Contextualizing the landscape of commodity investments for institutional investors: agricultural, fuels and metals
- Equities, futures, indexes and traditional entry points to investing in and hedging commodities
- Understanding commodity production technology, services and components and their impact on investments
- Pensions, endowments, family offices – the new breed of commodity investors, and the reasons for their strategic shift
- Fundamentally driven increases versus pure market speculation and the impact on investors
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| | Colin O'Shea, Associate Director, Alternatives, Hermes Fund Managers Limited Tyler Stevens, Managing Director, Commodities & Fixed Income, Commonfund Asset Management Company
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9.55am | Panel session: Understanding the economics of the global
commodities market
- Implications of changes in the US dollar and interest rates on commodities
- Inverse relationship between US equities and oil
- Impact of inflation on particular groups of commodities
- Impact of emerging market commodity production and consumption on the US investment landscape
- Local consumption as a driver for the commodities boom – pressure from the BRICs and other 11 nations
- Long term demand as a factor of price growth – has long term growth been factored into present day pricing?
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| | Daniel Sternoff, Director of Emerging Markets and Energy Research, Medley Global Advisors Thierry Wizman, Former Global Emerging Market Strategist, Willow Street Advisors
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10.55am | Networking and refreshments
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| A NEW INVESTMENT PARADIGM |
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11.25am | Optimally hedging equities with commodities
- Developing an index which optimally diversifies commodities and equities
- Determining which commodities are most important in the portfolio
- Accounting for correlation amongst commodities in the portfolio
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| | Michael Haigh, Director & Senior Commodity Strategist, Commodities Derivatives Trading, Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking
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11.55am | Is there a commodity bubble? And what are the implications
of it bursting? An investors Perspective
- What are the signs of the existence of a bubble in commodity investments? Prices? Volatility?
- Will the bubble continue to inflate in the short term? Will there be a strong market correction?What are the implications to investors of the bubble bursting? Increased fund failure?
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12.25pm | Networking lunch
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| ASSET ALLOCATION TO COMMODITY MARKETS AND PRODUCTS |
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1.55pm | Is there a commodity risk premium?
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2.05pm | Panel session: Institutional investors approaching commodity markets
- Motivations of institutional investors allocating to commodity funds and active vehicles
- Comparing active versus passive commodity investments
- Understanding and managing risk in commodity investments for large institutions
- Identifying what part of the portfolio commodity allocations come from? Hedge funds? Equities? Natural resources?
- Impact of the non-correlated or inverse nature of certain assets on investment decisions
- Are portfolio allocations commodity specific – timber (natural resources)?
- Why are commodity investment allocations increasing? Are commodities still alternative investments?
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| | Catherine A. Lynch, Chief Executive Officer/Chief Investment Officer, The National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust (NRRIT)
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2.55pm | Speed Networking
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3.35pm | Networking and refreshments
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4.05pm | Panel session: Investment entity selection to access
commodities markets
- Active versus passive commodity investments as the prime determinant of entity selction
- Distinguishing between ETF (ETCs), indexes, hedge
- funds, CTAs and private equity fund structures to allocate to commodities markets
- Fee structures and differences between investment entities
- Do entities blend both active and passive strategies?
- Entity selection based on size of allocation and percentage of portfolio
- Comparing due diligence frameworks for allocating to commodity funds versus other entities
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| | Elliot Noma, Senior Vice President, Chief Risk Officer and Portfolio Manager, Asset Alliance
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4.45pm | Timber as an uncorrelated commodity asset
- Methods of accessing the timber market: commingled funds, direct investments, hedge funds
- Availability of timber assets to meet investor demand
- Understanding the time horizon of timber investments
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5.15pm | End of day one
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Conference day two - Thursday, December 4, 2008
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8.30am | Registration and breakfast
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8.50am | Chairperson’s opening remarks
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| BENEATH THE VEIL: FUND MANAGEMENT AND MANAGER
SELECTION |
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9am | Panel session: Commodity fund manager selection
- Deconstructing the criterion for institutional investor fund manager selection
- Constraints or benefits of multi-manager platforms versus single manager platforms
- Differentiating natural resources manager selection from other commodities
- Comparing returns and risk in single commodity funds versus funds tackling broad groups or the entire asset class
- Actively monitoring risk in commodity investments and understanding the signs of fund failure or over exposure
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| | Michael Dubin, Senior Managing Director, The LongChamp Group, Inc. Tom Heck, CFO, Ball State University Foundation Robert van Kuijk, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Finles Capital Management Elliot Noma, Senior Vice President, Chief Risk Officer and Portfolio Manager, Asset Alliance
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9.45am | Panel session: Commodity fund manager debate
- Understanding the perspectives of leading commodity fund managers
- Does specialization impact alpha generation and risk? Macro funds versus funds specializing in specific commodities or groups of commodities
- Bubble – bull market – long term rally – at the top of cliff? contextualizing commodities from a managers perspective
- Is hedging still an important function of a commodity fund?
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| | Brad Cole, President, Cole Partners Asset Management Chris Burton, CFA, FRM, Vice President - Commodities, Credit Suisse Asset Management
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10.30am | Networking and refreshments
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11am | Roundtables
- Table A: the emergence of carbon as an investment class
- Table B: the future of water assets
- Table C: accessing returns from commodities through
investments in energy, agriculture and other infrastructure equities
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| UNDERSTANDING INVESTMENTS IN METALS |
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11.45am | Keynote: Accessing investments in metals through financial
markets
- Moving from passive to active investments in metals
- Identifying precious and industrial metal trends for 2009
- Finding alpha for institutional investors in metals
- Managing risk in metals
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| | Christoph Eibl, Co-Founder and Head of Trading, Tiberius Asset Management
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12.15pm | Panel session: Contextualizing precious metals for investors
- Best methods for institutional investors to access returns from a growth in precious metals demand
- Differentiating metals by trends and uses: gold, platinum, silver, etc.
- Gold as a hedge against a falling dollar and inflation
- Impact of a change in currency pegs on the value of metals
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| | John Hathaway, Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager, Tocqueville Asset Management Christoph Eibl, Co-Founder and Head of Trading, Tiberius Asset Management
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1pm | Networking lunch
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| HEDGING AND HARNESSING RETURNS FROM FUELS |
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2.15pm | Panel session: Traditional fuels
- Understanding the impact of shocks to supply, production capacity and refining
- What are the different geo-political threats to the supply of oil and natural gas? How price sensitive are oil and natural gas?
- Differentiating between different types of energy investments and platforms – what are the risk return profiles
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3pm | Panel session: Investments in alternative fuels and power
- What are the most cutting edge alternatives – wood based cellulosic ethanol, nuclear, solar, wind?
- How do investors access returns from a growth in alternative fuels – green investing?
- Are ethanol generating soft commodities part of the alternative fuel market? Corn? Sugar cane?
- What can investors in traditional fuels do to hedge against the growth of alternatives
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| | James Hansel, Managing Director, Eight Winds Capital Management
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3.45pm | Networking and refreshments
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| DYNAMICS OF AGRICULTURE AND SOFT COMMODITIES |
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4.15pm | Panel session: The fundamentals of investing in agricultural commodities
- Understanding the basics of agricultural commodities – the leading crop types and cyclical nature of returns
- Utilizing futures to access returns from soft commodities
- Gaining indirect exposure to agricultural commodities through farmland investments
- Separating investments in fruits and vegetables from grain and other soft commodities
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| | Frank Mersch, Senior Portfolio Manager, Front Street Capital
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5pm | Placing livestock and farmland within the agricultural and
commodity investment context
- Understanding the investment characteristics and fundamentals of livestock investments
- Does livestock have a low correlation to other asset classes? How does it compare to other commodities?
- Vehicles to access returns from livestock – futures / ETFs / 130/30 strategies and hedge funds
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5.30pm | Chairperson’s closing address
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5.40pm | End of conference
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