Harvard's Endowment Loses $8 Billion in the Past Four Months

newmustangfan · Post by **newmustangfan** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 9:58 am

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122832139322576023.html

FroggieFever · Post by **FroggieFever** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 5:35 pm

TCU is - $200,000,000 in four months.

mrydel · Post by **mrydel** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 6:21 pm

No different than me saying I have lost 1,283 pounds. The other side is that I have gained 1,322. They go up and they go down. It is just a little more down this time than others. It will recover before Harvard shuts its doors.

jtstang · Post by **jtstang** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 7:33 pm

My 401K sucks in the last year.

mrydel · Post by **mrydel** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 8:06 pm

jtstang wrote:My 401K sucks in the last year.

I agree. Mine too, but I was not planning to retire this year anyway. The people that were are the ones I feel for. Hopefully they had theirs in less risky investments.

Pony Soup · Post by **Pony Soup** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 2:06 pm

These endowment losses are going to get significantly worse. Most have extremely strict asset allocation rules, which means that they will need to rebalance at year/Q end. Given a 25% decline in equities, all of these funds are now overweight in the alternative asset classes - hedge funds, PE, real estate, etc. Selling these assets now to rebalance the weighting will only lead to further losses.

SMU picked a GREAT time to kick off our new capital campaign...

smupony94 · Post by **smupony94** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 4:45 pm

Pony Soup wrote:These endowment losses are going to get significantly worse. Most have extremely strict asset allocation rules, which means that they will need to rebalance at year/Q end. Given a 25% decline in equities, all of these funds are now overweight in the alternative asset classes - hedge funds, PE, real estate, etc. Selling these assets now to rebalance the weighting will only lead to further losses.

SMU picked a GREAT time to kick off our new capital campaign...

I feel bad for not taking their calls right now but ain't nothing to give from me.

Pony Soup · Post by **Pony Soup** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 6:59 pm

smupony94 wrote:
Pony Soup wrote:These endowment losses are going to get significantly worse. Most have extremely strict asset allocation rules, which means that they will need to rebalance at year/Q end. Given a 25% decline in equities, all of these funds are now overweight in the alternative asset classes - hedge funds, PE, real estate, etc. Selling these assets now to rebalance the weighting will only lead to further losses.

SMU picked a GREAT time to kick off our new capital campaign...
I feel bad for not taking their calls right now but ain't nothing to give from me.

doubt they have many people who want to hear their pitch right now with the market down 30%

smu diamond m · Post by **smu diamond m** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 12:35 am

SMU's endowment isn't hurting anywhere near as much as that... less than 10% last I heard.

Harvard lost 20-some-odd%

friarwolf · Post by **friarwolf** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 7:38 pm

Down to 1.2BB and change from over 1.4BB. Some of that was planned expenditures...................

Pony Soup · Post by **Pony Soup** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 2:02 am

smu diamond m wrote:SMU's endowment isn't hurting anywhere near as much as that... less than 10% last I heard.

Harvard lost 20-some-odd%

Not true. SMU reports we were down 13.3% through October. S&P was down an additional 15% in November so you can add to our real losses, though our fund manager likely outperformed - thus "earning" his salary!

Our endowment has likely gained value since dec 2nd but underperformed the S&P over the same period.

smupony94 · Post by **smupony94** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:46 pm

In sign of market anxiety, yield on 4-week T-bills drops to zero

NEW YORK ├â┬ó├óΓÇÜ┬¼" Investors are so nervous that in exchange for a little safety, they're willing to accept the same return from government debt that they'd get from burying money in a coffee can ├â┬ó├óΓÇÜ┬¼" zero.

mrydel · Post by **mrydel** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 9:15 am

The Dallas economy will receive a boost next week when the figures come in from the whirlwind shopping spree by mrsmrydel. We are flying up Sunday for a final Christmas shopping extravaganza. Dallas for sure and perhaps even all of Texas will benefit greatly from this injection into your community.

jtstang · Post by **jtstang** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 9:19 am

Just in time. You can always count on mrsmrydel to raise the local economic numbers for the 4th quarter.