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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Peter Bernstein: Risk Inverse

Peter Bernstein, an economic consultant and respected investment thinker passed away on Friday June 5 in New York. Widely regarded as an intellectual giant in the investment circles for his ability to translate complex mathematical models into practical applications, he founded the Journal of Portfolio Management in 1974 and wrote a number of respected books

…as consultant assessment initiates changes to internal equity team and technology

CalPERS has reached its capacity to internally manage equities portfolios and would need to make changes to technology and staff resources if the internally-managed equities program is expanded, according to the outcome of the annual consultant review of CalPERS’ internal equity team by Wilshire Associates. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Asset class review inspires opportunistic allocation at CalPERS’

CalPERS is considering adopting an “opportunistic” program seeking to profit from substantially undervalued assets across various asset classes and strategies, and will be limited to 3 per cent of the fund’s total market value. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

The future of risk management: How independent should risk management be?

Barry Schachter, research associate with the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre and director, quantitative resources, Moore Capital Management believes the current crisis is a catalyst for change in the conduct of risk management because it has challenged the efficacy of the existing risk management model, but simply imposing regulation is not the change

SWFs struck at financial crisis epicentre: $50b in losses from financials

For their biggest public market investments in the last two years, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) zeroed-in on the most dogged companies in the worst-performing sector: Western financials. These decisions incurred paper losses of $US56.3 billion, accounting for most of their public market losses for the period. mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Working hard for the money

Last year large institutional investors in the US, including the State of Massachusetts Pension Fund and CalPERS, dedicated money to senior bank loans. Amanda White examines the outlook for the sector and talks to group head of ING’s senior loan group, Jeff Bakalar, about whether institutional allocations to the sector have been tactical or strategic.

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