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It's Hard to Distinguish
Skill from Luck

Seven Quantitative
Insights into Active
Management -
A Summary



Forecast Return
Distribution in Aegis
Risk Manager 2.0

The Market
Impact Model™ - Part 3

Automating the
Investment Process



Ron Kahn Looks
Back on 11 Years
at BARRA


The BARRA Brainteaser
for Summer 1998
Solution to the Spring
1998 Brainteaser



A Beautiful Mind

Ron Kahn Looks Back on 11 Years at BARRA

When I began at BARRA, in “the good old days,” our software ran on line-oriented timesharing IBM mainframes. The company was small, both in numbers of employees and clients. Its office space was also small: I had to spend the first eight months working from home. Instead of being organized around research/software engineering/data management, the corporate structure more closely resembled Dave’s group/Bill’s group/Joe’s group, with management by heroic leadership. The Director of Research had another day job.

Even then BARRA’s core strengths stood out. The staff was smart, motivated, and diverse—with a strong belief in the power of analytical reasoning to solve any investment problem. The work was challenging, educational, and above all, valuable to clients. BARRA research built from a unifying world view of portfolios and factors. The staff had no pretense or politics, just a strong focus on results.

I began working on interest rate option models and expanded from there to fixed income research generally. By 1989 I was running the Fixed Income Research Seminar at Pebble Beach and starting to publish. Soon after, I expanded to equities, becoming Director of Research in July 1991. Over my years as Director, I tried to keep BARRA’s research focused on the clients: What are the clients’ needs, and how can we help? Give the clients what they want, and more. Maintain BARRA’s leading role in practical investment research with innovative products, seminars, and publications.

BARRA has succeeded grandly, building on its original strengths from the good old days. Research has consistently excelled. The products have grown more powerful and easier to use. BARRA’s businesses have expanded well beyond analytics, to data products, consulting, asset management, and trading. BARRA is now a successful, global, well-organized company with over 700 employees, 20 offices, and thousands of clients. And innovative research continues to distinguish all its endeavors.

After more than seven years in one of the great jobs in our industry, I have decided to move on to new personal challenges. The Research Group has a very deep talent pool, full of passion, intensity, and experience, with Andrew Rudd personally stepping in to manage the transition. I look forward to my new role as a BARRA client; and I confidently anticipate BARRA’s continuing success, driven by its research excellence. 

Ronald N. Kahn