The state of hedge funds and securities analysis will be the focus of the 2007 Burridge Center for Securities Analysis and Valuation Conference Nov. 1-2 at the JW Marriott Hotel in Denver.
The Burridge center is part of the University of Colorado at Boulder's Leeds School of Business. The cost of the conference, which is open to the public, is $45. The JW Marriott Hotel is at 150 Clayton Lane.
Kenneth J. Heinz, president of Hedge Fund Research Inc., which specializes in the aggregation, dissemination and analysis of alternative investment information, will speak on Thursday, Nov. 1, on "Hedge Funds Today." The talk is the conference's keynote address and follows a dinner, which begins at 6:30 p.m.
Steve Heston, a professor of finance at the University of Maryland, will speak at the luncheon address on Friday, Nov. 2, at 12:15 p.m. on the topic, "From Academia to Wall Street and Back." Heston was an important contributor to Goldman Sachs' successful quantitative strategies in fixed income arbitrage, and in equities for Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
Other sessions on Nov. 2, will address current research on hedge fund performance, new securities analysis techniques and asset allocation methods for financial advisers.
The program on "The Long and Short of Hedge Funds" includes:
o "Side-by-Side Management of Mutual and Hedge Funds," Thomas Nohel, professor of finance at Loyola University of Chicago, at 8 a.m.
o "Hedge Fund Risk vs. Return," Bing Liang, finance professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and panelist for the Securities Exchange Commission's Roundtable on Hedge Funds, at 8:40 a.m.
o "A Hedge Fund Manager's Perspective," Sandy Rufenacht, principal of Three Peaks Capital Management LLC, and former manager of multiple fixed-income products at Janus Capital, at 9:15 a.m.
The program on "The Use and Value of Securities Analysis" includes:
o "Predicting Material Accounting Misstatements," Patricia Dechow, a chaired professor of accounting at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, at 10 a.m.
o "PE ratios, PEG ratios and Estimating the Cost of Capital Using Forecasts of Earnings," Peter Easton, chaired professor of accountancy and academic director of the Center for Accounting Research and Education at the University of Notre Dame Mendoza School of Business, at 10:30 a.m.
o Cynthia Fornelli, executive director of the Center for Audit Quality, formerly with the SEC and Bank of America, at 10:55 a.m. Fornelli recently was named one of the 100 most influential people by Accounting Today.
The program featuring two speakers addressing asset allocation methods for financial advisers includes:
o Michael Stutzer, professor of finance at CU's Leeds School of Business, director of the Burridge Center and formerly a senior economist with the U.S. Federal Reserve System, at 1:30 p.m.
o Andrew Clark, head of research for the Americas at Lipper Inc., at 2:10 p.m.
Complete details of the Burridge Conference schedule are available on the Web at:
leeds.colorado.edu/burridge/conference.