Investment Performance Measurement & Performance Measurement Standards

Diplomarbeit von Daniel Chladek

Abstract:

In the world of investment today, countless decisions are being taken in order to meet financial aims and fulfill expectations people have for the future. Day by day, tremendous amounts of information zigzag across the entire planet, from continent to continent, between people and places, rushing through all time zones at the speed of light. Managers, investors as well as private households, employees, foundations and many more seek to acquire essential data concerning their financial positions.

Since investing has gained significantly in importance over time, the quality of this data has increasingly received a substantial role. Many crucial subjects depend on the reliability and the trustworthiness of information about investments. Subjects which sooner or later concern everybody’s lives in the developed societies such as pensions funding, future education financing or start-up business, plans just to name a few.

Therefore, in the new environment known as the „Information Society”, people have to be able to recognize the information that is relevant to them. They have to be able to distinguish it from misleading, sometimes even fraudulent data, which unfortunately continues circulating and incessantly creates considerable economical damage.

The qualitative requirements to be met by the provided data are quite straightforward and obvious, yet in nature difficult to reach. However, the success and the attractiveness of any kind of investment opportunity increasingly depends on the quality grade of the information exchange.

The urgent demand for fulfilling the requirements for investments led to the creation of a completely new standard: the Global Investment Performance Standard (GIPS). These standards, and their theoretical basis as well as their surroundings will form the core of this thesis.

In order not to be pushed immediately into a complete unknown environment, the structure of this thesis is organized in layers, starting from more general topics and developing into more detail thereafter. Part I covers the basic part about performance.

It will then guide to the thematical location of the subject ‘Performance Presentation’, and will briefly present a few major items, which shall help to quickly access more detailed chapters.

Part II will cover the technical clockwork of performance measurement. In a step-by-step process, the different components, their meaning and their calculation will be introduced. They shall provide the theoretical background knowledge which forms the underlying of performance presentation standards.

Part III then figures the swap from the theoretical principles over to the practical GIPS framework itself. The aim of this part is to explain the development of the GIPS, their functioning, and the significance in the investment business. After this, a complete and fairly detailed image should remain in mind.

The last part includes any kind of personal reflection, criticism and outlook about performance presentation standards and finally concludes this thesis.

This thesis shall analyze what problems existed and still exist today in the investment business. That is, the problems of the „clients” in the investment business - the investors. This question mainly has arisen because of several major financial scandals which troubled not only the U.S., but also other global economies.

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