The Investors First Podcast

Our guest today is Rick Bookstaber , co-founder and Head of Risk for Fabric, which provides factor-based risk management applications for investment advisors. Rick resume is as impressive as you can come across. He's held Chief Risk Officer roles at Morgan Stanley, Salomon, Bridgewater, and the University of California pension. He also worked at the U.S. Treasury post-2008 and helped write the Vol...

Our guest today is Roger Urwin , Global Head of Investment Content with Willis Towers Watson . Roger joined Watson Wyatt in 1989 to start the firm's investment consulting practice and, under his leadership, grew to a global team of over 600. Roger has been influential with the CFA Institute and their Future of Finance initiative, as well as co-founder of the Thinking Ahead Institute. His investmen...

Our guest today is Matt Brown. Matt is the Founder, CEO, and Chairman of CAIS. Found in 2009, CAIS, a fintech leader, empowers over 4,000+ unique advisor firms/teams who oversee more than $2T+ in network assets. Founded by a financial advisor, CAIS considers itself the first truly open marketplace for alternative investments, where financial advisors and asset managers can engage and transact dire...

Our guest today is Ben Savage. Ben manages Clocktower Technology Ventures and is responsible for all of Clocktower Group's private market activities.   Our conversation covers the state of venture capital today, where fintech sits within the venture space, the convergence of public and private markets, and the importance of trust within financial services.   Our co-hosts today are Steve Curley , C...

Our guest today is Jason Zweig . Jason has been a Columnist for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) since 2008, writing the Intelligent Investor Column. Jason is on a short list of people globally that advocate for individual investors on a weekly basis and is somebody that embodies the spirit of The Investors First Podcast (putting investors first). Before joining the WSJ, Jason held positions with Mon...

Our guest today is  Eric Sim . The header on his LinkedIn profile shows a banker, lecturer, speaker and writer, but he is actually much more. Eric is a proponent of the portfolio career, a topic for which he has become a thought leader and the most followed CFA charter holder globally with almost 3 million followers on LinkedIn. Based in Singapore, Eric reached the pinnacle of his career as a Mana...

Our guest today is Drew Dickson , founder of Albert Bridge Capital and CIO of the Alpha Europe funds. Our conversation today focuses on Drew's application of behavioral finance and fundamental analysis. We start with his time at the University of Chicago and learning from people like Merton Miller, Gene Fama and Richard Thaler, and then hear how he applies those behavioral principles when analyzin...

Our guest today is Anthony Zhang , co-founder and CEO of Vinovest , the first of its kind investment platform where individual investors of all kinds can own fine wine (investment grade). He dropped out of the University of Southern California at the age of 20 when he was selected for the prestigious Thiel Fellowship, a two-year program that provides entrepreneurs under 23 a $100K grant to pursue...

Our guest today is Eric Clarke , Chief Executive Officer for  Orion Advisor Solutions  (Orion). Eric is shaping the future of advice delivery with the organization's brand entities (fintech and investment management solutions), which include Orion Advisor Tech, Orion Portfolio Solutions, CLS Investments and Brinker Capital Investments. Eric is a thought leader in the industry, writing numerous art...

Our guest today is  Cliff Asness , Founder, Managing Principal and Chief Investment Officer at AQR Capital Management . He has authored articles on financial topics in almost every major financial publication and his awards are too many to list. He received his Ph. D. from University of Chicago while learning under Nobel Laureate Gene Fama. Notably, his bio states that "he still feels guilty tryin...

Our guest for this episode, is Bill Kelly, CEO of the CAIA Association, a position he has held since 2014. Previously, Bill was the CEO of Boston Partners and one of the seven founding partners of Boston Partners Asset Management.  He is a tireless advocate for shareholder protection and investor education and a frequent industry speaker, writer, and commentator on alternative investment topics ar...

Gerard O'Reilly serves as Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Dimensional Fund Advisors LP and has been with Dimensional since 2004. Since joining the firm, Gerard has been instrumental in the evolution of Dimensional's systematic approach to creating and implementing investment solutions. He is Co-Chair of the firm's Investment Research Committee and a member of the Investm...

Our guest today is Jerry Parker , Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chesapeake Capital and long-time trend-follower.   In this episode we start by going back to Jerry's days as a "Turtle Trader" under Richard Dennis and the lessons he learned from the experience. We walk through some of the keys to trend-following, what 2020 looked like from his point of view, and the benefits of a rules bas...

Our guest today is Dr. Vincent Milhau , who is a Research Director of the EDHEC-Risk Institute . Vincent is in charge of several research projects at the Institute in the fields of portfolio optimization and asset allocation for institutional and individual investors. Most of these projects are funded by large industry players interested in the latest advances in risk management and asset allocati...

Bill Brewster , CFA is the Founder and Portfolio Manager of Sullimar Capital Group. Bill hosts the popular podcast,  The Business Brew , and is also a co-host on the very popular series,  Value After Hours , with Tobias Carlisle and Jake Taylor.   In today's episode, Bill starts by explaining his windy road to be the value investor he is today. Then we spend some time talking about Robinhood and t...

Our guest today is Mike Welker , CFA, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee at AndCo Consulting.   In today's episode, we begin with Mike's background, hearing how playing basketball at Rollins College brought him from Indiana to Central Florida. Mike shares the story of how he joined AndCo soon after the firm was founded in the early 2000's and what led him to become the majority owner in 2...

Our guest today is Anthony Scaramucci , founder and Co-Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital. In November 2016, Mr. Scaramucci was named to President-Elect Trump's 16-person Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee and served as the White House Communications Director for a brief period in July 2017.   In this episode, we discuss his professional journey as a first generation college gradu...

Our guest today is Professor Tamar Frankel, a long-time member of the Boston University School of Law faculty who writes and teaches in the areas of fiduciary law, corporate governance, mutual funds and the regulation of the financial system. In 2013, the Institute for Fiduciary Standard established the annual Frankel Fiduciary Prize in her honor to award individuals who advance fiduciary principl...

Our guest today is Dr. Campbell R. Harvey, who for the past 35 years has served as Professor of Finance at Duke University. Professor Harvey has also served as Partner/Senior Advisor to Research Affiliates, LLC and Advisor to Man Group. He served as Editor of the Journal of Finance from 2006 to 2012 and as the 2016 President of the American Finance Association. He holds a Ph. D. in Finance from th...

Our guest today is Dr. Gio Valiante, Sports Psychologist and Performance Coach to professional athletes and investors. Gio has a fascinating background, which includes a 5 year stint at Point 72 with Steve Cohen (many know Steve and Gio's dynamic via the hit show Billions on Showtime), 10+ years of coaching pro golfers on the PGA Tour, and most recently, Head Performance Coach of the Buffalo Bills...

Our guest today is Meb Faber , Founder & Chief Investment Officer at Cambria Investment Management. He also hosts one of the top investment podcasts called The Meb Faber Show .   In this episode, talk about Meb's quantitative approach to investing, embracing both value and trend following. We dive into one of his funds, $TAIL, and the entire thought process of how, when, and why to hedge your port...

Our guest today is Marko Papic , Partner and Chief Strategist of Clocktower Group, an alternative investment management firm based in California. In 2011, he founded BCA Research's Geopolitical Strategy practice, the world's only dedicated investment consultancy focused on political analysis. He also recently wrote the book, Geopolitical Alpha: An Investment Framework for Predicting the Future . I...

Our guest today is Adam Davidson , the CEO of the podcast company Three Uncanny Four and author of The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century . Adam is known for co-founding NPR's Planet Money, one of the first and most popular business and economics podcast to this day. Our conversation today focuses on the passion economy and how finance professionals can thrive...

Our guest today is University of Florida Professor Jay Ritter , who is known as "Mr. IPO" for his work on initial public offerings. He received his BA, MA, and PhD degrees in economics and finance from the University of Chicago.  In this episode, we discuss all things IPO. Professor Ritter gives an overview of the IPO process and why so many companies are being underpriced in 2020. He also explain...

Our guest today is Stuart Lucas, founder and Chief Investment Officer of Wealth Strategist Partners, a firm that advises complex family enterprises. He also co-founded the University of Chicago's Private Wealth Management program, now in its fourteenth year. Our conversation today focuses on his book, The Taxable Investor's Manifesto: Wealth Management Strategies to Last a Lifetime . We discuss wh...