Arbor City Community Foundation (A): The Foundation

Author(s):  
Karl Schmedders ◽  
Russell Walker ◽  
Michael Stritch

The Arbor City Community Foundation (ACCF) was a medium-sized endowment established in Illinois in the late 1970s through the hard work of several local families. The vision of the ACCF was to be a comprehensive center for philanthropy in the greater Arbor City region. ACCF had a fund balance (known collectively as “the fund”) of just under $240 million. The ACCF board of trustees had appointed a committee to oversee investment decisions relating to the foundation assets. The investment committee, under the guidance of the board, pursued an active risk-management policy for the fund. The committee members were primarily concerned with the volatility and distribution of portfolio returns. They relied on the value-at-risk (VaR) methodology as a measurement of the risk of both short- and mid-term investment losses. The questions in Part (A) of the case direct the students to analyze the risk inherent in both one particular asset and the entire ACCF portfolio. For this analysis the students need to calculate daily VaR and monthly VaR values and interpret these figures in the context of ACCF's risk management. In Part (B) the foundation receives a major donation. As a result, the risk inherent in its portfolio changes considerably. The students are asked to evaluate the risk of the fund's new portfolio and to perform a portfolio rebalancing analysis.Understanding the concept of value at risk (VaR); Calculating daily and monthly VaR by two different methods, the historical and the parametric approach; Interpreting the results of VaR calculations; Understanding the role of diversification for managing risk; Evaluating the impact of portfolio rebalancing on the overall risk of a portfolio.

Author(s):  
Karl Schmedders ◽  
Russell Walker ◽  
Michael Stritch

The Arbor City Community Foundation (ACCF) was a medium-sized endowment established in Illinois in the late 1970s through the hard work of several local families. The vision of the ACCF was to be a comprehensive center for philanthropy in the greater Arbor City region. ACCF had a fund balance (known collectively as “the fund”) of just under $240 million. The ACCF board of trustees had appointed a committee to oversee investment decisions relating to the foundation assets. The investment committee, under the guidance of the board, pursued an active risk-management policy for the fund. The committee members were primarily concerned with the volatility and distribution of portfolio returns. They relied on the value-at-risk (VaR) methodology as a measurement of the risk of both short- and mid-term investment losses. The questions in Part (A) of the case direct the students to analyze the risk inherent in both one particular asset and the entire ACCF portfolio. For this analysis the students need to calculate daily VaR and monthly VaR values and interpret these figures in the context of ACCF's risk management. In Part (B) the foundation receives a major donation. As a result, the risk inherent in its portfolio changes considerably. The students are asked to evaluate the risk of the fund's new portfolio and to perform a portfolio rebalancing analysis.Understanding the concept of value at risk (VaR); Calculating daily and monthly VaR by two different methods, the historical and the parametric approach; Interpreting the results of VaR calculations; Understanding the role of diversification for managing risk; Evaluating the impact of portfolio rebalancing on the overall risk of a portfolio.


Author(s):  
Karl Schmedders ◽  
Russell Walker ◽  
Michael Stritch

The Arbor City Community Foundation (ACCF) was a medium-sized endowment established in Illinois in the late 1970s through the hard work of several local families. The vision of the ACCF was to be a comprehensive center for philanthropy in the greater Arbor City region. ACCF had a fund balance (known collectively as “the fund”) of just under $240 million. The ACCF board of trustees had appointed a committee to oversee investment decisions relating to the foundation assets. The investment committee, under the guidance of the board, pursued an active risk-management policy for the fund. The committee members were primarily concerned with the volatility and distribution of portfolio returns. They relied on the value-at-risk (VaR) methodology as a measurement of the risk of both short- and mid-term investment losses. In its report for the investment committee, the ACCF risk analytics team recommended the daily VaR at 95% confidence as a measure for short-term risk and reported the corresponding numbers. It is now the task of the investment committee to interpret these figures. The case questions guide the executive students to a critical evaluation of both the reported VaR figures as well as of the VaR methodology.Understanding the concept of value at risk (VaR); Interpreting the results of VaR calculations; Evaluating the appropriateness of VaR calculations; Critical discussion of the VaR methodology.


2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S213-S226
Author(s):  
Doowoo Nam

Value-at-risk (VaR) is a widely used measure for evaluating the market risk of a trading portfolio. This article presents the g-and-h method for estimating the VaR of a portfolio with non-normal returns, and adds to the usefulness of VaR as a risk management tool by decomposing the portfolio into individual VaRs to estimate the contribution of the individual components toward the overall VaR. While the VaR decomposition is algebraically simple under the assumption of normality, that is not the case under non-normality which is the property exhibited by most financial returns. We show that, by using the g-and-h VaR method, the decomposition analysis under non-normality can be performed with the same degree of intuitiveness and ease as for the analytical methods based on the assumption of normality.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (02) ◽  
pp. 1850010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yam Wing Siu

This paper examines the predicting power of the volatility indexes of VIX and VHSI on the future volatilities (or called realized volatility, [Formula: see text] of their respective underlying indexes of S&P500 Index, SPX and Hang Seng Index, HSI. It is found that volatilities indexes of VIX and VHSI, on average, are numerically greater than the realized volatilities of SPX and HSI, respectively. Further analysis indicates that realized volatility, if used for pricing options, would, on some occasions, result in greatest losses of 2.21% and 1.91% of the spot price of SPX and HSI, respectively while the greatest profits are 2.56% and 2.93% of the spot price of SPX and HSI, respectively, making it not an ideal benchmark for validating volatility forecasting techniques in relation to option pricing. Hence, a new benchmark (fair volatility, [Formula: see text] that considers the premium of option and the cost of dynamic hedging the position is proposed accordingly. It reveals that, on average, options priced by volatility indexes contain a risk premium demanded by the option sellers. However, the options could, on some occasions, result in greatest losses of 4.85% and 3.60% of the spot price of SPX and HSI, respectively while the greatest profits are 4.60% and 5.49% of the spot price of SPX and HSI, respectively. Nevertheless, it can still be a valuable tool for risk management. [Formula: see text]-values of various significance levels for value-at-risk and conditional value-at-value have been statistically determined for US, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Japan and Korea markets.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 188-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mária Bohdalová ◽  
Michal Greguš

The article presents a comparative study of parametric linear value-at-risk (VaR) models used for estimating the risk of financial portfolios. We illustrate how to adjust VaR for auto-correlation in portfolio returns. The article presents static and dynamic methodology to compute VaR, based on the assumption that daily changes are independent and identically distributed (normal or non-normal) or auto-correlated in terms of the risk factor dynamics. We estimate the parametric linear VaR over a risk horizon of 1 day and 10 days at 99% and 95% confidence levels for the same data. We compare the parametric VaR and a VaR obtained using Monte Carlo simulations with historical simulations and use the maximum likelihood method to calibrate the distribution parameters of our risk factors. The study investigated whether the parametric linear VaR applies to contemporary risk factor analysis and pertained to selected foreign rates.


2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (11) ◽  
pp. 1088-1106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia‐lin Chang ◽  
Juan‐Ángel Jiménez‐Martín ◽  
Michael McAleer ◽  
Teodosio Pérez‐Amaral

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hung-Hsi Huang ◽  
Ching-Ping Wang

Abstract Most existing researches on optimal reinsurance contract are based on an insurer’s viewpoint. However, the optimal reinsurance contract for an insurer is not necessarily to be optimal for a reinsurer. Hence, this study aims to develop the optimal reciprocal reinsurance which satisfies the benefits of both the insurer and reinsurer. Additionally, due to legislative restriction or risk management requirement, the wealth of insurer and reinsurer are frequently imposed upon a VaR (Value-at-Risk) or TVaR (Tail Value-at-Risk) constraint. Therefore, this study develops an optimal reciprocal reinsurance contract which maximizes the common benefits (evaluated by weighted addition of expected utilities) of the insurer and reinsurer subject to their VaR or TVaR constraints. Furthermore, for avoiding moral hazard problem, the developed contract is additionally restricted to a regular form or incentive compatibility (both indemnity schedule and retained loss schedule are continuously nondecreasing).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Bernard ◽  
Corrado De Vecchi ◽  
Steven Vanduffel
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  

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