Measuring Risk-Adjusted Returns in Alternative Investments

Academic criticism of classic Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) performance measures is not new. Until recently it was fine to use the Sharpe ratio as a way of summarizing the attractiveness of an investment. Only now have the shortcomings of using traditional performance measures to evaluate all manner of strategies become relevant to investors. This article touches on the problems with using traditional performance evaluation methods and summarize the state-of-the-art in alternative performance evaluation techniques. A revisited version of this paper was published in Quantitative Finance, (2002) 2:4 pp.237-238.