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Improving Alpha: Greg Steinmetz on History’s Indispensable Asset Owners

By Improving-Alpha | January 23, 2023

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When considering some of the richest people in history, you may immediately think about names like Buffet, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller and more. However, there are two others that could be pulled from the pages of history that helped to shape the financial landscape that investors navigate today. They are Jacob Fugger and Jay Gould.

In this episode, Michael Oliver Weinberg, co-founder, Improving Alpha Podcast Series, is joined by Greg Steinmetz, Author & Securities Analyst, Ruane, Cunniff and Goldfarb to discuss his latest research into the world of Fugger and Gould and how that research shaped Greg’s books, The Richest Man Who Ever Lived and American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built Wall Street’s Biggest Fortune.

Greg discusses:

How did Jacob Fugger’s calculated wealth of $400 billion make him indispensable to the Pope and Habsburg family.
How can allocators today learn the importance of due diligence by reviewing the cold-blooded calculations that Fugger used to evaluate his business and those of his competitors.
Did Fugger’s fortune survive the periods of extreme market volatility through today.
Switching to Jay Gould, how have lessons of the past, like buyer beware, be applied to a Madoff discussion or even cryptocurrency.
Why don’t we hear more about the Gould legacy in comparison to those of Vanderbilt, Carnegie or Rockefeller.
And more

Resources:

The Richest Man Who Ever Lived by Greg Steinmetz
American Rascal by Greg Steinmetz
The Same Old Song and Dance by Michael Oliver Weinberg

Connect with Greg Steinmetz:

About Our Guest:

Greg Steinmetz is an analyst for the New York City money manager Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb, which manages the Sequoia Fund mutual fund. They invest in public equities across a variety of sectors based on deep fundamental research. Greg has written two books: American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built America’s Biggest Fortune (Simon & Schuster, 2022) and The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger (Simon & Schuster. August, 2015). Before joining Ruane, Cunniff, Greg was a reporter and editor with The Wall Street Journal.

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

To learn more about our host visit: https://www.vidrio.com/blog/improving-alpha-podcast-gregsteinmetz-richestman

The information covered and posted represents the views and opinions of the guest and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Vidrio Financial, and/or our host, Michael Oliver Weinberg. The Content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional investing advice. Always seek the advice of your financial advisor or other qualified financial service provider with any questions you may have regarding your investment planning.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: A Zero Sum Behavioral Psychology Approach for Innovative Allocators

By Improving-Alpha | January 6, 2023

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In the world of finance, there are many discussions around the topics of economic challenges or inequality when it comes to how asset managers or asset owners navigate the market. The volume certainly increases on this theme around bonus time when performance incentives are being paid out despite market volatility and declining returns.

In this episode, Michael Oliver Weinberg, co-founder, Improving Alpha Podcast Series, is joined by Shai Davidai, Assistant Professor, Management Division, Columbia Business School, to go under the hood of economic behavioral psychology at work across asset managers and owners.

Shai discusses:

How economic inequality is different from economic mobility and why we tend to overestimate upward mobility.
How philanthropy factors into the internal attributions that people assume about the person that is promoting their Giving Pledge.
How does the hypothesis of a zero-sum game factor into an asset manager or owner’s strategic plan?
How does the zero-sum game tie itself into organizations and retaining talent by offering either a zero-sum incentive program vs. a non-zero-sum program.
And more!

Connect with Shai Davidai:

About Our Guest:

Shai Davidai is Assistant Professor in the Management Division of Columbia Business School. His research examines people’s everyday judgments of themselves, other people, and society as a whole. He studies the psychological forces that shape, distort, and bias people’s perceptions of the world and their influence on people’s judgments, preferences, and choices. His topics of expertise include the psychology of judgment and decision making, economic inequality and social mobility, social comparisons, and zero-sum thinking.

His work has been published in top-tier journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Experimental Psychology, Perspectives on Psychological Sciences, and the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making.

Shai received his PhD from Cornell University in 2015. Prior to joining Columbia Business School, Shai spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University and 3 years as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at The New School for Social Research

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

To learn more about our host visit: https://www.vidrio.com/blog/improving-alpha-podcast-columbia-business-davidai

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: Jonathan Grabel, LACERA on Consolidating a Strategic Asset Allocation for Growth

By Improving-Alpha | December 9, 2022

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Allocators today can’t predict the future state of the market, especially given recent volatility, needing to rely on several viewpoints and data benchmarks to reach their goal. This is true in the case of LACERA where Jonathan Grabel and his team manage over $70 billion in AUM.

In this episode of Improving Alpha – Innovation in Investing, ESG & Technology, Michael Oliver Weinberg, co-founder, Improving Alpha Podcast Series, is joined by Jonathan Grabel, Chief Investment Officer, LACERA. Learn about Jonathan’s career journey and how he has achieved a high degree of professional happiness by working in a public pension like LACERA.

Jonathan discusses:

How LACERA addresses market volatility today and how innovation plays into that strategic allocation focus.
How LACERA views ESG in a three-dimensional space and what factors help optimize LACERA’s fiduciary duties for their members.
The intersection between technology and ESG and how human capital helps evaluate new investments.
Moving from a monthly close to a daily NAV, and how it helped LACERA improve portfolio monitoring.
LACERA’s co-investment program and the growth it has seen in outpacing its private equity allocations.
Investment inefficiencies and innovating through investment seeding, and how it can provide a new revenue stream to LACERA.
Observing investment teams that support DE&I and the performance impact to their investment strategies.
And more

Resources:

The End of the World is just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan

Connect with Jonathan Grabel:

About Our Guest:

Mr. Grabel manages the multibillion-dollar defined benefit pension fund on behalf of LACERA’s active and retired members. He also oversees the investments for the LACERA-administered healthcare benefits program.

Prior to LACERA, Mr. Grabel was the CIO for New Mexico PERA, where he oversaw the investments for the agency’s $15 billion defined benefit fund and the associated PERA SmartSave deferred compensation plan.

Previously, he was a general partner at a private equity firm focused on growth-stage investments in technology, networking industries, and digital communications. Earlier in his career, Mr. Grabel was an investment banker and licensed CPA (inactive). He received his Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

To learn more about our host visit: https://www.vidrio.com/blog/improving-alpha-podcast-lacera-grabel

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: Ben Samild, Future Fund on Innovating Portfolio Investments for Over 35 Million Beneficiaries

By Improving-Alpha | November 28, 2022

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How does a sovereign wealth fund navigate the current investment waters for over 35 million Australians, in relation to governance, investment decisions, technology, data and more? We take a deep dive into the Future Fund and how a blank paper mentality helps drive innovation on a total portfolio level basis.

In this episode, Michael Oliver Weinberg, co-founder, Improving Alpha Podcast Series is joined by Ben Samild, Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Portfolio Construction, Future Fund. Together they discuss improving alpha from an investment standpoint, and how to push the boundaries of typical investment opportunities.

Listen to hear Ben discuss:

Established in 2006, what is the Future Fund, and how does it benefit Australians today?
How global paradigm shifts influenced Ben’s portfolio strategy, especially coming out of the pandemic, in terms of construction, risk/reward calculations, and individual opportunity level
How the Future Fund balances exclusions versus engagements and the connection with investment decisions
In a world of heightened volatility, how do you get your governance, decision-making processes, technology, and data to align?
What are some of the largest red flags in manager selection, and how culture can impact performance returns?
In running a past hedge fund, how did Ben strike a balance in between the really interesting work versus work that had a clear upside, and if recorded as a failure how did Ben, and his team, turn that life lesson from a negative into a positive?
And more!

Ben’s book suggestions:

Connect with Ben Samild:

About Our Guest:

Ben Samild joined the Future Fund in 2013. As Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Portfolio Strategy, he will lead work on portfolio construction and dynamic asset allocation, the integration of overall portfolio insights with sector specific opportunities and development of views on emerging markets. Prior to this, he was the Future Fund’s Head of Alternatives with responsibility for the investment of over $30 billion of capital across a range of hedge fund and other skill based absolute return strategies. Before joining the Future Fund he had a ten-year career in the hedge fund industry, and four years as Head of Investment Strategy at Industry Super Fund LUCRF Super. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne majoring in behavioral finance, psychology and history. He also worked as a research fellow while completing a Masters in Applied Finance.

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

To learn more about our host visit: https://www.vidrio.com/blog/improving-alpha-podcast-future-fund-samild

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: Jeff Mindlin, ASU Enterprise Partners on Engineering a $1.3 billion Endowment for the Future

By Improving-Alpha | November 14, 2022

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As allocators continue to navigate these volatile investment waters, endowments find themselves wrestling with questions around sustainability, ESG investing, innovation, and how to pass along their strategies for success to the next generation.

In this inaugural episode, Michael Oliver Weinberg, co-founder, Improving Alpha Podcast Series, is joined by Jeff Mindlin, Chief Investment Officer of ASU Enterprise Partners to discuss how ASU Enterprise Partners encourages growth to the next generation of financial advisors. He shares his own journey and how tech and innovation is influencing his next steps when investing for the future.

Jeff discusses:

His background and how he had a light-bulb moment with financial engineering and the building of quant models.
What is ASU Enterprise Partners and how was Michael able to grow from $650 in AUM to over $1.3 billion in the endowment today.
The sustainability efforts in the ASU Enterprise Partners endowment today, and what led to the ‘petri-dish’ of tests to figure out the right implementation for an ESG strategy that made sense.
How his team is tapping into the student body to build a student managed fund program that deals less with stock picking and more about modeling a real investment strategy, whether it’s through impact investing, ESG, real estate assets and more.
How he thinks about tech and innovation, whether it comes from categories in education, clean tech, space or even military.
And more!

Connect with Jeff Mindlin:

About Our Guest:

Jeff Mindlin is responsible for managing the ASU Foundation’s highly diversified investment assets to maximize long-term, risk adjusted returns. He provides critical support of the investment committee, and oversight of the outsourced chief investment officer while also helping drive synergies within the other ASU Enterprise Partner subsidiaries.

Mindlin oversees the Education Technology Accelerator program, acts as a trustee to the retirement plan and advises on the investment management of ASU’s operating funds.

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

To learn more about our host visit: https://www.vidrio.com/blog/improving-alpha-podcast-asu-enterprise-partners

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.