From earning his PhD under the great economist Gene Fama to launching AQR, one of the country’s first quantitative funds, Cliff Asness offers a unique perspective on financial markets. Winner of several awards, including five Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Awards from The Journal of Portfolio Management, two-time winner of the Graham and Dodd Excellence Award for the year’s best paper, and second prize in the Fama/DFA Prize for Capital Markets and Asset Pricing, among others, Cliff has been well-recognized for his outstanding contributions to his field. 

This week on the FEG Insight Bridge, Greg picks Cliff’s brain on a range of topics, including where investors can expect to see returns in the next 10 years, what happens when stock-bond diversification fails, his thoughts on private equity modeling, what Cliff really thinks of market efficiency, and the potential role of AI in investing going forward. Listen in as Cliff’s witty retorts and insightful answers have Greg nodding in agreement.

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It’s no secret that today’s political landscape is one of the most volatile in the U.S. since the Civil War. In this episode, we invited Dan Clifton, partner and head of policy research at Strategas Securities, to sit down with Greg Dowling on the FEG Insight Bridge to connect politics, policy, and markets today.  Listen in as Dan breaks down some of the most important moving targets for the market, from China’s geopolitical risk to the Biden administration’s Build Back Better Program and the historically large infrastructure bills being debated in Congress. Dan also offers some valuable insight into how the proposed tax bill may impact future S&P 500 earnings as well as the near-term future of the debt ceiling.  Dan shares words of wisdom for investors as he details how the “September to remember” has now become the October, November, and even December to remember as markets attempt to absorb the blows of the ongoing political dramas in D.C. 

This episode was recorded on October 21, 2021.

You can find every episode of FEG Insight Bridge podcasts in one place and sign up to receive our other publications here.

Did you know that one of the biggest sectors in the REIT market today is cell phone towers? Or that REITs tend to generate positive returns in rising interest rate environments? This week on the Insight Bridge, Jon Cheigh, CIO and Head of Global Real Estate for Cohen & Steers sits down with FEG’s Greg Dowling to discuss all things REITs. From malls to cell towers and self-storage, REIT allocations have been shifting over time and have grown to positions of prominence in many portfolios, with over $1.6 trillion invested in U.S. REITs alone. In this compelling episode, Jon shares his insights on the role of the indices as a forecaster for the future, his strategies for REIT valuation, and his thoughts on near- and longer-term trends in the space. 

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A regular guest and guest host on CNBC, Bloomberg TV & Radio, CNN, Fox Business News, and PBS NewsHour as well as named one of the “25 Most Powerful Women in Finance” by American Banker, one of the “Top 50 Women in Wealth” by Wealth Magazine, and twice named one of the “100 Most Influential Women in Finance” by Barron’s Magazine, Liz Ann Sonders has a resume that’s impressive by any measure. She’s worked with industry giants like Marty Zweig and Charles Schwab and has made a name for herself as an investment strategist capable of breaking down complicated and confusing concepts into simple, easy-to-understand takeaways. In this episode of the FEG Insight Bridge, Greg and Liz Ann discuss her storied career, her take on the current markets, and her thoughts on the Fed, the infrastructure plan, and taxes.

You can find every episode of FEG Insight Bridge podcasts in one place and sign up to receive our other publications here.

You can find every episode of FEG Insight Bridge podcasts in one place and sign up to receive our other publications here.

Founder and chairman of the board of Research Affiliates, Rob Arnott, is deeply dedicated to the role of research in understanding and forecasting market trends. His commitment to research spans several decades, and he has published three books and more than 130 articles on various financial topics and earned several awards for his efforts, including seven Graham and Dodd Scrolls and four Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacob Levy awards. In this episode, Greg and Rob sit down to talk about the fate of diversification (and value), how investors can appropriately size in a volatile market, whether or not smart money has gotten dumb, and why an investor should always seek to be curious. They also discuss key takeaways from Rob’s recent research and his capital market assumptions. Rob shares many important lessons in this episode and answers, once and for all, the question of whether or not diversification and value are “dead.”

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Jeremy Grantham has had a lot of firsts in his life; he was among the first to recommend commercial index funds, purportedly the first to create an international stock database, one of the first to call several bubbles—including the Japanese Bubble, the Tech Bubble, and the Great Financial Crisis—and certainly one of the first philanthropists to invest not only his time, but 98% of his fortune to address issues of climate change. In this episode, Greg and Jeremy discuss the breadth of Jeremy’s career from his origins at Shell Oil to the co-founding of Batterymarch and GMO, to the creation of the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment. Jeremy shares his insights on today’s market, breaks down the zero-sum investment game and the art of bubble calling, explains how the U.S. is in a unique position to provide innovative greening solutions, and offers his advice to listeners on how they can work to make a difference in the fight against climate change.

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It has been a turbulent period for recent market darling, SPACs, also known as Special Purpose Acquisition Companies. Although SPACs began almost three decades ago, they only recently surged in popularity. In fact, more U.S. companies went public through SPACs than traditional IPOs in 2020. Fir Tree Partners has a long history investing in SPACs, and Managing Partner, David Sultan, joins the conversation to provide some perspective. In this episode, we define SPACs and how they work, discuss how the current wave of SPACs differs from past waves, and speculate as to whether the current craze is a bubble. Listeners will also learn about the various ways to invest, some of the craziest SPACs to date, and concerns that have brought about scrutiny from regulators.

You can find every episode of FEG Insight Bridge podcasts in one place and sign up to receive our other publications here.

Mark McCall, Managing Director at Lime Rock New Energy and former Executive Director of the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office, joins us in this episode to talk about the rise of renewable energy. Listen in as we discuss the megatrend toward renewables, what technology investments are required along the way, how the government will be involved, and how traditional energy fits into the equation.

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With the rise of bitcoin, blockchain has gained much popularity in recent years. In this episode, Atul Rustgi of Accolade Partners joins us to break down the “chain.”  We will discuss how the technology behind cryptocurrencies is disrupting industries from banking to the internet. Hear about some of the many different use cases for blockchain and Atul's opinion on whether cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, are truly currencies, or something else entirely. Finally, hear how institutions can invest in this disruptive force.

You can find every episode of FEG Insight Bridge podcasts in one place and sign up to receive our other publications here.