The Blunt Dollar

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Jai Jacob, veteran investment strategist and former leader at Rockefeller Asset Management and Lazard Asset Management, for a fascinating conversation on career reinvention, risk management, quantitative investing, and the future of finance. Jai shares his unconventional journey from pursuing a career as a professional jazz musician in New York...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Jamie Halse, founder, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Senjin Capital, to explore Japanese small caps and an investment approach that goes beyond simply buying cheap stocks. From studying law in New Zealand to spending more than a decade at Platinum Asset Management, Jamie shares the journey that led him to launch his own firm....

What happens when you combine mathematics, engineering, and finance for nearly three decades? In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Robert Thorén, partner at Algorithmica Research, quant engineer, entrepreneur, and someone who was building what we now call robo-advisory before the industry even had a name for it. Robert’s journey into quantitative finance started in the 1990s, when...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Kai Wu, founder of Sparkline Capital, to explore how AI is transforming investing from the inside out. We dive into quant investing, unstructured data, large language models, AI financial analysts, and what the future of finance might actually look like as machines become more capable. Kai shares how he went from working at GMO under Jeremy Gran...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Shelby Nicholl, founder of Muriel Consulting and The Muriel Network, and host of the Kick It Open podcast.  After 25 years climbing the ranks at Edward Jones and LPL Financial, Shelby took a major leap, leaving corporate life to empower financial advisors to break free from restrictive environments and take control of their futures. We talk abou...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, Ignacio sits down with macro strategist and researcher Alex Dryden to explore how markets really work beneath the surface. After more than a decade as a global investment strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management, Alex stepped away from Wall Street to pursue a PhD and dig deeper into the forces shaping sovereign debt, financial markets, and risk. The conversatio...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Lupin Rahman, a leading voice in sovereign debt and emerging markets, with over 25 years of experience spanning institutions like the IMF and World Bank to the investment world at PIMCO. We dive deep into how sovereign debt really works behind the scenes, what investors consistently misunderstand, and why today’s macro environment is changing th...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Ben Ashby, Chief Investment Officer at Anderson Rowe, CFA Charterholder, podcaster, and one of the most direct voices in UK asset management. Ben brings a rare mix of fixed income experience, macro skepticism, financial history, and contrarian thinking to a conversation about markets, risk, AI, and why the next decade may look very different fro...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Saira Malik, Chief Investment Officer at Nuveen, to talk about her unconventional path into Wall Street, what it really takes to build confidence, and why the best investors are often the ones willing to think differently.  Saira shares how she went from being told she might not make it through a four-year college to becoming CIO at one of the w...

Michael Green has seen markets from the inside at the highest levels, from managing capital connected to some of the biggest names in finance to building his own frameworks around how markets really function. In this episode, we go deep into the forces shaping modern markets, the unintended consequences of passive investing, and why he believes the structure of markets today may be setting the sta...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Andrew from 8FIGURES to talk about how technology, psychology, and better education could reshape the future of investing. We explore what risk really means for everyday investors, why so many people still make costly mistakes, and how AI can act as a powerful second opinion when managing your portfolio.  This conversation goes beyond theory and...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Vitaliy Katsenelson, CEO of Investment Management Associates and author of Soul in the Game, for a wide-ranging conversation that goes far beyond traditional investing. Vitaliy is not your typical investor. He blends classical value investing with philosophy, music, writing, and deep introspection. In this conversation, we explore how stoicism,...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Vincenzo Riflesso, Head of Risk at Maverick Securities, former equity derivatives trader at BNP Paribas, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit, and a thought leader at the Certificate in Quantitative Finance. With 10 years on trading desks and another decade leading risk teams, Vincenzo brings a rare perspective that bridges adrenaline driven markets an...

What if you could forecast GDP from space? In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Jake Schneider, Founder of Atlas Analytics, to explore how satellite imagery, artificial intelligence, and economic modeling are converging to create a completely new way to measure economic activity in real time. From working directly for former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to building propr...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Simon Evan-Cook from Downing Fund Managers for a deep and refreshingly honest conversation about what investing really looks like in practice. Simon brings a unique engineering mindset to markets, challenging the industry’s obsession with precision, models, and certainty. We unpack how real investors navigate uncertainty, learn from mistakes, an...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Sebastian Lewis from Vanguard, one of the most influential investment firms in the world. We explore Sebastian’s journey from Morgan Stanley during the dot-com era to a 15-year career at Sanford Bernstein and ultimately to Vanguard, where he helps bring investment research and market insights to financial advisors across Europe. Along the way, w...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Thomas Veillet, one of Switzerland’s most recognizable financial voices and a pioneer in making markets understandable, entertaining, and brutally honest. With more than three decades in finance and thousands of market columns under his belt, Thomas shares how he went from trading floors to building a media brand that challenges the traditional...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, Ignacio sits down with Gina Martin Adams, Chief Market Strategist at HB Wealth and one of the most recognizable voices in financial markets. After more than two decades on Wall Street spanning firms like Wells Fargo and Bloomberg, Gina shares how she built a disciplined, model driven approach to understanding markets and why combining macro, technicals, fundame...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, Ignacio sits down with Andrew Wells, Chief Investment Officer at Sanjak Alpha and a veteran fixed income investor with decades of experience navigating bond markets, hedge funds, and ETFs. Andy shares his journey from small town Texas to running trading desks and hedge funds, while breaking down how today’s bond market is fundamentally different from the last f...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, Ignacio sits down with Leyla Kunimoto, co founder of Accredited Investor Insights, one of the most candid and independent voices analyzing private markets today. Drawing from conversations with hundreds of LPs and exposure to more than 75 deals, Leyla shares what really happens behind the scenes in private equity, venture, and private credit.  💡 Why an LP deci...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with macro thinker, engineer, and investor Diego Parrilla to unpack the hidden fragilities of today’s financial system and what they mean for investors. From his engineering roots to his career across global banks and hedge funds, Diego brings a unique lens to markets, combining physics, macro, and options theory to challenge conventional thinking. W...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Elias Korosis, Global Investment Partner at Federated Hermes Private Equity and Chair of Invest Europe. From starting his career as a scriptwriter for educational cartoons to becoming one of the leading voices in European private capital, Elias brings a rare combination of storytelling clarity and institutional insight. We dive into the realitie...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Andrew Hollingworth, founder of Holland Advisors and manager of the VT Holland Advisors Equity Fund, a boutique investment firm built around long-term ownership of exceptional businesses. Andrew is a Buffett disciple with a contrarian streak who left the traditional institutional world to build a fund that ignores benchmarks, avoids groupthink,...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Anastasia Buyalskaya, behavioral scientist and professor at HEC Paris, whose work sits right at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and financial decision making. With a background that spans finance, academia, and advisory work, Anastasia brings a rare perspective on how our brains actually behave under pressure and why even the smart...

In this episode of The Blunt Dollar, I sit down with Greg King, Senior Director and Head of Wealth Management at FactSet, to unpack how technology, AI, and data are fundamentally reshaping the wealth management industry. With nearly three decades at FactSet, Greg has witnessed the evolution from spreadsheets to smart systems firsthand. We dive into what digital transformation really looks like ins...