Institutional investment managers have always recognised that the trades involved in the creation of a portfolio for a new client have special characteristics and are the focus of much attention. Periodic fundamental "rebalancing" of portfolios also leads to the execution of large numbers of trades within a very short period of time. Effective execution of these "transition" or "program" trades, whatever their underlying origin, has long been the focus of some of the world's leading global broker/dealers. Technology has been used, both to reduce operational costs and to provide pre and post-trade analysis of performance.

Pension funds have more recently begun to appreciate just how important these kinds of trades can be. Hiring and terminating managers, whether for performance reasons or a desire to rebalance between asset classes, has become more common as pension funds mature. Broker/dealers, consultants and custodians have all developed or are trying to develop services to offer directly to the pension funds, taking responsibility for completion of these transactions away from investment managers.

GSCS has long recognised the importance of proper evaluation of transition trades, whether as part of an overall service to managers and pension funds or as a “one-off” analysis of a specific transition or programme. For the last three years GSCS has worked with Plan Sponsor magazine in the U.S. to provide a profile of each of the leading transition managers. The Survey also includes information on the level of client satisfaction with the services received. GSCS has also developed a series of reports that allow clients to easily assess the effectiveness of any given transition.

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