The Curious Quant

The Curious Quant series, hosted by Michael Kollo, is a discussion between technically-minded professionals in the financial services, technology and data science fields. It carefully examines the application of new data and new methodologies to common problems in financial markets. The aim is to promote better discussions about these emerging areas, and a better understanding of new technologies.

 

 

Michael Kollo is a seasoned investment professional with a deep passion for the pragmatic discussion and application of quantitative models to solve problems. His PhD in Finance is from the London School of Economics where he lectured in quantitative finance in addition to Imperial College and at the University of New South Wales. He has created models and led quantitative research teams at Blackrock, Fidelity and Axa Rosenberg in the UK before more recently moving to Australia where he established the quantitative team for the $50 billion industry superannuation fund, HESTA. Kollo is an experienced speaker, author, mentor, a keen student of philosophy and more recently, a podcaster. The Curious Quant is a series of conversations with market leaders, deep thinkers and practitioners who deal with the wonder and frustrations of these models and who are on the front line of AI innovation.

Sponsored Content

Leave a Comment

Sort content by

Japan disaster registers shocks on the Macro Scale

The natural disaster in Japan, that has tragically killed more than 3,000 people, caused millions of dollars damage and thrown the Middle East off the front pages, could also mark a pivotal moment in investments, with markets back to being triggered by macro concerns.mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Inflation spectre should scare investors back to text books

Inflation is a big risk for most pension funds around the world. The question is: what do you do about it? The interesting point, though, is if inflation is a ‘fat tail’ risk, maybe it’s already been too widely signalled.mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Funds count costs of external asset management

Cost is the flagrant motivation in the trend for US pension funds to move assets in-house, but as this article explores, budgets also need to extend to the demands of investment research, travel and staff incentive compensation.mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Dutch look ambitiously beyond DB funds

As the social partners in the Netherlands debate the future of the pension system, Amanda White spoke with chief institutional business and deputy CEO at PGGM, Else Bos, about the preferred reform outcome which may be a move towards a “defined ambition” structure, as well as PGGM’s vision of retirement provision which moves beyond just

NZ quake fund skates on very thin reserves

New Zealand’s earthquake disaster relief fund could be completely drained following the fatal 6.3 quake that flattened large swathes of central Christchurch on February 22.mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Bureaucrats must be targeted on climate change: Mercer

Institutional investors need to get more serious in their engagement with policy makers by targeting specific people in environment departments and defining an action plan to tackle climate change risk, according to global head of research, responsible investment at Mercer, Danyelle Guyatt.mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Previous