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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Why you should take notice of what we write

New research released this month gives impetus to the evidence that newspaper articles can predict aggregate future stock returns. Conducted by Professor of Finance at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, Manuel Ammann, it examines articles in the German finance paper, Handeslblatt, from July 1989 until March 2011, and overall found that “newspaper content

CalPERS to move $1bn fixed income in-house

CalPERS plans to move $1 billion of its externally-managed international fixed income portfolio in-house in the next 12 months, but it will require board approval to do so.mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Texas Teachers extends manager partnerships

Texas Teachers Retirement System has extended a unique public markets strategic partnership structure to two of its private market managers in a move it claims will give the fund a long-term strategic advantage over other investors.mrec4inarticleinline Sponsored Content scnative1 scnative2 scnative3

Keynes and the character required for a long-term view

In the interests of educating myself I recently read Chapter 12 “The State of Long-Term Expectations” in John Maynard Keynes’ seminal economics tome General Theory. I particularly like his statement: “it needs more intelligence to defeat the forces of time and our ignorance of the future than to beat the gun”, but then I’ve always

Recipe for avoiding half-baked dynamic asset allocation

In what is lauded as somewhat of a Laurel and Hardy performance, APG’s Stefan Lundbergh and academic provocateur Jack Gray, demonstrate the disparity between ideology and action in a hypothetical dynamic asset allocation case study. But jokes aside, it highlights the misnomer in the words “best practice”, and the lack of courage in this industry.

HOOPP boss goes out on a high

Chief executive of HOOPP, John Crocker, has only one more board meeting before he retires, and except for travel plans to the Caribbean and Europe his dance card is empty. After 10 years in the position he leaves a fund in good shape – fully funded, technologically primed and with investments that use innovative, low-cost

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