Illustrative: an implied-volatility surface over strike and maturity with its smile and term structure, or a rolling spectrogram

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Course catalogue · Finance and Economics

Financial Markets and Investment

Asset management, private markets and institutional investors

Asset management, private markets and institutional investors, taught twice over: as the working methods of the field and as its frontier since 2024, with labs on the Academy's tools, open data and the Nexus Standards.

Core course Frontier course

The discipline

01Core course · L2 Intermediate

Asset management, private markets and institutional investors: foundations and practice

This area covers how asset managers, pension funds and other institutional investors hold and oversee long-term risk: portfolio concentration, stewardship, private equity and private credit, valuation uncertainty and fiduciary governance.

Level
L2 Intermediate
Study time
about 24 hours (planning estimate)
Status
In authoring
Prerequisites
An L1 course in the area, or an entry review

Why now

Highlights liquidity mismatch, opacity and layered leverage risks for investors in private credit vehicles. European Central Bank, Financial Stability Review, May 2026, 27 May 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Define stewardship and the other key terms of the discipline and use them correctly in a written case
  2. Explain portfolio concentration and stewardship and governance with a worked example and its source
  3. Apply the discipline's method to a documented case and explain each result with its source
  4. Analyse a named case against long-horizon and system-level risk, stating evidence, date and limits

Modules

  1. Portfolio concentration
    • Portfolio concentration
    • Stewardship and governance
    • Long-horizon and system-level risk
  2. Private equity
    • Private equity
    • Private credit
    • Valuation uncertainty
  3. Fiduciary duty
    • Fiduciary duty
    • Pension system resilience
  4. Lab: the discipline's method
    • Private assets are valued by appraisal, which smooths reported returns; smoothing understates volatility, and a mean-variance allocation built on reported volatility puts far more into private markets than one built on the true risk.
    • Work the method through a documented case and explain each result
    • Read the method's sources and stated values

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-F4 Capital markets, investment and sustainable finance
  • NRS-M8 Method fabric: Financial risk

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C5 Scenarios and stress testing
  • NRS-C6 Systemic and cascading risk
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 40%Lab recordWork the discipline's method through a documented case and explain each result with its source and date
  • 40%Case memoApply the discipline's methods to a named place or organisation, stating evidence and limits
  • 20%Key terms checkShort answers on the key terms, marked against the definitions

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Intermediate, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. European Central Bank, Financial Stability Review, May 2026, 27 May 2026
  2. Getmansky, Lo and Makarov, An econometric model of serial correlation and illiquidity in hedge fund returns, 2004
  3. Markowitz, Portfolio selection, 1952
  4. Kaplan and Schoar, Private equity performance: returns, persistence, and capital flows, 2005
02Live map

People and hazards in the Arctic

Where people live, night-time lights and the floods and fires public institutions answer to, over the Arctic.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 2

People and hazards

Latest available

NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth

Loading the latest NASA imagery.

Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.

People and hazards, framed on the Arctic.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.

Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences

  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
  • VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
  • Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
  • © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
  • Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
  • Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
  • Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
  • Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
  • NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
  • Optional layers (3 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.

Layers and dates

  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
  • Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
  • True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026

03How learning runs

How learning runs, as a process you can run

Select a scenario and press Play: course, pathway, practice, faculty, cells and record.

04What is changing

What is changing, with standards and evidence

Asset management, private markets and institutional investors: frontier methods

The methods, data, tools and studies that changed asset management, private markets and institutional investors between 2024 and 2026, taught by reproducing them on open data.

Level
L3 Advanced
Study time
about 28 hours (planning estimate)
Status
Planned
Prerequisites
Asset management, private markets and institutional investors: foundations and practice; Working knowledge of a scripting language (Python or R) for the labs

Why now

Highlights liquidity mismatch, opacity and layered leverage risks for investors in private credit vehicles. European Central Bank, Financial Stability Review, May 2026, 27 May 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain what changed in asset management, private markets and institutional investors since 2024 and cite the studies, data or rules behind each change
  2. Reproduce ECB assesses spillovers from stress in global private credit on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  3. Evaluate a 2024 to 2026 study: its question, data, method, limits and what it changes for practice
  4. Design an analysis that combines a frontier method with the faculty's instruments, and justify each choice

Modules

  1. ECB assesses spillovers from stress in global private credit
    • The ECB's May 2026 review reports sizeable redemption requests at US semi-liquid private credit funds and judges direct euro area spillovers limited, while warning of sentiment effects, insurer and pension exposures and acute data gaps.
    • Highlights liquidity mismatch, opacity and layered leverage risks for investors in private credit vehicles.
    • European Central Bank, 27 May 2026
  2. Bank of England launches private markets system-wide exercise
    • The Bank of England's second system-wide exploratory scenario examines how private equity, private credit funds, lending banks and institutional investors would respond to a severe global downturn, with a final report expected in early 2027.
    • Tests whether private market behaviours could amplify stress and restrict finance to UK companies.
    • Bank of England, 1 December 2025
  3. Reproduction lab
    • Extend the discipline's method with one frontier method and compare its results
    • State the uncertainty and the limits of the result
    • Peer review against a shared checklist
  4. Technology that helps and the risks it carries
    • AI models, tokenisation and regulatory technology.
    • Model risk, cyber accumulation, exposure to quantum attacks on cryptography, and concentration on third-party cloud providers.

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-F4 Capital markets, investment and sustainable finance
  • NRS-M8 Method fabric: Financial risk

Relies on

  • NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
  • NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
  • NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
  • NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
  • NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
  • NRS-C5 Scenarios and stress testing
  • NRS-C6 Systemic and cascading risk
  • NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance

Assessment

  • 50%Method reproductionReproduce one frontier method on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  • 30%Study reviewA critical review of a 2024 to 2026 study: question, data, method, limits, what it changes
  • 20%Peer reviewReview two other learners' reproductions against a shared checklist

Delivery

  • Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
  • Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
  • Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses

Partner on this course

  • Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
  • Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
  • Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
  • Review the course content and its references before it opens
  • Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region

How institutions and experts take part

In the Academy LMS

Course on the learning platform
Expert, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. European Central Bank, Financial Stability Review, May 2026, 27 May 2026
  2. Bank of England, The Bank of England's private markets system-wide exploratory scenario exercise, 1 December 2025
  3. Getmansky, Lo and Makarov, An econometric model of serial correlation and illiquidity in hedge fund returns, 2004
  4. Markowitz, Portfolio selection, 1952
  5. Kaplan and Schoar, Private equity performance: returns, persistence, and capital flows, 2005
05Take part

Take part in the work

Start from who you are.

06Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is the course free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the course?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Stewardship

The responsible allocation, management and oversight of capital on behalf of beneficiaries.

Term

Mark-to-model

Valuing an asset with a model when no reliable market price exists.

Term

Concentration risk

Risk from large exposures to one counterparty, sector or factor.

Term

Fiduciary duty

The legal duty to act in the best interests of the beneficiaries whose money is managed.

ReportsContribute

Contribute evidence from this page.

Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

Risk Academy
Related

Around Asset management, private markets and institutional investors: courses

Risk Academy

Study asset management, private markets and institutional investors with us, or teach it

Every course is free and open. Institutions and experts can co-teach, host a cohort, contribute a lab or review a course before it opens.

Browse the course catalogue Partner with the Academy
Risk Academy

Courses · practice · credentials

Not for profit

Our articles, maps and twins are free to read and free to republish. Readers and partners keep it that way.

Support our work

Who funds us

Risk Academy is a not-for-profit institution. To ask who funds a piece of work, use the funding questions form.

Independence

Editors and the expert reviewers named on each article decide what we publish. Funders and partners do not review or approve articles before publication.

Corrections policy

Licence

Articles: CC BY 4.0. Figures, maps, twins and data: CC BY 4.0. Other uses: ask through the permissions form.

Privacy choices