Assets managed by the world's largest 500 fund managers rose by almost 12% to reach a record US$76 trillion in 2013, surpassing the previous high of over US$69 trillion set in 2007. The Pensions & Investments / Towers Watson World 500 researchshows that due to consistent growth of assets in the past six years, total assets have now more than doubled since 2002.

Total hedge fund capital increased to a record level in the third quarter as financial market volatility increased into quarter-end, with inflows concentrated in Event Driven and Fixed Income-based Relative Value Arbitrage strategies, according to the latest HFR Global Hedge Fund Industry Report...

A new EDHEC-Risk Institute publication entitled “Risk Allocation, Factor Investing and Smart Beta: Reconciling Innovations in Equity Portfolio Construction,” drawn from the Amundi ETF & Indexing research chair at EDHEC-Risk Institute on “ETF and Passive Investment Strategies,” shows that it is possible to reconcile the performance of smart beta with control over the risk of the investment.

Concerns over the imminent end of quantitative easing in the U.S. have left investors much less confident in the outlook for the global economy and corporate profitability, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for October.

Among infrastructure assets, energy infrastructure assets such as pipelines, storage facilities or processing plants, are experiencing a rapid growth, especially in the USA. Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) have played a key role in facilitating investment in US energy infrastructure.