Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory

Investing That Matters

Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Investing That Matters (Routledge; 2021) boldly critiques Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), the Nobel prize winning investing theory that once revolutionized the investing world, but now threatens to impoverish both investors and the real world. MPT has no mechanism to understand its impacts on the environmental, social and financial systems, nor any tools for investors to mitigate the havoc that systemic risks can wreck on their portfolios. The result is that MPT forces investors to focus on what matters least, both to them and to society. 

The authors contend that MPT and the myriad of simplifying assumptions that enable and amplify it have become myths: Easy to understand, powerful in their explanatory power, and wrong. Self-referential capital market benchmarks become false goals, resulting in a financial system misaligned from the real-world needs of investors, society and the economy.  It’s time for MPT to evolve.

About the Book →

Jon Lukomnik is the managing partner of Sinclair Capital LLC, a strategic consultancy to institutional investors, and a Senior Fellow at the High Meadows Institute.

James P. Hawley is Head of Applied Research at Truvalue Labs, a FactSet company, and Professor Emeritus School of Economics and Business, Saint Mary College of California.

Reviews

"If you want to know what’s next in finance and investing, read this book. Lukomnik and Hawley expertly show how financial theory got us here, the limitations of that theory and what is poised to take its place in the financial markets of the future."

Matt Orsagh
Director of Capital Markets Policy, CFA Institute

"Lukomnik and Hawley provide an insightful case for the need to modernize Modern Portfolio Theory. Investors, academics, and everyone interested in finance and a sustainable future should read itit will challenge how you think."

Caroline Flammer
Associate Professor, Boston University and Chair, PRI Academic Advisory Committee

"A definitive analysis of the limitations of Modern Portfolio Theory and the gaps it has left behind. It demonstrates why and how investment must evolve in coming years and is the foundation on which forward-thinking investors are now building a new practice."

Steve Lydenberg
Founder and CEO, The Investment Integration Project

"Lukomnik and Hawley highlight the increasing realization that investing success is inextricably linked to the health of the economy and capital markets, rather than just to an investor’s superior stock-picking prowess. They show clearly how investors have moved beyond diversification to act on climate change and other material ESG risks."

Sacha Sadan
Director of Investment Stewardship, Legal and General Investment Management

"At a time of deep reflection around the purpose of companies and financial markets, ‘Investing that Matters’ steers us towards a more enlightened view of capitalism in the 21st century, illuminating how modern portfolio theory needs to evolve to better serve our economies and societies now and into the future."

Kerrie Waring
Chief Executive Officer, International Corporate Governance Network

"If you are puzzled by the current disconnect between the stock market and the real economy, but hopeful that investing can go back to its main purposethat is, allocating capital to address societal problemsyou should read this."

Fabrizio Ferraro
Professor and head of Strategic Management Department, IESE Business School

"Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory is a highly needed book, in which Jim and Jon realign finance with the real world, reminding us of its purpose. Portfolio and investing activity clearly affect the systemthe financial, ecological, social world we live in. They make this argument very convincingly in a finance book that matters!"

Christel Dumas
Associate Professor, ICHEC

Reviews and Articles about the book

Questions?

info@beyondmpt.com

The AUthors

Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Investing That Matters (Routledge; 2021) boldly critiques Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), the Nobel prize winning investing theory that once revolutionized the investing world, but now threatens to impoverish both investors and the real world. MPT has no mechanism to understand its impacts on the environmental, social and financial systems, nor any tools for investors to mitigate the havoc that systemic risks can wreck on their portfolios. The result is that MPT forces investors to focus on what matters least, both to them and to society.

The authors contend that MPT and the myriad of simplifying assumptions that enable and amplify it have become myths: Easy to understand, powerful in their explanatory power, and wrong. Self-referential capital market benchmarks become false goals, resulting in a financial system misaligned from the real-world needs of investors, society and the economy.  It’s time for MPT 
to evolve.

Jon Lukomnik is the managing partner of Sinclair Capital LLC, a strategic consultancy to institutional investors, and a Senior Fellow at the High Meadows Institute.

James P. Hawley is Head of Applied Research at Truvalue Labs, a FactSet company, and Professor Emeritus School of Economics and Business, Saint Mary College of California.