Excess Returns

In this episode, we speak with Comgest portfolio manager Alistair Wittet We discuss his approach for building a focused portfolio of high-quality European growth companies and the most important criteria he looks at. We also dig into the characteristics that define great long-term brands, the current economic situation in Europe, how the European growth universe differs from the US one and a lot m...

International stocks, and particularly emerging market stocks, have struggled relative to US stocks for a long time. That has led some to suggest that international diversification no longer makes sense for investors. But valuations in the space and lessons from history would suggest otherwise. In this episode we discuss the issue with AQR's Dan Villalon, who has authored two research papers that...

In this episode, we speak with Essentia Analytics founder Clare Flynn Levy. Essentia has developed software to evaluate investment managers and help them improve as investors. We discuss what Clare has learned through that process and the lessons all of us can take from it. We hope you enjoy the discussion. SEE LATEST EPISODES ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.validea.com/excess-returns-podcast...

In this episode Jack and Matt Zeigler look at factor investing from both the perspective of someone who builds quantitative strategies and someone who utilizes them. They discuss what factors are, why they work, the different ways to combine them into multi-factor portfolios, the importance of matching an investment strategy with the end user's goals and risk tolerance, the important of human...

In this episode, we speak with Optimal Momentum founder and author of "Dual Momentum Investing: An Innovative Strategy for Higher Returns with Lower Risk" Gary Antonacci about the process he uses to construct his personal portfolio. We talk with Gary about the goals he is trying to achieve with his portfolio and the unique momentum-based approach he utilizes to meet them. We also discuss...

Narratives are everywhere in the investing world. They influence what we think as investors. They also influence the decisions we make. Behind the scenes, there is a science to how narratives work. They follow a predictable life cycle and technology can be utilized to measure them and analyze their impact on stock returns. In this episode, we discuss narrative as an investing factor with Epsilon T...

In this episode we speak with ReSolve Asset Management CIO Adam Butler about how he manages his personal portfolio. We discuss how Adam builds a portfolio of uncorrelated return streams to optimize both return and risk. We also cover how to view historical data, how investors focus on tracking error changes portfolio theory, leverage, leaving money to children and a lot more. We hope you enjoy the...

In this episode, we talk growth investing with Wedgewood Partners Chief Investment Officer David Rolfe. We discuss the characteristics of great growth companies and the details of their process to identify them. We cover the importance of dominant products, the characteristics of strong management teams, the role of valuation in growth investing and a lot more. We hope you enjoy the discussion. SE...

In this episode, we take a deep dive into emerging market debt with VanEck's Eric Fine. We discuss Eric's unique background that led him to the emerging market space and how that has influenced his approach to it. We then step through emerging market debt step by step and cover the size and composition of the market, the factors that drive its return, the benefits of emerging market debt f...

In this episode, we speak with Old West's Joseph Boskovich about their process for uncovering companies that focus on adding value for their shareholders. We discuss thy key criteria they use to find these types of companies, the importance of insider ownership, how they look at valuing companies and how they look at capital allocation. We also cover inflation, Joe's lesson's from work...

In this episode, we speak with Sparkline Capital founder Kai Wu about his excellent recent paper "Intangible Value: A Sixth Factor". We discuss his research on the importance of intangible assets, how to measure them and turn them into a value factor, the benefits of intangible value to a multi-factor portfolio, and how he used it to construct a 6-factor model. We hope you enjoy the disc...

In our latest episode of Show Us Your Portfolio, we speak with Buckingham Strategic Wealth's Larry Swedroe. Larry has dedicated his career to educating investors and has written more books and articles than we can list in that pursuit. We talk with Larry about how he takes his evidence-based approach to investing and translates it into managing his personal portfolio. We cover his approach to inco...

In this episode, we combine two of the topics we often cover on the podcast. We talk both retirement planning and factor investing with Dimensional Fund Advisors Senior Researcher Mathieu Pellerin. Mathieu has conducted extensive research in both areas and we discuss two of his excellent papers: "Investing for Retirement Income: A Comparison of Asset Allocations and Spending Strategies"...

There has been a lot going on in the options world that is impacting the stock market. The use of 0DTE (0 days to expiration) options has risen dramatically in recent months, options expirations have continued to be significant market moving events and an end of month trade by a JP Morgan fund many investors haven't heard of has also been a significant market driver. We also have a major optio...

In this episode, we speak with Unlimited Funds founder Bob Elliott. We discuss the general landscape of the hedge fund industry including the strategies hedge funds employ, whether they add value from a return perspective and if the top performing hedge funds are able to maintain that status over time. We also discuss the challenges of replicating hedge fund returns and Unlimited's unique approach...

Finding companies that can sustain persistent growth over long periods of time can lead to exceptional returns. Those of us who have witnessed the returns of the great technology companies of the past decade have seen that firsthand. But identifying those companies in advance can be incredibly difficult. In this episode, we talk with Deepwater's Gene Munster and Doug Clinton about how they see...

In this episode, we speak with Northern Trust's Peter Mladina. Peter has published extensive research in the areas of both financial planning and factor investing. We discuss his work in both areas and brought in our friend and co-host of our The Education of a Financial Planner podcast Matt Zeigler to help us with the questions on the planning side. We cover goals-based planning, modeling hum...

Like many investors, we have been thinking a lot about the impact that AI and large language models will have on investing. In this episode, we bring in an expert to help us sort it out. We speak with University of Florida Professor of Finance Alejandro Lopez-Lira, who was worked extensively with this new technology and recently authored the paper "Can ChatGPT Forecast Stock Price Movements?...

In this episode, we speak with Vanguard's Head of Active and Alternatives Research Kevin Khang. Kevin offers a unique perspective due to his experience both as a researcher and a practitioner. We discuss a variety of his research papers, including his work on tax loss harvesting, direct indexing, optimization in factor investing, using home equity in retirement and safe withdrawal rates. We ho...

In the first 200+ episodes of our podcast, we have interviewed many investing experts. At the end of all of those episodes, we have asked the same closing question: Based on your experience in markets and your research, if you could teach one lesson to the average investor, what would it be? We created a YouTube only episode to bring all of those insights together in one place. You can find the ep...

In our latest episode of Show Us Your Portfolio, we speak with Harin de Silva, Portfolio Manager at Allspring Global. We talk to Harin about how he manages his personal investments and his strategy for seeking out uncorrelated sources of return and dig into his unique approach to long short factor investing and how he incorporates it into his portfolio. We also discuss his view in international in...

In this episode we talk to Simplify Asset Management's Mike Green about how he manages his personal portfolio. We discuss Mike's macro-based approach and how he has implemented it using an ETF strategy. We cover the unique components within his strategy and how Mike thinks about combining them together into a portfolio. We also talk about how working in the investment business impacts how Mike bui...

In this episode we speak with Mutiny Funds co-founder Jason Buck about how he manages his personal portfolio. Jason couldn't find any publicly available funds that were running the unique all weather approach he wanted to use to manage his money, so he built it himself. We discuss the principles behind the cockroach portfolio he utilizes in his persona portfolio and take a detailed look at the...

In this episode we talk technical analysis with Fairlead Strategies founder Katie Stockton. As fundamental investors, this one was a great learning experience for us as we covered a wide range of ways in which technical analysis can help all of us in our investment strategies. We discuss the major tools available to technical analysts and how Katie thinks about deploying them, how Katie uses techn...

In this episode, we talk high yield debt investing with Rajay Bagaria, CIO of Wasserstein Debt Opportunities and author of "High Yield Debt: An Insider’s Guide to the Marketplace." We look at the high yield debt market from the ground up and cover the major players, the types of high yield debt and the terms and concepts investors need to understand when looking at the space. We look at...