Sharath Sury Wealth Management Expert
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Saturday, June 5, 2010 - Posted by: sharath-sury
News Alert! Latest Developments on Sharath Sury;
PLUS: Sury's Speaking Engagements List Updated and Just Released Today!
Posted 6/5/2010 by STAFF on Blog.SuryOnline.Net
Professor Sharath Sury was awarded the honored "Extraordinary Faculty Award" by Santa Clara University. The award was given to Professor Sury for his teaching and University service.
Mr. Sury spoke at the Real Estate Investors Summit: Dealmakers Conference in Miami in April. Sharath Sury was a key contributor to the topic of "FDIC and the Bank Auction Process"
Sharath M. Sury spoke at the Emerging Managers Summit in Chicago in May; Sury joined the discussion which focused on the topic of "Risk Management".
Professor Sury moderated the Santa Clara Initiative for Financial Innovation & Risk Management (SIFIRM) "Value of Values" Conference, focusing on corporate social responsibility, social investing, and behavioral finance.
An Appointment as an Honorary Deputy Sherriff was awarded to Sharath Sury by the Santa Clara Co. Sheriff's Office. Mr. Sury received the award in May and is a full member of the Sheriff's Advisory Board.
** Please Check back for the latest updates and news bulletins for Profs Sharath and Manda Sury.
***Upcoming Speaking Engagements Coming Soon.
Friday, May 28, 2010 - Posted by: sharath-sury
“EXPLORING THE BASICS” With Mr. Sharath Sury – part 2 of 10
Posted 5/25/2010 by Chinnu S. on Everything-Finance.net
The following contains excerpts from an interview with Mr. Sharath M. Sury on 05/11/2010. Part two of a ten part series begins below.
So, what exactly is a Bear Market? Before I could even ask, Professor Sharath Sury raised an eyebrow and said, "So, you're probably wondering what a Bear Market is, in comparison." I chuckled, but was amazed with his ability to relate to students, as i nodded affirmatively.
Professor Sury continued, "A 'bear' market can be defined as a market in which a particular asset class is experiencing a secular or long term decline either in absolute or relative terms. Thus, if the Russell 2000 is exhibiting steady, declining returns—usually for at least 20% or more, we might surmise that the US small cap equities market (as represented by the Russell 2000) is in a 'bear market' phase."
Eager to learn if some of the theories floating amongst the students were true, I asked Prof Sury, "is it true that a 'Bear Market' is nothing more than a market correction?"
"Good question," Sharath Sury replied, "..[however, Bear Markets' are] to be disinguished from a "correction," which is a drop of approximately 10% from a recent peak to current trough." Sury continued, "A correction may be self-limiting before a return to a bull market or may lead to continued declines, culminating in a bear market."
Natural curiosity begged the question, "When do Bear Markets typically occur in relation to major economic events?" Sharath Sury explained that they "usually occur after the burst of a 'bubble' (e.g., housing, dot-coms, etc.), a major macroeconomic shock (e.g., credit crisis, commodity price shocks, geopolitical instability), or sustained decline in aggregate (GDP) and profits growth.
(...to be continued; Check back soon for part 3!)
SOURCE blog.everything-finance.net/2010/05/14/the-basics-with-mr-sharath-sury—part-1-of-10.aspx
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - Posted by: sharath-sury
“THE BASICS” With Mr. Sharath Sury – part 1 of 10
Posted by Everything-Finance.net 5/13/2010 2:55 PM
The following contains excerpts from an interview with Mr. Sharath M. Sury on 05/11/2010. Although I was nervous (as any fan would have been), struck with awe and inspiration over the simplest of words being spoken by my role-model, Professor S.M. Sury remained humble and was pleased to help as always. Part one of a ten part series begins below.
Recently, I sat down with Professor Sharath M. Sury, 38, whose career in professional finance began after earning an MBA with High Honors from the University of Chicago. I met with Mr. Sury to discuss some of the more common questions the Forum has been asked when students first begin learning finance on a high school or collegiate level.
With an impressive resume that we all hope to emulate (if at all possible), Sharath Sury remains a highly sought after source of financial information and education – and even more so after his recent retirement as CEO from S4 Capital, LLC. Often, we receive emails asking us the definitions of commonly used lingo on Wall Street, and while we realize that these terms may be commonplace on The Street, the average layman’s dialogue may only encompass these words when speaking of sports, or perhaps casually pondered when succinctly mentioned on the evening news.
Let’s briefly explore the intricacies of both “Bull Markets” and “Bear Markets” with valuable explanations from the revered Professor Sharath Sury, and for the sake of: 1) those who have never become familiar with the terms; 2) those who wouldn’t mind a refreshing reinforcement of the terms; 3) avoiding the misuse of commonly used terms while gaining an understanding of the fundamentals for each type of market label; and 4) simply wanting to include “Everything Finance” on Everything-Finance.net.
After asking Professor Sury if he would be kind enough to help us again (as he did with his acclaimed explanation of the Alpha), he agreed without hesitation, and asserted his willingness and desire to help as many students and enthusiasts as time allowed, without regard to how easy or difficult questions will be, and without concern to how much finance education any particular individual has. It is our hopes that having such credible and trusted authorities (like Profs Sharath and Manda Sury ) answering some of our forum newbies’ most common, basic questions will support the members’ faith and belief that there really is ONE place online to have your questions answered by experts in finance [shameless plug: Everything-Finance.net]; that novices, intermediates, or advanced students should never hesitate to ask questions – no matter how “ridiculous” others may deem those questions to be. Professor Sury emphasized that no question is “silly”, or beyond a worthy and accurate explanation by recognized professionals and venerated field experts (as all serious students should have access to). We both agree that this additional avenue of communication is a necessary component in Sharath Sury’s Initiative to bring instructors, professionals, and students together in an effort to help facilitate a new, cautious, and responsible generation of finance enthusiasts that will soon shape the economy of our future.
So, with as much control over my admiration for Professor Sury as I could manage (without being blatantly obvious that I may have been too excited to conduct the interview), I asked him to explain what exactly “Bull” and “Bear” Markets are, and suggested that it could help if he described some of the characteristics associated with each.
Prof. Sharath Sury gave me a reassuring smile and replied, “A ‘bull’ market can be defined as a market in which a particular asset class (e.g., equities or stocks, fixed income or bonds, or commodities, etc.) is experiencing a secular or long term rise either in absolute terms or in relative (to other asset classes) terms. Thus, if the S&P 500 is exhibiting steady, upward returns—usually for at least a sustained growth of 15-20%, we might surmise that the US large cap equities market (as represented by the S&P 500) is in a ‘bull market’ phase.”
Thrilled with how clear and concise his answers are, I may have been somewhat quick to interrupt, but was eager to ask Professor Sury the reason why some news anchors and hosts claim that there is always a bull market to be found. Sharath Sury’s gentle demeanor settled my anxious behavior as he answered confidently: “Because bull markets can also be relative (to other asset classes), it is possible to have a bull market in equities while simultaneously having a bear market [defined in part 2] in bonds, for example.” Mr. Sury concludes, “This leads some commentators, such as CNBC's Jim Cramer of ‘Mad Money’ to speculate that "...there is always a bull market somewhere.”
Pausing to ensure that I wouldn’t rudely interrupt him again, Sharath Sury and I exchanged a smile to acknowledge the humor, but was quick to regain my focus as he continued earnestly, “Sustainable bull markets are predicated upon attractive valuations, strong profits growth (in the case of equities/stocks), strong credit (in the case of fixed income/bonds), and so on.” Sury concedes that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish a genuine bull market from a bear market rally (also discussed in part 2).
SOURCE
Thursday, April 8, 2010 - Posted by: sharath-sury
An Examination Of Fundamentals
By Dr. M. Sury
In investing, one can select securities based on “Technical considerations” or based on “Fundamentals”. We say that the decision to select a particular security (e.g. a stock or a Bond or a commodity etc) is based on technical considerations if the information used in the decision process is solely the patterns observed in the historical returns of that security and any associated statistics.
Such an approach believes in the “pattern behavior” and that the company’s performance characteristics are already captured in the series of historical returns. In contrast, those who select a security based on Fundamentals believe that the success or failure of the investment in that security will depend on the Management Team for that security as well as the resources they have access to and how they would use those resources to steer the growth of the security. Information such as the Earnings in the past four quarters, earnings predicted for the next four quarters are most commonly used fundamentals. To be able to compare the earnings of two different securities involved in the decision process, we use PE (or price to earnings ratio). Clearly higher the PE, the price per a dollar of earnings is higher and thus the security with the higher PE is Costlier. Every thing else being equal, lower PE is preferred.
Sometimes, the price P of a security is compared to its assets (also referred to as the Book B ) and the ratio P/B (Price to Book) is used in comparing two securities, especially if the companies are in distress the investor is thinking of a Liquidation value of the remaining assets to decide on the investment.
Other fundamental information commonly used is the Debt to Equity Ratio. Clearly, the fact that debt holders have to be paid prior to holders of equity (in any liquidation) makes a security with higher Debt to Equity ratio to be less favored. It is to be noted that the revenues used to service an existing debt reduce the amount available for either growing the company or to pay dividends to the shareholders.
~ Manda Sury
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About Dr. Manda Sury
As a Principal and member of the Investment Committee at S4 Capital, Dr. Sury supervises the Firm’s quantitative/analytic programs and information architecture. In particular, Dr. Sury is responsible for the design and implementation of the portfolio optimization procedures for S4 Capital’s critically acclaimed “Efficient Portfolio Management (EPM)” process.
Dr. M. Sury is a recognized expert in the fields of portfolio optimization, equilibrium-based asset allocation, and active risk budgeting. Among his research interests are investment risk modeling (including the incorporation of non-normal skew and kurtosis, conditional value-at-risk, and regime- or state-dependent performance), alpha-beta separation (analysis and identification of the systematic risks assumed by active investment managers), and the design of high-efficiency, high-speed computational procedures to facilitate complex financial simulations and calculations.
In addition, Dr. M. Sury is responsible for engineering S4’s database architecture, which manages and integrates information across the firm’s global portfolio management, relationship management, and risk management efforts.
Dr. M. Sury had previously held a variety of senior-level technical positions in both industry and academia, including Fidelity Investment Systems Co., Lockheed Missiles & Space Co., AT&T/Bell Laboratories, and the University of Michigan. Dr. M. Sury is a prolific author, with over two-dozen major research publications in the fields of mathematics, optimization, and computer science. He received his M.S. in Mathematics, M.S. in Computer Science, and Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
A loving husband, and father of two, Dr. M. Sury is cited by his son, esteemed professor and internationally recognized expert in Risk Management and Asset Allocation — Sharath Sury, as being the single most beneficial influence in his life.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 - Posted by: icastillofinancial
I found a Series of Articles from Wealth Management Expert, Author, and Professor, Sharath Sury. There are three Ezinearticles written by Professor Sury, covering Diversification, ALM, and Risk Measurement. I felt Sharath Sury's articles are a must read for anyone wanting to sharpen their knowledge on important investing techniques. This entry includes Professor Sury's "Diversification - A Useful Tool, Until You Need It!" article. i will follow this article in a later post with "Risk Measurement - A Multi-Dimensional Concept!".
** If you find any of the articles in this series informative or useful, please leave a comment for author Sharath Sury on Blog.SuryOnline.net !
Diversification - A Useful Tool, Until You Need It!
By Sharath Sury
We have all been taught about themerits of diversification in investments. It is a variation of the oldadage, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."
Indeed, professional investment managers are trained to develop portfolios according to the tenets of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). MPT traces its roots to the work of Harry Markowitz and his seminal writings on "Portfolio Selection." In his pioneering research, Markowitz was able to demonstrate the mathematical basis for diversification.
Essentially, Markowitz showed that selecting assets that have a positive expected return but exhibit low or (preferably) negative correlation to one another produces a combined portfolio that retains the positive expected return properties, but with lowered risk (as defined by variance).
Theoretically, this result arises due to the presence of at least two major sources of risk: nonsystematic (or unique) risk and systematic (or market) risk. While it is very difficult to eliminate market risk, it is possible to reduce the risks associated with unique investment assets. By combining investment assets that are subject to certain specific, unique risks with other investment assets that are subject to other unique risks, it may be possible to reduce the overall risk of the combined portfolio.
For the past several decades, this has been the mantra to which all investment managers adhered. Unfortunately, recent experiences in the capital markets have led both academics and professional investment practitioners to rethink portfolio construction. With the increasing interconnectedness of global markets and investment pools, we have seen that correlation structures among various investment assets are not always stable.
As a result, investment managers need to be exceedingly careful in constructing portfolios that are able to withstand the dynamic nature of correlations, especially as the market experiences large disturbances. These "disturbances" are becoming much more commonplace: the Asian currency crisis of 1997, failure of the major hedge fund "Long Term Capital Management" in 1998, the burst of the "dot-com" bubble in 2000/2001, the terrorist attacks of 2001, the burst of the real estate bubble in 2007/2008, and the credit crisis of 2008/2009. In nearly every case, correlation structures among various assets increased at precisely the time when investors needed protection the most.
The best portfolio construction techniques have an appreciation for the fact that correlation structures may change during different "states of the world" or regimes. By incorporating these state-dependent correlation structures into portfolio design and optimization, investment managers can move to better protect portfolios during times of market distress.
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Professional Summary for Asset Allocation and Risk Management Expert, Sharath Sury:
Sharath M. Sury - Founder and Executive Director of the Sury Initiative for Financial Innovation & Risk Management (SIFIRM) at Santa Clara University, Sharath Sury devotes his time and energy to bringing together thought leaders who can address the development of real-world solutions to the current economic climate. Sharath Sury has worked with some of the brightest and most experienced experts in finance and risk management and aims to bring a greater sense of ethics and responsibility to his profession. Through his efforts, Professor Sury has established this invaluable forum for the research and discussion of new developments in the world of economics and finance and has attracted a renewed spirit of innovation to the industry. Sharath Sury also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Economics at the University of California and Adjunct Professor of Finance at DePaul University in Chicago. Sharath Sury's interest and experience in wealth management began as an Associate and later Vice President at Goldman, Sachs & Co. He later founded and worked at S4 Capital, where he earned numerous accolades for his work.
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Monday, April 5, 2010 - Posted by: sharath-sury
The BETA Significance
by Dr. M. Sury
CHICAGO, APRIL 5 /Everything-Finance.net/ — Sharath Sury explains that the returns from a fund are attributable to three sources – the Manager’s skill, the Market and Random fluctuations. The return derived from the Manager’s skill alone (if consistent during the period of observation) is called Alpha (Greek letter a). The return attributable to the Market is denoted as a multiple Beta (Greek letter b) of the Market’s return. Finally the random fluctuation is denoted as Epsilon (Greek letter e). While this is a simple concept, there is quite a bit of complexity swept under the word “Market”.
When the investable universe is U.S. Domestic equities (more specifically, the members of an index such as S&P 500), then the market is that index and so the volatility of the index becomes the Market risk. Beta, in this case, represents the “relative volatility” (called Covariance) in the fund per unit level of Market volatility. The return of the fund attributable becomes Beta* X where X is the return of the S&P 500. When we take this more precise definition, and analyze what is practiced in the industry, we come to realize that the definition of Market can be different in different contexts. Thus, for example, we look at both equities and debt instruments; the Market has to include not only Stocks, but Bonds of all types as well. If we wish to include the entire World Markets, then the return attributable to market is Beta*W where W is the return of a portfolio that consist of all bonds and equities in the entire world.
To simplify the discussion, some analysts have taken the approach that the return W of the entire World market is not significantly different from a “workable subset” such as the MSCI World Index and any small difference can be included in the Epsilon factor. This still does not address the fact that there are other asset classes (e.g. Commodities and real estate) that also can be invested and are actually traded in practice.
Yet another complexity in defining the “market” is the inability (or unwillingness) of the investor to participate in certain segments of the market. For example, an investor may wish to invest only in Socially Responsible Investments (SRI). This would then restrict what the “Market” can include.
Thus, for an investment advisor, the practical approach consists of the following steps: (a) Determine the “universe of investments” applicable to this investor and identify one or more (non overlapping) asset classes that represent this universe (b) Identify the allocation of assets to be invested in each class (c) construct a “custom index” using these allocations and find the “calculated returns” of the custom index to be used as the “Market return” X and (d) use statistical “regression” technique to find the regression coefficient of the Fund’s historical returns relative to the corresponding market returns X.
There are several variations of the above technique in the literature using multi- dimensional Statistics which are beyond the scope of this note.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - Posted by: sharath-sury
Dr. M.B. Sury named Official In-house Expert Contributor for Everything-Finance.net.
Posted by SURYONLINE.NET at 3/31/2010 5:13 AM
Today, Everything-Finance officially announced that Dr. M. Sury, Father of the well-regarded Professor Sharath Sury, will be the exclusive In-House Expert Contributor for http://Everything-Finance.net
The site is scheduled to make an announcement later today regarding its re-vamping process, release dates, and any other updates that have not been released to the public as of yet.
Check back soon for the latest updates and news about Professors Sharath and M. Sury, right here, on suryonline.net!
SOURCE http://blog.suryonline.net/2010/03/31/dr-mbs-father-of-esteemed-professor-sharath-sury-and-expert-author-of-finance-and-statistics-is-named-the-inhouse-expert-contributor-for-everythingfinancenet.aspx
Monday, March 29, 2010 - Posted by: sharath-sury
NEWS BULLETIN! SuryOnline.net Shifts the Focus of its website, Mr. Sharath M Sury, to Expert Author and Contributor, Dr. M. Sury.
Posted by SURYONLINE.NET at 3/18/2010 2:51 PM
The Site Administrators of SuryOnline.net, announced today, that the focus of its website, Mr. Sharath M Sury, will shift to Expert Author and Contributor, Dr. M. Sury.
Additionally, SuryOnline.net will provide a platform for family, friends, and invited guests, to discuss business on every level and subject, from Marketing to Management, and from Accounting to Finance.
We'll also investigate, explore, and discover the rebirth of Entrepreneurism and the recent trends of Entreprenuerial programs in Undergraduate studies.
Check Back Often For More Details!
Thursday, March 18, 2010 - Posted by: sharath-sury
415-SHARATH is now 312-450-SURY!
Now You Can, "Tell It 2 Sury"!
Posted by SURYONLINE.NET at 3/18/2010 12:48 AM
Beginning Thursday, March 18, 2010, we will be announcing the immediate and official end of the 415 - Sharath comment project, and will be pleased to introduce (312) 450 - Sury as the new, also non-profit, comment line for Dr. M. Sury and Family!
Join us next weekend, starting 3/26/10, as we bid farewell and pay respects to the non-profit project attempt by posting three common questions from 415 - Sharath to be answered by Expert Contributor of Finance and Statistics, Professor M. Sury, online and exclusively at
http://blog.everything-finance.net .
Then, after some administrative transitions have been quickly implemented, we will begin proceeding with the introduction of Tell It 2 Sury! - the new, interactive comment line for M. Sury and family that replaces 415 - Sharath. M. Sury, like his son, wants to see participation online and over the phone to give users a platform in which they are encouraged to safely network and solve problems together, instead of secluding themselves — discouraged from what they think is impossible to learn.
Dr. M. Sury wants these students and future enthusiasts to know that Finance is exciting, fast paced, and can be very rewarding. Like Sharath, M. Sury would like to see a new cooperation amongst students, enthusiasts, finance thought leaders and instructors to get these students more involved, while cultivating an ethical environment with a focus on implementing innovative safe-guards against the types of failures that led to the financial crisis we still face. While there is no way to stop some students from spitefully turning away from finance, M. Sury hopes to keep students interested with interaction today, attempting to inculcate the new perceptions that forge the new standards of tomorrow.
So, the next time someone tells you to "Tell It to Someone That Cares", assure that person that you will, indeed; and go "Tell It 2 Sury"!
SOURCE http://blog.suryonline.net/2010/03/17/415sharath-is-now-41542sury.aspx
