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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New Jersey’s $85 billion fund stockpiles cash, eyes PE secondaries

New Jersey’s $85 billion fund stockpiles cash, eyes PE secondaries

An underweight position across private markets, predicated on a view that geopolitics and inflation mean interest rates are not coming down any time soon, has positioned the New Jersey Division of Investment with plenty of dry powder and a cash position four times the policy allocation. It is now readying for opportunities in private equity secondaries and with emerging managers. Chief investment officer Shoaib Khan spoke to Top1000funds.com.

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Factoring sustainability into portfolio decisions

Asset owners remain understandably challenged to incorporate sustainability factors into global equity allocations. Global macro trends make clear that sustainability considerations will be increasingly essential for consideration, but often less clear is how to factor this into portfolio decisions in a sophisticated manner. Dwindling natural resources and the world’s related ‘carrying capacity’ is translated by

Is the emerging markets
concept dated?

Are broad emerging-markets allocations still appropriate? By analysing the trend of mandate configuration, this paper by MSCI looks at whether the emerging-markets concept is dated and whether broad-based emerging-markets investing remains an appealing way to capture economic growth premium. Read the report here.mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Faith in ethical investing

Received financial wisdom holds that the price of virtue for ethical investors is lower returns. It all depends on the time frame, argues Tom Joy, director of investment for Britain’s Church Commissioners, who manage the Church of England’s £5.2-billion ($8.38 billion) pension fund. The Church Commissioners, as fund managers who are ultimately accountable to God,

Aligning asset owners and managers

Delegation is a fundamental obstacle to the alignment of asset-owner and asset-manager goals. However, Sebastien Pouget, professor of finance at the University of Toulouse, believes a combination of customised performance benchmarks and a dual short and long-term fee incentive can help overcome the problems of the principal/agent relationship. Pouget, who spoke at the recent United

Danish pension is gold

Denmark has blitzed the pension-system competition, being awarded the first Mercer Global Pension Index A grading. In the process, it has relegated the Dutch and Australian systems to second and third places, respectively, after four years. Mercer senior partner and report author, David Knox, says the reasons for awarding Denmark the top grade were clear.

Postcard from Japan

For many years Japan has been an insurance-market behemoth and Japan Post Insurance Company is one of the giants with $1.13 trillion. But the industry has not been immune to change. Between 1997 and 2001 seven life insurance companies became insolvent, and there is a question mark over whether it was a low interest-rate environment

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