This week we had the pleasure of welcoming Jeff Snider (Head of Global Investment Research at Alhambra Investments) and Emil Kalinowski (enterprising investor, author and host of both a talk radio show and a podcast). Together, they co-host Eurodollar University podcast and shed light on the complexities of the global monetary system. Our conversation included: Back to basics – how the global currency and monetary systems actually work The origins of the Eurodollar system Triffin’s Paradox and t...
Jun 21, 2022•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 131
For this week’s special episode, Adam, Mike, Rodrigo and Richard gathered to explore the building blocks of an ultimate All Weather portfolio. Our conversation included: The blind spots of the 60/40 stock-bond portfolio Regime dependency and economic shocks Diversifiable versus non-diversifiable risks How to create an optimal portfolio that can navigate most regimes Why Global Risk Parity is the natural starting point for any investor with a long-term view Different ways to implement Risk Parity...
Jun 17, 2022•2 hr 49 min•Ep. 129
We had the pleasure this week of speaking with Cem Karsan (the pronunciation can be a bit challenging, bit the hint is in his Twitter handle - @jam_croissant ), founder of Kai Volatility Advisors . His deep knowledge of market structures and investment flows took us on a fascinating conversation that included: Joining a team early in his career that would become one of the Street’s largest options market makers Developing a profound understanding of the reflexive game of dealer positioning and i...
Jun 15, 2022•2 hr 35 min•Ep. 130
This week Adam and Rodrigo of ReSolve Global* had the pleasure of speaking with Jason Josephiac of Meketa Investment Group. Our conversation spanned topics including: His background in the industry and joining Meketa Asset Allocation: label/category diversification vs. risk/functional diversification Risk Parity vs. Traditional Asset Allocation What Portable Alpha Synthetically creating your own “bond” with risk factors not directly tied to spreads and rates Risk Mitigating Strategies (RMS) Long...
Jun 06, 2022•2 hr 41 min•Ep. 128
Our guest this week was Rob Van Wielingen, President & CEO of Viewpoint Investment Partners, a boutique investment management firm offering systematic strategies to private and institutional investors. Our conversation included: The Van Wielingen family background in the oil and gas industry Rob’s decision at an early age to focus on finance and technology Learning from his grandfather’s experience: “I know what it’s like to be rich – I’ve been rich three times” How the family gradually moved fr...
May 24, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 127
This week we had the pleasure of speaking with Andy Constan (CEO / CIO at Damped Spring Advisors) and prolific member of the FinTwit community under the @dampedspring penname. Our conversation spanned topics including: His long and interesting career in the investment world Starting with equity derivatives and eventually earning his ‘global macro education’ at Bridgewater Associates The constantly evolving challenge of generating alpha Trading and managing portfolios at scale and the importance ...
May 18, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 126
Vincent Deluard is the Global Macro Strategist for StoneX, where he advises institutional investors on asset allocation and risk management. He joined us for an awesome conversation that covered topics including: His early life in France - expectations for public service but ‘saved’ by a scholarship to study abroad Bitten by the ‘quantitative bug’ from the very start of his career How his macro framework evolved Inflection points in the mega trends that have endured for the last 40 years Concern...
May 11, 2022•2 hr 34 min•Ep. 125
It had been a while since we riffed with our good friend Meb Faber (co-founder and the Chief Investment Officer of Cambria Investment Management), and as always, he didn’t disappoint. Our thought-provoking conversation covered topics such as: Meb’s big announcement – his Idea Farm, which curates investment content from a wide variety of sources, is now free Recent equity market dynamics and the pain that historically comes with inflation Why dogmatism and inflexibility are two of the worst trait...
May 03, 2022•2 hr 43 min•Ep. 124
We were joined this week by Kris Abdelmessih, who spent most of his career as an options trader and now writes about the relationship between money, work and creativity in the Moontower blog and weekly newsletter. Our conversation covered topics that included: Becoming a derivatives and options trader straight out of college Defining the difference between trading and investing Identifying alpha – understanding your edge and capitalizing on it The business of trading Not just surviving but thriv...
Apr 26, 2022•2 hr 52 min•Ep. 123
Our guest this week was Rohan Grey, assistant professor at Willamette University College of Law where he teaches Contracts, Business Associations and Securities Regulation. Rohan is also a prominent advocate of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and has also recently been involved in drafting regulations in the digital asset and currency space. Our wide ranging conversation took us through historical periods, current policy debates, and included: Why laws have historically been ‘kind to the rich’ and ...
Apr 15, 2022•2 hr 15 min
Dr. Antti Ilmanen, Principal and Global Co-head of the Portfolio Solutions Group at AQR Capital Management joins ReSolve Global CIO Adam Butler to discuss the core themes from Antti’s new book, “Investing Amid Low Expected Returns.” In this 100 minute conversation we explore the following themes at length: The pros and cons of several models for forecasting stock returns The role of bonds in portfolios when yields are low. How to measure and optimize the credit risk premium The sources of return...
Apr 13, 2022•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 122
Our guest this week was Stuart Barton, co-founder and Chief Investment Officer at Volatility Shares. Our conversation ranged across topics that included: Early career as a vol trader and how the space has changed over time Volatility Shares’ investment approach – probability-weighting and active trading ETNs, ETFs and other ‘packaging’ models – benefits and drawbacks Settlement as a crucial variable – matching vehicles and their underlying assets A post-mortem on the ‘Volmageddon’ episode in Feb...
Apr 05, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 120
This week we had the pleasure of welcoming Bilal Hafeez, founder, CEO and Head of Research at Macro Hive, and the host of the Macro Hive Conversations podcast. We had a broad global macro conversation that included: Bilal’s journey in the finance industry through North America, Asia and back to Europe Retiring from corporate life and founding a ‘hive-mind’ research firm A top-down approach with an eye for structural trends and a cyclical view Interest rates as the main concern for both retail an...
Mar 29, 2022•2 hr 41 min•Ep. 119
Our good friend Eric Balchunas (Senior ETF Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence) joined us once again, this time to discuss his new book “The Bogle Effect: How John Bogle and Vanguard Turned Wall Street Inside Out and Saved Investors Trillions”. We covered topics that included: Bogle’s early life as a university student and his 1949 thesis Becoming the young CEO of Wellington Fund at age 35 Bogle’s initial enthusiasm with active management before building his “passive juggernaut” The beginnings of ...
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 118
We were joined this week by Preet Banerjee, host of the Mostly Money podcast, management consultant focused on commercial applications of behavioral finance, and founder of MoneyGaps’: "Light Financial Planning" software for advisors. Our conversation included topics such as: Preet’s diverse background – from neuroscience and financial advisory to auto racing Realizing everything is about psychology Outgrowing his advisory practice and becoming a consultant Setting out to quantify the value of f...
Mar 16, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 117
We were joined this week by none other than Alex Gurevich, founder and CIO of HonTe Investments, author of The Next Perfect Trade, and more recently The Trades of March 2020 – A Shield Against Uncertainty, and a legend in the macro hedge fund industry. Our conversation included topics such as: His background in math, and as a competitive chess, GO and poker player An analytical approach that was well-suited for a Wall Street trader Skin in the game – he wanted to be a trader from the start, not ...
Mar 08, 2022•2 hr 37 min•Ep. 116
This week we had the pleasure of speaking with Marcos Bueno, CIO at Ascent Systematic Advisors. Marcos has a diverse and well-rounded backgrounded in finance, and our conversation covered topics that included: His background at proprietary trading desks and macro funds Starting his career in fundamental, research-oriented investing Early successes during a bull market while recognizing the role of luck The GFC, the Volker Rule and leaving Wall Street to join Graham Capital in London Combining gl...
Mar 07, 2022•2 hr 35 min•Ep. 115
After a multi-decade slumber, inflation has been dominating the economic and financial zeitgeist over the last twelve months. The sustained sell-off in both US stocks and bonds at the start of 2022 was an unfamiliar sight to investors that grew accustomed to the negative correlation that created the once mighty 60/40 portfolio. Are we entering a new paradigm where inflation has both higher mean and variance? Adam, Mike and Rodrigo lay out their views for navigating inflationary times, including ...
Feb 23, 2022•2 hr 30 min•Ep. 114
Our guest this week was Cullen Roche, CIO of Disciplined Funds, founder of Orcam Financial Group and author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Know About Money and Finance. We discussed topics that included: Disciplined Funds’ macro-oriented investment approach Cullen’s rude awakening – classic economics learned in university is largely at odds with real world economics Taking a step back and learning public finances from first principles Digging into the mechanics of quantita...
Feb 15, 2022•2 hr 36 min•Ep. 113
This week we had the privilege of hosting Viktor Shvets, Managing Director at Macquarie Securities and author of ‘The Great Rupture - Three Empires, Four Turning Points and the Future of Humanity - Do we need to be free?’. This deeply insightful conversation touched on topics that included: Is freedom truly a prerequisite for prosperity? Hong Kong’s transition from global hub to China-centric US and Chinese societies face similar challenges, but have a vastly different toolkit to tackle them Chi...
Feb 08, 2022•2 hr 8 min•Ep. 112
The prospect of normalizing monetary policy has been the main catalyst for a major equity rotation that has favored value stocks. Could this be the long-awaited reawakening of value investing? We had the pleasure of speaking to Rafael “Rafa” Resendes, co-founder of Applied Finance and prominent value investor. Our conversation covered: Economic ValueTM as a core metric The power of the Investment Factor The importance of capitalizing R&D and other balance sheet adjustments Sensitivity analyses –...
Jan 31, 2022•2 hr 40 min•Ep. 111
To kick off the new year, our 2022 inaugural episode welcomed back Jeff Weniger, Head of Equity Strategy at WisdomTree Asset Management. Sharp-witted and pulling no punches, Jeff and the team covered topics that included: The early year equity rotation as the inflation narrative gathers steam The third leg of the portfolio stool that most investors are likely missing Owning commodities vs commodity-linked equities Most investors today have barely had any experience with inflation in markets – re...
Jan 25, 2022•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 110
This week we had the pleasure of hosting Mark Yaxley, founding partner of Strategic Wealth Preservation , which specializes in the acquisition and storage of precious metals for investors around the world. He also brought his team member Philip Zappacosta to the conversation, which covered topics that included: Mark’s journey through the commodity space, before founding SWP The reasons that drive investors to own physical precious metals Different wealth objectives – creation vs growth vs preser...
Dec 22, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 109
This week we spoke with Glen Burella, PhD, Vice President, Business Development at Abbey Capital (US). Glen previously worked on the investment research side of Abbey Capital having a background in quantum computing and a theoretical physics PHD. Our conversation with Glen covered the following themes: The incredible combination of stocks and trend following Glen’s attraction to science and math A glimpse inside a PhD in quantum physics First days at a new quant firm Behind the scenes at Abbey C...
Dec 16, 2021•2 hr 37 min•Ep. 108
This episode features Ben Hunt, founder of Second Foundation Partners , which hosts the Epsilon Theory content portal. I reached out to Ben because I’d been starting to feel myself shifting gears on my feelings and perceptions around the ongoing COVID pandemic, and I knew Ben would be able to help put things in proper perspective. For most of the past 18 months or so I have been firmly in support of most of the measures taken by governments to manage the health impacts of the virus. We adhered s...
Dec 14, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 107
Daruis Dale is the Founder and CEO of 42 Macro, an investment research firm that aims to disrupt the financial services industry by democratizing institutional macro-grade risk management frameworks and processes. Prior to founding 42 Macro, Darius was a Managing Director and partner at Hedgeye Risk Management, an independent investment research firm based in Stamford CT. He joined us for jam-packed and timely conversation that included topics such as: Positioning for inflation volatility and th...
Dec 13, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 106
Phil Huber is the Chief Investment Officer of Savant Wealth Management, and author of The Allocator's Edge: A Modern Guide to Alternative Investments and the Future of Diversification . He joined us for a great discussion that covered topics such as: Educating advisors on the role of alternative strategies in portfolios and their benefits Recency bias and why “hindsight is 60/40” A different approach to building a truly balanced portfolio Why allocators find it difficult to diversify away from s...
Nov 26, 2021•2 hr 32 min
Jack Forehand is co-founder, partner and CIO at Validea Capital, and is also the co-host of the popular Excess Returns podcast. He joined us for an awesome conversation that included topics such as: The different styles for interviewing guests –preparation vs improvisation Factor models to decompose the returns achieved by famed managers Peter Lynch and the real mystery behind his track-record Momentum vs return chasing Cycles, underperformance and the benefits of combining different methodologi...
Nov 16, 2021•2 hr 30 min•Ep. 104
Perth Tolle is the founder of Life + Liberty Indexes , an index provider and sponsor of the Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF – a first of its kind strategy that uses personal and economic freedom metrics as primary factors in its investment process. She joined us for a great conversation that included: How her early life in China, Hong Kong and the US shaped her perceptions of freedom Isolating the “freedom factor” and using it, not as a tilt, but the primary basis for investment decisions The e...
Nov 08, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 103
This week we had the pleasure of hosting our friend Jon Aikman, President and CIO of ReSolution Investments, for a broad conversation on the three-lettered acronym that has taken the investment world by storm in the last few years: ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance. We covered: How a background in law, banking and academia developed into a passion for impact investing While the environment has drawn most of the attention, we shouldn’t overlook the social and governance agenda Untangling...
Nov 02, 2021•2 hr 31 min•Ep. 102
