Global institutional pension fund assets in the 16 major markets grew by over 6% during 2014 (compared to around 10% in 2013) to reach a new high of US$36 trillion, according to Towers Watson's Global Pension Assets Study released today.

Preqin launches its 2015 Global Alternatives Reports, which reveal significant growth in assets held by private equity, hedge fund, private debt, real estate and infrastructure fund managers. Total industry assets now stand at $6.91tn, up from $6.22tn as of this point last year.

The Preqin All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark gained just 3.78% in 2014, the lowest annual return since the 1.85% loss seen in 2011

Institutional investors from around the world expect stocks to be the bestperforming assets in 2015, according to a survey by Natixis Global Asset Management.

This paper provides an introduction to the STOXX Minimum Variance Indices and aims to achieve three things : i) an overview of minimum variance investing ii) the methodology for the construction and maintenance of the STOXX Minimum Variance Indices, highlighting the unique approach for the index series iii) how investors can make use of the minimum variance concept...