Waters Rankings 2015: Best Performance Measurement and Attribution System Provider ─ S&P Capital IQ

Closely allied to generating alpha are the joint processes of measuring and attributing that performance so that they know and are able to illustrate how, why and where that performance emanated from, and what its impact might be on their overall portfolios so that they can make better informed decisions in the future. In short, performance measurement and attribution eliminates a lot of the guess work associated with running a portfolio.

Such are the occasional vagaries of reader-determined awards that Convergex, winner of this category in last year's Rankings, didn't (and still doesn't) have a performance measurement and attribution offering per se. The product it entered, PerformEx, is an out-and-out transaction-cost analysis tool, which, granted, measures performance, although it focuses on the performance pertaining to the quality of broker executions and not that of investments/positions within a portfolio. Suffice to say that this year's category winner is a bona fide performance measurement and attribution tool: S&P Capital IQ's Portfolio Analytics module, an add-on to the firm's flagship S&P Capital IQ platform, a web- and Excel-based offering that combines global company information, credit ratings and research, and market research with several risk management/assessment tools.

The Portfolio Analytics module features attribution and charting tools, coupled with reporting functionality to help portfolio managers and heads of performance examine portfolio performance, weights and characteristics responsible for driving active returns. It also allows them to set up schedules to auto-generate reports and it supports the creation of portfolios manually or through the PortfolioDirect process, which links the S&P Capital IQ platform with firms' accounting platforms or those of their custodian.

Interestingly, BI-SAM, the Paris-based performance, reporting and risk specialist that has won the performance category for the past seven years in the Buy-Side Technology Awards, has never registered for the Waters Rankings, although I have it on good authority that next year will be its Rankings debut. It'll be interesting to see how Waters readers' react to the addition of another heavyweight in what has become an intensely competitive category.