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Nevada’s $35B fund manager does as little as possible, usually nothing
- ensiferum 10y agoClick bait. Doing nothing relates to he fund he's managing, i.e. his trading policy is to do nothing.
- tanderson92 10y agoThe WSJ is not currently in the business of clickbait. This is a substantive article related to the superior passive investment strategy of a state's pension manager.
- gnarbarian 10y agoI consider it shite because I clicked the link and was met with a paywall.
- tanderson92 10y agoThat is...not what clickbait is at all.
- joshmn 10y agoYou'll never guess what HackerNews thinks clickbait is!
- bbcbasic 10y agoHe said shite not clickbait
- tanderson92 10y agoHe edited after I commented.
- user5994461 10y agoThat is a recurrent issue with wsj articles...
- ensiferum 10y ago"What Does Nevada’s $35B Fund Manager Do All Day? Nothing" This title implies that he manager does nothing all day long. But when you read the article it comes clear that doing "nothing" is his trading policy. "His daily trading strategy: Do as little as possible, usually nothing." I consider this a click-bait.
- cheriot 10y agoHe does nothing like programmers value laziness. It's harder than it sounds.
- ptaipale 10y agoDefinitely. That's why saying "he does nothing" is a bit clickbaity.
- cryptozeus 10y agoThats impplied that doing nothing is realted to trading imo
- rlayton2 10y agoYeah. I read the title and thought "isn't that what everyone says -- just go with the market?"
- tedunangst 10y agoIt's not anywhere close to what most pension funds actually do.
- Ensorceled 10y agoThis isn't click bait, it's a headline "joke" which is pretty common even in substantive newspapers and has been for a long time.
- tschwimmer 10y agoAs much as I'm a fan of passive investing, I think there are key differences between personal investing and institutional investing. The article mentions that much of the money is in equity indexes. This strikes me as very risky for a pension fund. What if the market tanks? Presumably the value of the fund will plummet, but he fund will still have to pay out benefits. This is the equivalent of buying high and selling low. A big part of the job of institutional investors like pension funds and endowments is investing in stable, uncorrelated things. This is trickier where it sounds and accounts for at least some of the higher overhead at other state pension funds.
- Someone 10y ago"What if the market tanks?" It would have to tank long term. If it does, it would take an exceptionally good and somewhat lucky fund manager to constantly find places where the flow goes against the tide and thus still make a good profit. Also, the larger the fund, the larger those places where the flow goes against the tide have to be to make any reasonable impact, and those larger places are rarer. So, if there is a long term problem, it's hard to avoid. For example, obligations in solid economies are stable income sources, but currently all bring little or no interest. That's something that hits pension funds fairly hard now.
- cheriot 10y agoI don't think anything in the article implies next year's payouts are currently in equities.
- keithpeter 10y ago"He generally doesn't work outside 8 a.m.-to-5 p.m. hours. He commutes in a 2005 Honda Element with over 175,000 miles on it. His 2015 salary was $127,121.75, according to a Nevada Policy Research Institute database." Seems like a fairly careful kind of chap. "Despite the investment success, Nevada only has about 73% of assets needed to fund future retirement obligations to workers." I'm wondering what they will do about that. Increase contributions to new members? Increase employer's contribution (if any)?
- danieltillett 10y agoThe same that way that all sovereign debt problems are solved - higher taxes if possible and default if not.
- Shivetya 10y agoHope no one thinks you are being snarky, but court cases have come to that conclusion more than once and it includes cases where the pension fund lost money in the market or suffered theft. In all cases the taxpayer is on the hook for the difference. Now a recent case in California suggests that pension agreements can be adjusted but I expect that to lose on appeal. Regardless more states and cities will have to go to court to fix their overly generous pension agreements (even in my state the number of double dippers or pensioners with 70-100k incomes from pensions is high)
- keithpeter 10y agoUK resident: don't employees pay into their funded pension schemes? Can't employer just up contributions and cut benefits for newly hired ones? Background: My public sector pension is funded through contributions from employer and employee and benefits paid out of revenue, so no investment or equity. Govt has just increased contributions paid to cover costs. Newer employers work longer to receive benefit (retirement age increased during Coalition government). PS: not even close to 70K mind you, think factor of 5 to 7 less!
- bradleyjg 10y ago
- geocar 10y agoI'm a bit surprised that taking the link into Google and clicking on WSJ links from Google don't show the full article anymore.
- jrcii 10y agoCopy the headline then paste it into Google in a different browser.
- achow 10y agoIncognito works.
- geocar 10y agoThanks for that.
- choward 10y agoDoes anyone know why Google allows this?
- cryptozeus 10y agoI didnt know this.....thanks for tip. It worked for me on iphone in safari.
- tedmiston 10y agoYou can also click the "web" link at the top of the HN thread. It's worked for me on every WSJ article so far.
- jgalt212 10y agoIt seems fitting that the guy from Nevada knows it's better to bet with the house than against the house.
- grecy 10y ago> "He generally doesn't work outside 8 a.m.-to-5 p.m. hours. He commutes in a 2005 Honda Element with over 175,000 miles on it. Really, really strange that both of those things are stated as if they are inherently "bad". Shouldn't that be the goal of every office worker? Work relatively sane hours and be content with the perfectly functioning vehicle you already have.
- icebraining 10y agoI don't think they're stated as bad, just as surprising given common perceptions of people in those roles, which is usually shaped by movies like The Wolf of Wall Street, since most people have no other window into the lives of top-level executives.
- technofiend 10y agoThose sound like positive recommendations to me! I guess it's a matter of what you read into it, but I'd be a lot more suspicious of the returns of a fund if the guy running it had a rap artist lifestyle.
- cesarbs 10y agoIf anyone is curious about their asset allocation, here's a recent document detailing it: https://www.nvpers.org/public/investments/pers/PERS-Investment-Policies.pdf https://www.nvpers.org/public/investments/pers/PERS-Investme... Pretty vanilla 3-fund portfolio plus 10% split between private real estate and private equity.