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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CalPERS, CalSTRS champion for diversity

The Californian pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, have taken a leadership role in promoting corporate board diversity, demonstrated in the launch at the NYSE this week of 3D with GMI Ratings, and membership in the Thirty Percent Coalition. 3D, which stands for Diverse Director DataSource, is a databank of pre-approved board candidates with an emphasis

Consultants advocate active EMD management

Consultants are recommending investors have as much as 10 per cent of their fixed-income portfolio in emerging markets debt with endowments, public pension funds and even some corporate clients using liability driven investment strategies showing increasing interest in the asset class. Top1000funds.com spoke to consultants from Callan Associates, Hewitt EnnisKnupp, Cambridge Associates and Russell Investments

AP2 extends metrics to emerging markets debt

Swedish buffer fund AP2 is investigating a move from traditional market cap-weighted benchmarks for its fixed-income portfolio to using other metrics, such as fiscal sustainability or GDP weights, the fund’s chief investment strategist Tomas Franzen says. The 216.6-billion Swedish krona ($30.9 billion) fund has more than 36 per cent of its portfolio in investment-grade fixed

A catalyst for change: PGGM owns ESG

Not content to sit back and wait for the market to move, PGGM decided to learn by doing and launched its own responsible-equity portfolio three years ago. In line with its belief that sustainability pays, PGGM’s portfolio has a long-term investment horizon that integrates financial and environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors with active ownership.

Demystifying equal weighting

The idea of accessing risk premia through the use of index-based funds and ETFs has been gaining momentum in recent years. Risk premia indexes aim to reflect the equity premia of stock characteristics such as value, size or momentum. Among the risk premia indexes, equally weighted indexes are some of the oldest and most well

Exchanges support
better disclosure

A line in the sand has been drawn on the short-term behaviour of all participants in capital markets – including companies, brokers, funds managers and investors – with the formal commitment of five stock exchanges to promote long-term, sustainable investment and improved environmental, social, and governance disclosure and performance among listed companies. With a combined

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