John Fawcett: Disrupting the secretive world of quants

I chat with John, the founder of Quantopian, on how he got started in quantitative finance, where he sees the industry evolving and how he created a global community of intrinsically motivated coders to create unique solutions to the greatest intellectual game on earth.

Nothing on this podcast is to be considered investment advice or a recommendation. No investment decision or activity should be undertaken without first seeking qualified and professional advice.

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Michael Pettis on China’s overinvestment paradox, and the Japan-style reckoning still to come

Michael Pettis on China’s overinvestment paradox, and the Japan-style reckoning still to come

China's advanced infrastructure and ballooning debt are two sides of the same story, says Carnegie Endowment nonresident senior fellow Michael Pettis, who compares China's coming consumption-led rebalancing to Japan's in the 1980s. In conversation with Top1000funds.com Asia Pacific correspondent Darcy Song, Pettis unpacks what this means for institutional investors weighing China exposure over multi-decade horizons, and why he remains bearish on the country's outlook.

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The in-house investment team: right people, roles, rewards

Good people are at the core of any successful organisation, and that is true for asset owners. Global chief investment officer of Towers Watson, Craig Baker discusses how designing and implementing structures that attract the right people in the right roles can unlock long-term sustainable advantages that the right investment team can offer.   It

PPF looks to hybrids

The Pension Protection Fund was set up nearly a decade ago to protect members of UK defined benefit pension where the sponsor became insolvent.More insurance provider than pension fund it’s risk tolerance is low and its investments conservative. But chief investment officer, Barry Kenneth, says the portfolio is evolving, including a new allocation to hybrids

AP4 positioned for success

A strong belief in active management, trust in the skills and capabilities of its team, and a low-cost commercial approach has resulted in the Swedish AP4 producing its best ever performance – 16.4 per cent after expenses in 2013. Amanda White spoke to chief executive, Mats Andersson. It’s a neat story for the SEK260 billion

Japan’s GPIF allocates to smart beta

The $1.3 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan will use factor investing, or smart beta, as a third way of implementing equity mandates, alongside active and passive, following a six-month research project conducted by MSCI that investigated how to best implement the growing interest in factor exposures.   The research project conducted by MSCI

PGGM finds out what it really means to be a long-term investor

Customised benchmarks, absolute return strategies and long-term mandates are all being considered by the PGGM executive team as it implements the new PFZW investment framework. Amanda White spoke to Ruulke Bagijn chief investment officer of private markets and Marcel Jeucken, managing director responsible investment at PGGM about what it really means to be a long-term

Ubiquitous and adaptive investing – the aspiration of a truly global fund

Large pension funds might be invested on a truly global basis but their operating models are rarely global structures. Towers Watson argues that asset owners can benefit from a business model that can deliver organisational performance, manages talent and aligns with core missions from multiple operating locations. Over the last decade, large pension funds and

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