Researchers say 'loss avoidance' is all the rage in private equity

Private equity (PE) is known as a "high-risk, high-return" asset class. But as risk-averse institutional investors continue to up their stake in PE, private fund managers are expected to provide metrics that characterize the riskiness of their portfolios. Yet the lack of observable prices makes traditional measures of risk (such as standard deviation of periodic investment returns) entirely unsuitable.