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.

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US instos swing back to equities

The Conference Board’s 2010 Institutional Investment Report: Trends in Asset Allocation and Portfolio Composition measures the asset growth and portfolio composition of institutional investors operating in the US.mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Blue-eared pigs challenge China’s leaders

Economists hate price and wages controls. They distort the natural forces of markets and usually result in pent-up demand and/or supply which will be unleashed at a later stage as well as a range of unexpected distortions. Investors, too, should hate them. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Russell Axioma launches factor-based indexes

Institutional investors’ increasing use of factor-based models to understand their portfolio risk exposures is the conduit for Russell Investments’ collaboration with Axioma to launch a series of factor-based indexes to rival MSCI/Barra, according to Rolf Agather, managing director of research and innovation at Russell. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Diversification is not enough for managing risk

Diversification alone is not enough to manage downside risk, rather academic research in dynamic portfolio theory suggests the three complementary techniques of diversification, hedging, and insurance can be used together to design customised investment solutions, that ultimately separate assets into performance seeking portfolios and liability hedging portfolios, according to EDHEC’s Felix Goltz and Stoyan Stoyanov.

CalPERS’ redesign creates CFO role

CalPERS will introduce a new leadership organisation design next year, which includes for the first time a dedicated chief financial officer function coordinating all corporate finance functions including cash flow. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Why politics and pension fund management don’t mix

Thomas P DiNapoli was given a little scare in the recent US mid-term elections but, in the end, was returned fairly comfortably to his position of New York State Comptroller and sole trustee of the New York State pension fund. What happens next, though, may be more interesting. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

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