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Investment Manager Profile

Invesco Vet Talks Quants,130/30

August 4, 2008 - In the wake of the credit crisis and the collapse of equity markets that began about a year ago, it hasn't been a great time to be a 'quant.' After all, those fine proprietary computer models are supposed to spot these things, but many failed miserably, and now many managers in the space are keeping their heads down. But not Russ Kamp, CEO of Invesco Quantitative Strategies (IQS), an institutional investing division of Invesco. 'We're really kind of a hybrid in the industry,' he said. 'We take a quantitative approach to investing, but we have had a fundamental underpinning for every stock in our portfolio now for 25 years.'

Oak Value Bets Big on "Blood"

July 28, 2008 - Larry Coats, president and CEO of Oak Value Capital Management in Durham, N.C. and co-manager of the Oak Value Fund, may not be a fan of war movies, but he likes the sight of blood. When it comes to investment strategy, he is fond of quoting John D. Rockefeller, the tycoon of Standard Oil fame, who once said, 'The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.'

Putnam: Absolute Return a Safe Bet

July 21, 2008 - With oil prices at record levels, the U.S. sliding into recession, banks failing and equity markets plunging as much as 20% from their last highs, it's a tough time for a fund manager to keep investors happy. Robert Schoen, Putnam Investments managing director and portfolio leader for the Boston-based firm's Global Asset Allocation Group, thinks one good answer is an absolute return product-in this case Putnam's Total Return strategy.

Bursting with Energy

July 7, 2008 - MFC Global Investment Management's Roger Hamilton sure is bullish on energy stocks. The senior VP and portfolio manager of John Hancock's large-cap equity and balanced funds cites Southwest Energy Company as its best performing stock. MFC is a wholly owned subsidiary of John Hancock Financial Services.

FGA Pushes Non-U.S. Equity Fund

June 23, 2008 - Franklin Global Advisers (FGA) is so proud of the performance record of its institutional non-U.S. equity strategy, which it has been running for years, that the manager decided to start offering the strategy to individual investors. The new fund, called the Franklin International Growth Fund, will apply exactly the same techniques and will mirror the same investment decisions of the institutional strategy, said Par Rostom, co-portfolio manager with Colleen Barbeau of both programs. 'We've got a five-year record of investing in non-U.S. equity for institutions, with $3 billion under management,' he said. 'We thought it made sense to have a similar strategy on the retail side.'

Putnam Places Emphasis on Currency

March 31, 2008 - Most investors probably don't think about it, but when they invest in international assets-bonds or equities-they are also playing the currency markets, whether actively or by default. This is true whether the fund they are in hedges those foreign currencies, or not. Parker King, managing director and CIO for currency strategy at Putnam Investments, oversees the operation that runs pure currency strategies at the Boston-based investment house, and that also helps to minimize the currency risk in the firm's $35 billion in other international investment funds and strategies.

Sextant Capital Sees Increased Flows with Water Fund

March 20, 2008 - Water may seem like it's everywhere, but Otto Spork, president, CEO, founder and lead portfolio manager for Toronto-based Sextant Capital Management's three funds, said it is really a rare and increasingly scarce-and valuable-commodity. Spork, a former surgeon, and Sextant Capital, set up a water fund last April, the Sextant Strategic Global Water Fund. Invested primarily in three privately held water companies based in Europe, which are developing plans to export water to water scarce areas by ship, the fund has seen growth of 209.7% since inception.

SGA: The Time is Right for Smid-Cap

March 10, 2008 - What if you made an investment strategy with no applicable index? That's the situation that faced Cynthia Tusan, founder and portfolio manager of Strategic Global Advisors (SGA), a Newport Beach, Calif. investment management company that developed and launched an international small- to mid-cap core strategy in October 2006.

The Physics of Investing: Thales Applies Science to Investment Style

February 22, 2008 - Some people have compared playing the stock market to horseracing, which would suggest that being a winner calls for either praying hard and often or studying the stock tables closely. Marek Fludzinski, founder and CEO of Thales Fund Management, said a better idea is to study physics. 'Physics is really about trying to model the world and about when to make approximations,' said Fludzinski, who earned a Ph.D in theoretical physics from Princeton University. 'Since trading isn't just driven by physical laws, but also by psychology, modeling to the fourth significant figure isn't relevant, and physicists are good at figuring that out.'

Paradigm Makes Use of Technology in Small-Cap

February 3, 2008 - James Francis, president and CEO of Paradigm Asset Management, said he has good reason to expect the firm's new small-cap core strategy to rocket upward...

GAM Sees Results with Flair-Free Investing Style

December 16, 2007 - David Smith, the chief investment director and portfolio manager of GAM's diversity strategy, feels that being a hedge fund manager is not about having...

Putnam Mixes Styles for Winning Approach

December 2, 2007 - There is top-down investing and there is bottom-up investing. Then there is Putnam Investment's approach, which marries both the top-down and bottom-up...

Clay Finlay Insulated from Market Woes

November 18, 2007 - The U.S. stock market is soft and markets around the world are skittish, the dollar is slumping with its standing as the world's reserve currency being...

Women's Investment Club

November 4, 2007 - It may be a women's shop at Essex Investment Management's AMG Essex Small-Micro Cap Growth Fund, but senior principal and portfolio manager Nancy Prial...

Braemar Sees Potential in Global Warming

October 14, 2007 - There is a lot of bad news coming out these days about global warming and oil prices. But bad news on the climate and energy front are good news for Braemar...