By John L. Bowman, CFA, Executive Vice President, CAIA Association
Part of the DNA of any professional body is to provide and equip their membership community with content that raises practice and improves excellence in their trade. Professionals, in turn, have a voracious appetite for new perspectives, insights, and edge that will benefit their clients and fulfill their endless intellectual curiosity. Since our beginning in 2002, CAIA Association has aimed to connect that intersection of purpose with access, amongst other benefits, to the Journal of Alternative Investments. For 20+ years, Members have enjoyed a complementary subscription to the high-profile and alternative asset specific peer-reviewed journal.
But much has changed in the capital markets over CAIA’s two decades of existence. First, alternatives are no longer alternative. Once considered the frontier hinterlands of asset allocation, private equity, real estate, and infrastructure, among other asset classes, have become mainstream in most diversified institutional capital pools and increasingly in private wealth portfolios. Second, as the industry’s progress continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, interdisciplinary knowledge across the full spectrum of strategies, portfolio construction, thematic investing trends, geopolitics, regulatory considerations, technological innovation, etc. is now table stakes for responsible long-term stewardship of assets.
After careful consideration of these forces, we are thrilled to launch our new publication; designed and expertly curated for the global CAIA Membership community and suitably named Quarterly Mark. We trust that assembling a hand selected group of articles from various investment journals and weaving them together through a unifying narrative will result in a superior product and experience for you.
Our inaugural issue is aptly titled “Next is Here”. The name rightly reflects a new age of capital allocation for which greater diversification and broader expertise is indispensable. We aim to position CAIA Association as a bridge to the industry’s future: to equip you to navigate and prepare for the increasing dynamism the profession and your clients demand. We therefore devote the first issue to highlighting some of the most significant advancements in alternatives in recent years that are shaping the future. Access to this issue is available here.