Too much to listen and too little time...
My rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Pointers:
- 00:56 -- André Perold background
- 05:35 – Teaching, besides helping others, it’s a way to understand things. If you can’t explain something then you really don’t understand it.
- 6:31 – What does it take to be a good master of the classroom? Humility, self-awareness, good communication skills, challenge your audience…
- 8:38 -- Characteristics of a good student.
- 11:09 – About the debate of Passive Vs Active management and Vanguard’s roll in the latter.
- 14:05 – Why did you start in active investing?
- 15:30 – What’s your philosophy in investing?
- 16:19 – The roll of Risk in our process.
- 18:39 – Risk as volatility is not a good metric, how do you measure it across asset classes?
- 19:42 – When things are volatile thereafter the risk of a big drawdown it’s much higher than when things are calm… If things are volatile today the risk of a big drawdown are much higher tomorrow than if things are no so volatile today.
- 20:49 -- How do you balance the risks in Public Markets and Private Markets? Something can be illiquid and yet the underlyings can be in liquid instruments (hedge funds with lockups), so you need to look for other types of risk like clients wanting to redeem, ban on short selling…
- 22:49 – Identifying talent is really hard. And it’s not just about talent, you have to find if the opportunity that they are pursuing is still in place or if they are good business managers (combining good asset allocation skills with good managerial skills).
- 24:08 – The ability to judge people is an essential skill.
- 24:20 – Where are you seeing opportunity? If you have a good ideas, odds are high that others have the same idea. Investing is always hard and is the same as other areas of business, it’s seldom easy.
- 25:23 – We have to think about it in two dimensions: (i)there is a very dynamic aspect to the world and there maybe not be great places to put money today, but there will be in the future and you need to prepare yourself for those instances.
- 25:52 – Being prepared takes work, being prepared and not investing is very hard.
- 26:18 – The day you buy is when you make your money, not the day you sell.
- 26:30 – The other dimension is looking for niches where specialists can outperform.
- 27:02 – Are there any attractive niches today? Small Biotech, smaller banks, smallcap activism.
- 28:24 – About the dichotomy of selecting good managers and making a good asset allocation.
- 29:30 -- Finding alpha is scarce and hard. You find it most of the time where there are dislocations or capital shortages in the world.
- 33:19 – What have you learn that it’s different from what you thought? The market is very competitive and lots of people are searching for the same ideas. Things almost never work out the way you thought they will.
- 34:09 – When you execute a perfect trade it changes you because after that you start looking for the next perfect trade and then find out you can’t do it the same way again.
- 34:52 – There is a huge amount of luck in this.
- 35:21 – In the subprime shorts, timing really mattered. People who made the trade earlier didn’t do so well and some got shutdown. The roll of luck in timing is huge and we often confound luck with skill.
- 37:13 – How do you detect skill from luck in managers?
- 38:29 – What about fees? The idea that you can generate high alpha for low fees is a misnomer… You’re kidding yourself if you think you can get the combination of extraordinary talent with very low fees.
- 39:50 – What are you concerned today about the Markets? I think is crowded and there are fewer opportunities. You need to have dry powder.
- 43:06 – The Tail Risks are high today.
- 43:45 – What was your favorite sport moment?
- 44:14 – Recommended books, TV Show or podcasts. Michael Lewis books,
- 44:51 – Your favorite thing to do that is a complete waste of time.
- 45:21 – What do you know today that you wish you knew 10 years ago?
- 46:21 – What advice would you give yourself if your life was starting now? Never get old, think big, keep networking, family is important, never forget about luck, take risks.
Listen to it: http://capitalallocatorspodcast.com/andreperold/
