Podcasts by Flirting with Models

Bin Ren – text2quant (S7E2) from 2023-12-11T08:36

In this episode I speak with Bin Ren, founder of SigTech, a financial technology platform providing quantitative researchers with access to a state-of-the-art analysis engine.

This convers...

Andrew Beer&Adam Butler - Attack of the Managed Futures Clones from 2023-09-25T00:00

In this special episode of Flirting with Models, I’m joined by two guests: Andrew Beer of DBi and Adam Butler of ReSolve Asset Management.

Rather than my usual interview format, I wanted t...

Dean Curnutt - The Reflexivity of Equity Volatility (S6E16) from 2023-09-11T00:00

In this episode I speak with Dean Curnutt, founder of Macro Risk Advisors and host of the Alpha Exchange podcast.

This episode is all about the nature of risk. More specifically, the endo...

Gerald Rushton - Commodity Strategies (Trend; Carry; Congestion; and Volatility Carry) (S6E15) from 2023-09-04T00:00

In this episode I speak with Gerald Rushton, senior member of the QIS Structuring team at Macquarie Bank.

Our conversation largely revolves around commodity strategies, including thoughts ...

Devin Anderson – Strategy versus Structure in Tail Hedging (S6E14) from 2023-08-14T00:00

My guest is Devin Anderson, co-founder of Convexitas.

The theme of this episode, as you can likely guess from the title, is strategy versus structure. While we often focus on strategy spe...

Martin Tarlie - Bridging the Gap Between Financial Planning and Portfolio Management (S6E13) from 2023-08-07T00:00

In this episode I speak with Martin Tarlie, a member of the Asset Allocation team at GMO and spearheading their work on Nebo, a goals-based investment platform.

Martin describes Nebo as, “...

Grug Capital – Grug (Finally) Teaches Us MEV (S6E12) from 2023-07-24T00:00

In this episode I speak with Grug, an anonymous MEV searcher on the Ethereum blockchain. If that sentence made no sense to you, I promise this will be a fun episode.

To begin the conversa...

Doug Greenig - At the Frontier of Trend Following from 2023-07-17T00:00

My guest this episode is Doug Greenig, CEO and CIO of Florin Court Capital.

Florin Court specializes in delivering an alternative markets CTA, trading over 500 markets ranging from Turki...

Return Stacked® Bonds&Managed Futures ETF from 2023-07-10T20:06

In this episode, Corey Hoffstein, CIO of Newfound Research, Rodrigo Gordillo, President of ReSolve Global* and Adam Butler, CIO of ReSolve Global, delve into the concept of return stacking and i...

Pim van Vliet – A Detailed Dive into Low Volatility Investing (S6E10) from 2023-07-03T00:00

Today I speak with Pim van Vliet, Head of Conservative Equities at Robeco.

It will come as no surprise, to those who know Pim’s work, that we spend the majority of this conversation talkin...

Asif Noor – Modern Systematic Macro (S6E9) from 2023-06-26T00:00

In this episode I speak with Asif Noor, Portfolio Manager at Aspect Capital where he oversees the firm’s Multi-Strategy Program.

Asif has spent the last 25 years of his career developing s...

Asif Noor – Modern Systematic Macro (S6E9) from 2023-06-26T00:00

In this episode I speak with Asif Noor, Portfolio Manager at Aspect Capital where he oversees the firm’s Multi-Strategy Program.

Asif has spent the last 25 years of his career developing s...

Roberto Croce - Trend and Carry Within Assets, Across Assets, and Over Time (S6E8) from 2023-06-19T04:00

My guest is Rob Croce, Senior Portfolio Manager at Newton Investment Management Group.

This episode is all about what Rob considers to be the two super factors: trend and carry.  More imp...

Michele Aghassi - Unintended Bets Everywhere (S6E7) from 2023-06-12T04:00

In this episode I speak with Michele Aghassi, principal at AQR Capital Management where she serves as a portfolio manager for the firm’s equity strategies.

The conversation spans three ma...

Jason Josephiac - Portable Alpha and Risk Mitigating Strategies (S6E6) from 2023-06-05T04:00

In this episode I chat with Jason Josephiac, Senior Vice President and Research Consultant at Meketa Investment Group.  

Jason has largely spent his career in the institutional allocation...

Macrocephalopod - Managing a Mid-Frequency Crypto Prop Desk (S6E5) from 2023-05-29T04:00

In this episode I speak with the anonymous twitter user @macrocephalopod.

The arc of our conversation follows the arc of his career: beginning with slow-frequency style premia in a hedge ...

Roni Israelov – High Frequency Factors, the Volatility Risk Premium, and Re-Thinking Financial Planning (S6E4) from 2023-05-22T04:00

My guest is Roni Israelov, CIO of NDVR.  Prior to NDVR, Roni was a principal at AQR Capital Management, where he worked on global risk models, high frequency factors, and lead the development an...

Doug Colkitt - High Frequency Trading, MEV Strategies, and CrocSwap (S6E3) from 2023-05-15T04:00

Doug Colkitt is an ex-high frequency trader, ex-MEV bot searcher, and founder of the decentralized exchange CrocSwap.

In this episode, we talk about all three.  We begin with high frequen...

Jeff Yan - High Frequency Crypto Market Making&the Hyperliquid Exchange (S6E2) from 2023-05-08T04:00

My guest this episode is Jeff Yan, founder of Chameleon Trading.  

Jeff began his career in high frequency trading at Hudson River Trading but soon moved over to the world of crypto where...

Jason Buck - Designing the Cockroach Portfolio (S6E1) from 2023-05-01T04:00

Jason Buck is the co-founder and CIO of Mutiny Funds and maybe one of the most interesting people I know.

Jason made, and subsequently lost, a fortune in commercial real estate in the 200...

Machine learning isn't the edge; it enhances the edge you’ve developed from 2023-02-27T05:00

There is no doubt that the tools of machine learning and the promise of artificial intelligence has captured the imagination of quantitative researchers everywhere.  But I am aware of few fund m...

What does a full-stack quant research platform and process look like? from 2023-02-13T05:00

In our industry, we’re all too often guilty of asking, “what is your alpha,” rather than, “what is your process for finding alpha?”  Yet, in the long run, it is the process that is important.  <...

What would Cliff Asness ask St. Peter at the pearly gates? from 2023-01-30T05:00

In July 2020 I interviewed Cliff Asness, co-founder of AQR.  This was several months after he penned a perspective piece titled Listen

A data-driven approach to picking growth stocks and thematic baskets from 2023-01-23T05:00

It’s no secret that high flying growth stocks were hammered in 2022, so I thought it would be fun to revisit my conversation with Jason Thomson back in Season 3.  

Jason is a portfolio ma...

How quants have changed equity markets and how discretionary managers can use this information to sharpen their edge from 2023-01-16T05:00

After March 2020, a growing research interest of mine was the question, “how do strategies reflexively impact the markets they trade?”  Beyond crowding risk, can adoption of strategies fundament...

Replacing linear factors with a non-linear, characteristic approach in quant equity from 2023-01-09T05:00

We’re back with another clip from the archives.  This time it’s Season 4 Episode 9 with Vivek Viswanathan.

For three decades, equity quants have largely lived under the authoritative rule...

Options, volatility, and the things we don't know we don't know (ARCHIVES S3E3) from 2023-01-02T05:00

We’re rewinding to Season 3, Episode 3 to chat with Benn Eifert, founder of QVR.  

Benn was my first repeat guest and this is probably one of our more popular episodes.

Instead of ...

Formulating the machine learning problem, how research questions should be asked, and the trade-off of complexity versus accuracy (ARCHIVES S1E7) from 2022-12-29T13:51

We’re trying something new here, folks.  I’ve got 5 seasons and 60 brilliant episodes and I thought it would be fun, in the off season, to go back to the archives and highlight past conversation...

Giuliana Bordigoni - Alternative Markets&Specialist Strategies (S5E14) from 2022-10-24T04:00

In this episode I speak with Giuliana Bordigoni, Director of Specialist Strategies at Man AHL.

In her role, Giuliana oversees the firm’s strategies that require specialist knowledge.  Thi...

Adam Butler - Questioning the Quant Orthodoxy (S5E13) from 2022-10-03T04:00:23

In this episode I speak with Adam Butler, co-founder and CIO of ReSolve Asset Management.  For full disclosure, at the time of recording I am personally an investor in one of ReSolve’s private f...

Kevin Cole - Systematic Multi-Strategy from 100+ Models (S5E12) from 2022-08-29T04:00:47

In this episode I speak with Kevin Cole, CEO and CIO of Campbell & Company.  

In the first half of the conversation, we discuss Campbell’s flagship systematic multi-strategy program.  We ...

Hari Krishnan - Market Tremors&Tail Hedging (S5E11) from 2022-08-08T11:23:58

Today I am joined by Hari Krishnan, Head of Volatility Strategies at SCT Capital and author of the books Second Leg Down and Market Tremors.

We begin with a discussion of Hari’s newest bo...

Harel Jacobson - Trading FX Volatility (S5E10) from 2022-08-01T04:00:17

In this episode I speak with Harel Jacobson, an FX volatility trader.

There is a lot that makes the FX volatility market unique.  For starters, the end users are more focused on hedging c...

Andrew Beer - Replicating Hedge Fund Beta (S5E9) from 2022-07-25T04:00:08

My guest in this episode is Andrew Beer, co-founder of Dynamic Beta Investments.

Andrew has spent the last 15 years trying to pioneer the adoption of hedge fund replication strategies.  T...

Antti Ilmanen - Unexpected Returns (S5E8) from 2022-07-18T04:00:40

My guest in this episode needs no introduction: Antti Ilmanen, co-head of Portfolio Solutions at AQR, award winning researcher, and author of the books Expected Returns and the recently published I...

Ralph Smith - Scientific Investing in Fixed Income (S5E7) from 2022-07-11T04:00:52

My guest this episode is Ralph Smith, Head of Research at BlueCove.

BlueCove offers long-only and market-neutral mandates in corporate credit and interest rate markets, with an emphasis on utili...

Kai Wu - Mining Unstructured Data for the Intangible (S5E6) from 2022-07-03T04:00:07

My guest in this episode is Kai Wu, CEO and founder of Sparkline Capital.

Kai is a pioneer in the measurement of intangible value.  Using machine learning, he tackles unstructured data sources l...

David Sun - Expectancy Hacking (S5E5) from 2022-06-27T04:00:25

Today I speak with David Sun, a retail trader who started his own hedge fund. Coming from a non-traditional background, David takes a non-traditional approach in his investment mandates.  Focused o...

Aneet Chachra - Surfing Flow for Fun and Profit (S5E4) from 2022-06-20T04:00:39

In this episode I talk with Aneet Chachra, fund manager at Janus Henderson.

In his role, Aneet runs flow-driven strategies.  These are strategies that seek to find an edge in market event...

Moritz Seibert&Moritz Heiden - From CTA to web3 (S5E3) from 2022-06-13T04:00:59

In this episode, I speak with the Twoquants: Moritz Seibert and Moritz Heiden. There are really two halves to this episode.  In the first, we discuss trend following strategies at length.  We cover...

LightSpringFox - Crypto Market Making (S5E2) from 2022-06-06T04:00:28

In a first for Flirting with Models, my guest this episode is anonymous, going only by the handle LightSpringFox on Twitter.  

Mr. Fox is a quantitative trader who works in crypto market ...

Michael Green - The Active Impact of Passive Investing (S5E1) from 2022-05-30T04:00:09

In this episode I speak with Michael Green, Chief Strategist as Simplify ETFs.  In a first for the Flirting with Models podcast, we recorded this episode live at the ETF Exchange in Miami in ear...

David Berns - How do you build a portfolio for a human being? (S4E16) from 2021-08-16T10:00

In this episode I speak with David Berns, co-founder and CIO of Simplify ETFs and author of the book Modern Asset Allocation for Wealth Management.

Our conversation centers around the idea of wh...

Russell Korgaonkar - Optimizing the Research Process (S4E15) from 2021-08-09T10:00

Today I am speaking with Russell Korgaonkar, CIO of Man AHL.

In his role, Russell oversees a large research organization and so we spend a large part of our conversation talking about res...

Bryn Solomon - Exploiting Fat Finger Errors in Cryptopunks (S4E14) from 2021-08-02T10:00

Bryn Solomon is the co-founder and CEO of MGNR, a quantitative cryptocurrency asset manager with arms in market making, discretionary trading, DeFi yield farming, and venture capital.

Our...

Andrew Lapthorne - Thematic Baskets and Strong Balance Sheets (S4E13) from 2021-07-26T10:00

Andrew Lapthorne is the Head of Quantitative Equity Research at SocGen, a role he’s held for nearly 14 years.

Given the breadth of topics covered by bank research, it should be no surpris...

Greg Obenshain - Quantitative Credit (S4E12) from 2021-07-19T10:00

In this episode I chat with Greg Obenshain, Partner and Director of Credit at Verdad Capital. Prior to joining Verdad, Greg worked as the high-yield portfolio manager at Apollo Global Management...

Roxton McNeal - Liability-Driven Investing (S4E11) from 2021-07-12T10:00

In this episode I speak with Roxton McNeal, Head of Multi Asset Investment Strategy & Allocation at the UPS Investment Trust.

Before landing at UPS, Roxton’s career took him through the w...

Vivek Viswanathan - Quant Equity in China (S4E10) from 2021-07-05T10:00

Vivek Viswanathan is the Head of Research at Rayliant Global, a quantitative asset manager focused on generating alpha from investing in China and other inefficient emerging markets.

Our ...

Tobias Carlisle - Realism Over Idealism in Value (S4E9) from 2021-06-28T11:37:47

My guest this episode is Tobias Carlisle, author, podcast host, and founder of Acquirers Funds.

Toby joined me in Season 1 where we discussed his background and overall investment philoso...

Sam Trabucco - Perpetual Swaps, Liquidation Cascades, and the USD-BTC-YEN Triangle Trade (S4E8) from 2021-06-21T01:08:36

In this episode I speak with Sam Trabucco from Alameda Research. Alameda manages over $100mm in digital assets and trades between $600mm and $1.5bn per day.

We begin our conversation with...

Dennis Davitt - Markets Models (S4E7) from 2021-06-15T01:28:48

In this episode I speak with Dennis Davitt, CEO of Millbank Dartmoor Portsmouth.

Dennis began his career in the option pits of New York and Chicago and eventually worked his way to managi...

Angus Cameron - Trade Structuring: Systematizing a Hidden Edge (S4E6) from 2021-06-07T10:00

Angus Cameron is the Founder and CIO of Liminal Capital, a machine-learning focused investment manager.

But Angus does not come to markets with a computer science PhD. Rather, his career ...

Guillermo Roditi Dominguez - Path or Destination, Not Both (S4E5) from 2021-05-31T10:00

In this episode I speak with Guillermo Roditi Dominguez, managing director at New River Investments.

This was one of the more unique and wide-ranging conversations I have had on the podca...

Tina Lindstrom - Commodity Volatility (S4E4) from 2021-05-24T10:00

Tina Lindstrom is a Partner at First NY, where she manages an oil volatility portfolio.

She began her career at Susquehanna and eventually worked her way up to managing both the high cap ...

David Fauchier - Paranoid Crypto Cowboys (S4E3) from 2021-05-17T10:00

In this episode I chat with David Fauchier of Nickel Digital Asset Management. At Nickel, David manages the Factors Fund, a multi-strategy, multi-manager fund for cryptocurrencies.

We lea...

Darrin Johnson - Independently Shorting Volatility (S4E2) from 2021-05-10T10:00

Darrin Johnson is the first independent trader I’ve interviewed for this show and with that distinction he brings an entirely new perspective.

After learning about how Darrin began his ca...

Cem Karsan - The Market Voting Machine (S4E1) from 2021-05-03T09:55:24

My guest this episode is Cem Karsan, Founder and Senior Managing Partner of Aegea Capital Management.

Cem began his career in the pits, and so we begin our conversation with a discussion ...

Liquidity Cascades from 2020-09-20T18:50:32

In this episode I am going to read Newfound’s latest research paper, LIQUIDITY CASCADES: The Coordinated Risk of Uncoordinated Market Participants.

This reading will refer to a number of ...

Kris Sidial - Long Volatility for the New Regime (S3E14) from 2020-09-08T02:07:57

My guest this episode is Kris Sidial, co-CIO of The Ambrus Group, a volatility arbitrage focused firm founded in 2018.

Kris recently joined Ambrus after spending several years on BMO’s ex...

Cliff Asness -"...But Not So Open Your Mind Falls Out"(S3E13) from 2020-07-29T10:00

“Keep an open mind. But not so open your mind falls out.”

My guest in this episode needs little introduction: Cliff Asness, co-founder and managing partner at AQR.

Cliff has done d...

Euan Sinclair - Positional Option Trading (S3E12) from 2020-07-27T10:00

Today I chat with Euan Sinclair, Partner at Talton Capital Management and author of the books Options Trading, Volatility Trading, and the up-coming Positional Option Trading.

We begin ou...

Omer Cedar - Quant-Aware Discretionary (S3E11) from 2020-07-24T10:00

Today I am speaking with Omer Cedar, CEO and co-founder of OmegaPoint.

One of the significant trends in quant equity over the last decade has been the attempt to better control for uninte...

Sandrine Ungari - Alternative Risk Premia (S3E10) from 2020-07-22T10:00

My guest in this episode is Sandrine Ungari, Head of Cross-Asset Quantitative Research at SocGen.

Sandrine cut her teeth in the industry as a fixed-income pricing quant, but made her way ...

Michael Hunstad - Institutional Trends in Factor Investing (S3E9) from 2020-07-20T10:00

In this episode I speak with Dr. Michael Hunstad, Head of Quantitative Strategies at Northern Trust.

Our conversation centers around the four key trends Michael is seeing among institutio...

Mads Ingwar and Martin Oberhuber - Full Stack Machine Learning (S3E8) from 2020-07-17T10:00

In this episode I chat with Mads Ingwar and Martin Oberhuber, co-founders of Kvasir Technologies, a systematic hedge fund powered by a full-stack application of machine learning.

By full-...

Eric Crittenden - All-Weather Portfolios with Trend Following (S3E7) from 2020-07-15T10:00

My guest is Eric Crittenden, founder and Chief Investment Officer of Standpoint Funds.

Eric has spent his career with trend following strategies, first at BlackStar where he managed a fun...

Jeffrey Baird - Commodity Convexity (S3E6) from 2020-07-13T10:00

In this episode I speak with Jeffrey Baird, managing partner at Merritt Point Partners.

Merritt Point Partners seeks to build diversified portfolios of convexity exposure through the comm...

Dr. Ernest Chan - Tail Reaper (S3E5) from 2020-07-10T10:00

My guest in this episode is Dr. Ernest Chan, founder of QTS Capital Management.

Investor, researcher, and educator, Ernie is well-known for his blog – which he has been publishing since 2...

Jim Masturzo - Tactical Asset Allocation (S3E4) from 2020-07-08T10:00

In this episode I speak with Jim Masturzo, Head of Asset Allocation at Research Affiliates.

In his role, Jim oversees the research and publication of the firm’s capital market assumptions...

Dr. Benn Eifert - Bad Ideas (S3E3) from 2020-07-06T10:00

Today I am speaking with Benn Eifert, founder and CIO of QVR Advisors.

Benn is my first repeat guest on the podcast, making his first appearance in Season 2. When I asked listeners who th...

Michael Krause - Evolving Long/Short Equity (S3E2) from 2020-07-03T10:00

In this episode I am joined by Michael Krause, co-founder of Counterpoint Asset Management and Counterpoint Mutual Funds.

Our conversation covers two major topics. In the first half, we ...

K.C. Hamann - Quantifying Conviction (S3E1) from 2020-07-01T10:00

My guest today is K.C. Hamann, founder of AQIS LLC.

K.C. is a Warren Buffett disciple and spent his first decade in the industry working as an analyst at discretionary, deep value long/sh...

Corey Hoffstein - Rebalance Timing Luck (S2E11) from 2019-12-09T02:35:21

My guest today is … me. But rather than interview myself, my co-portfolio manager Nathan Faber joins the podcast to take the reigns.

In this episode, we talk all things rebalance timing l...

Daniel Grioli - Thinking like a Fox (S2E1) from 2019-06-23T17:10:56

My guest in this episode is Daniel Grioli.  Daniel cut his teeth in the industry at Deutsche Bank in London, where he was responsible for valuing structured equity and hedge fund of fund product...

Katherine Glass-Hardenbergh - All About Alternative Data (S2E9) from 2019-06-20T20:27:59

In this episode I am joined by Katherine Glass-Hardenbergh, Associate Portfolio Manager at Acadian Asset Management.  

In her role, Katherine focuses heavily on the application of alterna...

Chris Meredith – Building a Robust Research Platform (S2E10) from 2019-06-20T20:21:12

Chris Meredith is co-Chief Investment Officer and Director of Research at O’Shaughnessy Asset Management.  In this episode, we focus on the latter title and talk all about what it means to devel...

Liqian Ren - In Search of Modern Alpha (S2E8) from 2019-06-17T17:10:14

In this episode I am joined by Liqian Ren, Director of Modern Alpha at WisdomTree.

After receiving her degree in Computer Science, Liqian came to the United States to pursue her Masters i...

Wayne Himelsein - The Quant Philosopher (S2E7) from 2019-06-17T17:06:22

In this episode I chat with Wayne Himelsein, president and chief investment officer at Logica Capital.  To our conversation Wayne brings over two decades of experience managing long/short portfo...

Jason Thomson - The Growth Factor (S2E6) from 2019-06-11T12:10:35

My guest in this episode is Jason Thomson, a portfolio manager at the William O’Neil family office.

On paper, Jason doesn’t seem like a particularly good fit for this podcast.  He runs a ...

Artur Sepp - Conditional Beta (S2E5) from 2019-06-08T13:41:36

My guest is Artur Sepp, Director of Research at Quantica Capital AG in Zurich.

In 2008, Artur was working on structured credit products for Merrill Lynch, giving him a front-row seat to t...

Tammira Philippe and Elena Khoziaeva - It's all Greek to Me (S2E4) from 2019-06-04T14:20:48

In this episode, I am joined by Tammira Philipe and Elena Khoziaeva, both of Bridgeway Capital Management, a quantitative asset manager founded in 1993 offering systematically managed equity str...

Ben McMillan - Attack of the Liquid Alternative Clones (S2E3) from 2019-05-30T14:39:10

In this episode I chat with Ben McMillan, a founding partner of IDX Insights, a firm offering "indexing as a service."

Ben cut his teeth in manager analysis at a fund-of-hedge-funds and w...

Benn Eifert - Volatility Investing (S2E2) from 2019-05-30T00:13:57

I am joined today by Benn Eifert, founder of QVR Advisors.  QVR specializes in managing option-based strategies and Benn describes what he does as volatility investing.

We quickly wade in...

Liquidity Premium with Adam Butler (S1E8) from 2018-10-17T15:34:30

In this episode, I sit down with good friend Adam Butler, Chief Investment Officer of ReSolve Asset Management.  Rather than take the usual interview style, we thought it would be fun to just si...

John Alberg - The Man in the Machine (Learning) (S1E7) from 2018-07-08T19:21:40

"How do you come to a rational conclusion as to what a company is worth?"  A seemingly simple question with little-to-no clear answer.

For John Alberg, a background in computer science an...

Jack Vogel - Momentum in Theory, Momentum in Practice (S1E6) from 2018-06-26T15:19

Today I am speaking with Jack Vogel, co-CIO of boutique ETF issuer Alpha Architect.

I’ve known Jack for some time now and was particularly excited to bring him on the show for two reasons...

JD Gardner -"Win Bigger Than You Lose"(S1E5) from 2018-06-26T15:18:34

In this episode, I am joined by JD Gardner, founder and managing member at Aptus Capital. In his time in the industry, JD has served in the role of associate financial advisor, analyst ...

Meb Faber -"Just Survive"(S1E4) from 2018-06-26T15:18:08

My guest, this episode, likely needs little introduction.  His paper, a Quantitative Approach to Tactical Asset Allocation is the highest ranked paper on SSRN with over 200,000 downloads at the ...

Eric Ervin - Risk Reducers&Return Enhancers (S1E3) from 2018-06-26T15:17:38

In many ways, the topic of conversation for this episode revolves around what ultimately amounts to a fairly vanilla, almost-index like  portfolio.

The asset class in question, however, m...

Tobias Carlisle - Thinking Like an Acquirer (S1E2) from 2018-06-26T15:17:11

This episode I chat with Toby Carlisle, a managing member at Carbon Beach Asset Management and author of popular value investing books such as Deep Value and The Acquirer’s Multiple.  Toby’s app...

Adam Butler - The"Ultimate Gift"(S1E1) from 2018-06-26T15:16:32

My guest in this episode is Adam Butler, Chief Investment Officer at ReSolve Asset Management. Adam's story is the near quintessential example of my belief that every investor's approach is colo...