UVA: Sorry, Alumni, We Gambled Our Endowment And Lost

Few things are more humbling than the stock market (and maybe a speed workout on a quarter mile track). Case in point: many of the big time universities with Billions in their endowments (I always wonder why people give more to those that already have so much, but I digress) have seen much of their wealth evaporate.

From Clusterstock: UVA: Sorry, Alumni, We Gambled Our Endowment And Lost:

"...university endowments have been clobbered in the past three months, especially the ones that were trying to 'be like Yale.' (Overweight private-equity, hedge funds, commodities, and real-estate; underweight cash and bonds). The situation is so bad that some funds are resorting to fire sales"

Depending on your ilk, this story could be used to discuss Market Efficiency (even "smart money" loses), Behavioral finance (herding behavior), asset allocation, asset liquidity, private equity investments, and the limits of diversification.

BTW: I confess I had not read much from ClusterStock before today, but have been very impressed. Several very interesting articles. Check it out!