IT IS hard for individual investors to match the returns achieved by private-equity funds. But what if their success in outperforming the public markets could be tracked and replicated? A few pioneering firms claim to have done just that. DSC Quantitative Group, a Chicago-based fund, and State Street, an asset manager, both offer “investable” indices, launched in 2014 and 2015 respectively, that allow investors to mimic the performance of American private equity.

个人投资者的投资回报很难与私募基金实现相比。不过，要是能跟踪并复制这些私募基金在公共市场上优异表现呢?一些开拓性的机构称已在这么做了。芝加哥的基金机构DSC量化集团和资产管理企业道富（State Street）分别在分别于2014年和2015年推出“可投资”指数，能让投资者复刻美国私募基金的投资行为。

Both firms needed a measure of the industry’s returns. DSC teamed up with Thomson Reuters, a data firm, to compile an index; State Street had been making one since 2004, using data it gleans as a custodian of private-equity assets.

这两家机构需要测算投资行业的回报。DSC与市场数据机构汤森路透（Thomson Reuters）合作，编制了一个指数；道富银行（State Street）从2004年开始就在制作一个指数，该指数合作的数据是其以私募股权资产托管人的身份获取的。

They then match the private-equity risk-and-return profile with a basket of public assets. DSC’s index first matches the sector weights of the private portfolio with equivalent public companies, and adds a modest amount of debt (around 25%) unevenly across the sectors—all using predictive modelling, as the reference index of private transactions is published only after a delay. State Street’s investable index does not include any debt and only matches sector weights, although some clients opt to borrow so that their investment more closely resembles a typical private-equity fund’s leverage of 35%.

然后，他们用综合性的公共资产与私募风险回报情况做比对。DSC指数首先用行私募投资组合的行业权重与同样上市企业的行业权重进行比对，并辅之以各行业不等的适度债务数额(大约25%)——这些均使用了预测模型，因为私人交易的参考指数会延后公布。道富银行（State Street）的可投资指数不包括债务，只与行业权重匹配。不过，有些客户倾向于选择借款，因此，他们的投资更接近私募股权基金一般的35%杠杆率。

The performance, particularly of the DSC Thomson Reuters index, seems alluring, even over the long term (both indices have been back-calculated for a number of years—see chart). Of course, an individual private-equity fund may well do much better. But such funds have their downsides: they often require investors to lock up their money for a decade or more; and they charge sky-high fees. Jeff Knupp of DSC claims that his one achieves private-equity returns for its clients for only 20% of the usual cost.

这些指数的投资表现，尤其是DSC汤森路透指数，似乎很诱人，甚至从长期来看(这两个指数回滚了前几年的计算)也是如此。当然，单个私募基金可能会做得更好。不过，这些基金有其缺点：往往要求投资者将资金锁定到10年或更长时间，收取的费用极高。DSC的杰夫•克努普（Jeff Knupp）称，他所在机构的指数为其客户实现同样的私募回报，成本要低以往的80%。

Private equity may be just the start. The index-makers are looking at other asset classes. DSC already offers a similar product for venture capital, and State Street wants to broaden its indices to other opaque sectors such as property or infrastructure. Index-makers do not just follow markets; they also expand them.

私募基金可能只是一个开始。这两家指数机构正在研究其他资产类别。DSC准备给风险资本制订一个相似的指数产品；道富银行（State Street）则希望将指数扩大到其他不透明的行业，如房地产或基础设施。指数制定机构不仅是跟随市场，也在给市场增量。

编译：雷月营

审校：李文卓

编辑：翻吧君

来源：经济学人