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Excel spreadsheet for students.

After a two-year absence from the financial industry, Tom Henne evaluated his options and determined that he could exploit his knowledge of the inner workings of the pension fund business and start a new firm, Equinox Asset Management. Despite claims that many pension funds provided returns that did no more than mirror the average index, Henne believed his fund could beat the market or achieve alpha. He proposed that this success could be had by differentiating the Equinox fund in several ways from the typically large and well-branded funds of banks and insurance companies. Thinking he still had significant time to consider the details, Henne was surprised to receive a phone call from a local company wanting him to do a presentation on Equinox at its offices. Henne had only one week to decide the size of his fund, finalize his fee structure, identify his positioning and marketing strategy, and evaluate an appropriate client base. But most of all, he wondered whether the idea for his fund was even plausible.

Recent dramatic global events suggest that the future financial landscape will be much different than what we see today. In a world where money, people and ideas can move faster than ever before, even the smallest events can have a tremendous impact on the entire world. The report outlines key categories that will have significant impact on tomorrow's world in order to better inform today's investor. Topics of discussion include demographics with a focus on the baby boomer generation; regulatory changes; new technologies; complex trading instruments; the green movement; and the communication age.

Recent dramatic global events suggest that the future financial landscape will be much different than what we see today. In a world where money, people and ideas can move faster than ever before, even the smallest events can have a tremendous impact on the entire world. The report outlines key categories that will have significant impact on tomorrow's world in order to better inform today's investor. Topics of the discussion include new financial regulations; emerging markets; challenges in the developed world; new technologies; socially responsible investing; and social media and the speed of information dissemination.

In early January, 2009 the president of Invesco Trimark Ltd. (Invesco Trimark) was optimistic about the year ahead, particularly when compared to the perfect storm of 2008. That year saw global investment markets in turmoil, and Invesco Trimark's mutual fund assets had plummeted to almost half its value. The president and his team had spent nearly a year working and re-working a new product launch and by 2009 thought they had developed a unique and differentiated idea that would be difficult for the competition to replicate. This idea was to introduce to the Canadian market a suite of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) built around investments managed by Invesco Trimark's sister company in the United States. This new product combined key features of ETFs traded on U.S. exchanges with key features of Canadian mutual funds. As innovative and exciting as ETFs promised to be, the president knew that it would be met with reservation from Invesco Trimark's traditional mutual fund distributors who remained skeptical. The president wondered how best to communicate the new product idea given the contradictory and competing ideas that existed not only in the market but in his own firm. Was it possible for mutual funds and ETFs to co-exist?

Recent dramatic global events suggest that the future financial landscape will be much different than what we see today. In a world where money, people and ideas can move faster than ever before, even the smallest events can have a tremendous impact on the entire world. The report outlines key categories that will have significant impact on tomorrow's world in order to better inform today's investor. Topics of the discussion include new financial regulations; emerging markets; challenges in the developed world; new technologies; socially responsible investing; and social media and the speed of information dissemination.

Spreadsheet for product 9B09N021.

Spreadsheet for product 9B09N022.

In October 2008, the manager of client services at Duckworth Asset Management Inc. (Duckworth), an investment firm headquartered in St. John's, Newfoundland, was preparing for a briefing with Duckworth's vice-president of investments. The vice-president had been fielding several phone calls in the past few weeks, all from clients concerned about the significant drop in global financial markets. Since its June 2008 peak, Canada's S&P/TSX had dropped 33 per cent - one of the fastest market corrections in history. One client in particular - the Canadian Swimming Scholarship Foundation (CSSF) - had asked for a meeting with the vice-president regarding alternative investments. The CSSF had heard from another foundation that market neutral strategies could help them manage the volatility they were experiencing with their current holdings. The vice-president had asked the client-services manager to prepare a recommendation on how to best explain events in the current market, the concept of investment risk and if a market neutral strategy could help reduce total portfolio vulnerability.

In September 2007, the marketing manager for London Life Insurance Company's (London Life) Freedom Funds was preoccupied by thoughts of his upcoming meeting with London Life's vice-president of Marketing, Individual Retirement and Investment Services. The vice-president was concerned with the past summer's appreciation of the Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar. Since March of 2007, the Canadian dollar had appreciated over 10 per cent against its U.S. counterpart with the result of eroding returns on London Life's U.S. funds. The marketing manager had been asked to research the drivers behind the sudden change in currency and whether it was a sustainable trend; if so, he was to advise the steps London Life should take to protect its investment returns on its U.S. funds. Complicating the analysis was the knowledge that his advice needed to incorporate and respect London Life's investment philosophies, be easily understood by its almost 3,000 financial advisors and their clients, and acknowledge the complexities surrounding the implementation of currency-hedging strategies.

In October 2008, the senior vice-president for product and business development at IA Clarington (IAC), a life and health insurance company, was preparing for a meeting with the president of IAC. The topic of discussion would be IAC's Target Click Fund, a mutual fund with an options-based guarantee structure targeted towards investors who were looking for growth along with capital preservation. The vice-president had been asked to render his opinion of whether he thought that the fund's scheduled rebalancing date should be accelerated in order to take advantage of a historic decline in global equity markets. The vice-president had to consider several pieces of information in making his recommendation, including that fact that his main competitors would be quick to take advantage of any misguided recommendation. He wondered if the markets had truly hit bottom, and how/if he could time the rebalancing to the lowest point. Also, the investment philosophy behind IAC and click funds encouraged investors to remain invested during turbulent times: what would changing the rebalancing date indicate to those investors?

In October 2008, the senior vice-president for product and business development at IA Clarington (IAC), a life and health insurance company, was preparing for a meeting with the president of IAC. The topic of discussion would be IAC's Target Click Fund, a mutual fund with an options-based guarantee structure targeted towards investors who were looking for growth along with capital preservation. The vice-president had been asked to render his opinion of whether he thought that the fund's scheduled rebalancing date should be accelerated in order to take advantage of a historic decline in global equity markets. The vice-president had to consider several pieces of information in making his recommendation, including that fact that his main competitors would be quick to take advantage of any misguided recommendation. He wondered if the markets had truly hit bottom, and how/if he could time the rebalancing to the lowest point. Also, the investment philosophy behind IAC and click funds encouraged investors to remain invested during turbulent times: what would changing the rebalancing date indicate to those investors?

In October 2008, the manager of client services at Duckworth Asset Management Inc. (Duckworth), an investment firm headquartered in St. John's, Newfoundland, was preparing for a briefing with Duckworth's vice-president of investments. The vice-president had been fielding several phone calls in the past few weeks, all from clients concerned about the significant drop in global financial markets. Since its June 2008 peak, Canada's S&P/TSX had dropped 33 per cent - one of the fastest market corrections in history. One client in particular - the Canadian Swimming Scholarship Foundation (CSSF) - had asked for a meeting with the vice-president regarding alternative investments. The CSSF had heard from another foundation that market neutral strategies could help them manage the volatility they were experiencing with their current holdings. The vice-president had asked the client-services manager to prepare a recommendation on how to best explain events in the current market, the concept of investment risk and if a market neutral strategy could help reduce total portfolio vulnerability.