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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The diminishing role of agents

I’ve always been frustrated by interviewing consultants and the lack of conviction they have about their decisions. “What would your ideal model portfolio look like?” I constantly ask. “It depends on the client” is the predictable and consistent answer. That may be valid, even true, but it speaks to a wider problem. Consultants are hired

Push the reset button at PRI in Person

At the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment conference Cape Town on October 1, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation Sharan Burrow delivered a speech entitled Push the Reset Button – a Line Between Speculation and Investment. She discussed the stability of the global economy, the necessity for investors to shift to long-term

OECD leads global infrastructure push

The OECD seeks to lengthen the time horizons of investors and get institutional money flowing from across the world into infrastructure gaps.

Sustainable investment goes to school

The Robert F Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights and Columbia University’s Earth Institute will run a series of high-level courses on sustainable investment focused on environmental, social and governance approaches as well as human and labour rights this autumn. The Compass Sustainable Investing Certificate program, designed for long-term investors, will have a solutions-driven

Giving time to investment governance

Roger Urwin, global head of content at Towers Watson and governance specialist, says most organisations don’t spend enough time on it, but transformational change is all about giving time to investment governance. Culture and leadership, for example is so self-evidently important in people organisations and yet it is understated in asset owners, he says. “The soft

Towers Watson: complexity coming straight at you

To be a long-term investor requires thematic investing because markets and economies are complex adaptive systems, according to Tim Hodgson, global head of the thinking-ahead group at Towers Watson. Hodgson told delegates at the Towers Watson Ideas Exchange in Sydney that economies and markets are complex and adaptive, their path is not random and the

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