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In the online community of FinTwit it is extremely common for hedge funders to have anonymous profiles because of strict regulations, but not all these anonymous profiles are made equal. @hfreflection is one of the most insightful anonymous members of the FinTwit community, especially when it comes to the business and industry of hedge funds. In this interview (while maintaining anonymity) HF reveals key aspects of his path to success and shares the insights he picked up on his journey from analyst to eventually launching his own firm after a long stint at a multi-billion dollar long/short equity manager. He touches on the hard decisions people face at different stages, whether you are a young professional trying to break into the industry, a mid-career analyst trying to find the right seat, or a seasoned professional deciding whether staying put or launching your own fund is the right path forward.

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Tor Svelland, CIO and Founder of Svelland Capital, has annualized over 18.5% net of fees since inception in 2017 in their strategy that trades a combination of commodity futures, commodity linked equities, freight derivatives, energy transition linked companies, and electricity producers. Svelland joins Other People’s Money to discuss why he believes new market participants and structural undersupply have made the current environment for commodities trading so exciting. He also discusses how he’s grown his business from personal capital to almost $1 billion in AUM with investors all over the globe.

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro

04:09 Trafigura & Goldman Sachs as Commodities Trading Talent Hubs

06:38 Launching Svelland Capital with Personal Capital

09:03 The First Major Hurdles: 3 Years & $100m in AUM

10:56 ESG and the Commodity Market Backdrop

15:59 Underinvestment & Undersupply in Shipping & Commodities

20:41 Trading Global Supply Chains Shifts

23:44 Trade Expression & Commodities Portfolio Construction

29:06 The Effects of New Commodity Market Participants

36:06 TTF Gas Markets & Price Spike Potential

39:38 Multiple PMs & The Benefits of Taking Risk

42:05 Thinking Internationally & Advice for Young Commodities Traders

45:56 International Investor Interest in Commodities

48:00 Managing AUM Growth & Capacity Constraints

Donald Zilkha, founder of Zilkha Investments joins Other People’s Money to discuss how his deep-rooted DNA in banking and deal making has evolved into an investment strategy focused on deep research and engagement with management to affect change without upsetting the apple cart. He discusses how this strategy has evolved from single name SPVs to the commingled strategy he has today, case studies like Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, and why this classical style resonates with investors.

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro

00:34 The Birth of Modern Banking in the Middle East

10:27 Evolution from Venture, to SPVs, to Drawdown, to Vanilla Equity

19:09 Engagement vs. Activism

27:17 Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs Case Study

33:05 Take Private Opportunities

35:55 Investing in a "Classical" Style

38:43 Talking About Process Instead of Positions

45:02 Value Investing in Tech and Old-Line Businesses

50:05 Team Continuity & Incentives

54:18 Marketing After 10+ Years

David Steinberg, founder and CIO of Marlowe Partners joins Other People’s Money to discuss why he believes the operational and capital raising side of the investment business is the most important factor in determining success. He also discusses how he is navigating the capital raising process with a focus on weeding out investors who are not a fit for his concentrated long-term investing style, how that long-term style affects his ability to use AI in the research process, and why it is important not to be too innovative with your investment terms.

David would also like to highlight the importance of high quality service providers and has shared three service providers he would highly recommend to other investment professionals.

For accounting services David uses: https://rsmus.com

For outsourced compliance services David uses: https://www.salusgrc.com

For legal services David uses: https://www.akingump.com/en

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00:00 Intro

00:30 The Most Important Aspect of Investing

10:16 The Market for Concentrated Investing

13:47 Staying in the Game

17:45 Non-Standard Structures Are a Risk

19:41 New Structures for Individual Investors

27:11 Communicating Investing Process

34:28 Using AI to Cut Investment Research Costs

49:04 The Mission of $1B to $100B

This Other People’s Money episode is brought to you by VanEck.

Learn more about the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH): http://vaneck.com/SMHMax

Learn more about the VanEck Fabless Semiconductor ETF (SMHX): http://vaneck.com/SMHXMax

Jon Caplis, CEO and founder at PivotalPath joins Other People’s Money to discuss how underreporting of data by the top tier of hedge funds is skewing the data that institutional investors use to make allocation decisions, resulting in undeservedly poor perception of the asset class, and significant underinvestment from institutional investors relying on allocation models. He argues that the top firms’ absence from most data sets has dragged industry wide return metrics down by approximately 400 basis points annually. Caplis also discusses how PivotalPath is combatting this data issue, the performance of hedge funds in 2025, and the mistakes many hedge funds make in communicating with institutional LPs that make up PivotalPath’s client base.

Learn more about PivotalPath at https://www.pivotalpath.com/

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An investment in the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and VanEck Fabless Semiconductor ETF (SMHX) may be subject to risks which include, among others, risks related to investing in the semiconductor industry, special risk considerations of investing in Taiwanese issuers, equity securities, small-, medium and large-capitalization companies, foreign securities, emerging market issuers, foreign currency, depositary receipts, issuer-specific changes, market, operational, index tracking, authorized participant concentration, new fund, no guarantee of active trading market, trading issues, passive management, fund shares trading, premium/discount and liquidity of fund shares, non-diversified, and index-related concentration risks, all of which may adversely affect the Fund. Small, medium and large-capitalization companies may be subject to elevated risks. Emerging market issuers and foreign securities may be subject to securities markets, political and economic, investment and repatriation restrictions, different rules and regulations, less publicly available financial information, foreign currency and exchange rates, operational and settlement, and corporate and securities laws risks.

Investing involves substantial risk and high volatility, including possible loss of principal. An investor should consider the investment objective, risks, charges and expenses of a Fund carefully before investing. To obtain a prospectus and summary prospectus, which contain this and other information, call 800.826.2333 or visit  vaneck.com. Please read the prospectus and summary prospectus carefully before investing.

© Van Eck Securities Corporation, Distributor, a wholly owned subsidiary of Van Eck Associates Corporation

This Other People’s Money episode is brought to you by VanEck.

Learn more about the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH): http://vaneck.com/SMHMax

Learn more about the VanEck Fabless Semiconductor ETF (SMHX): vaneck.com/SMHXMAx

Warren Pies, strategist and co-founder at 3Fourteen Research joins Other People’s Money to discuss how the market and economy are transitioning from a deflation to a debasement mindset. He explains why he’s bullish equities, expecting continued disinflation despite his longer-term debasement view, and expecting the Fed to cut 3 times before the end of the year while the economy avoids recession. Pies also looks back on his launching his first year as an ETF fund manager.

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An investment in the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and VanEck Fabless Semiconductor ETF (SMHX) may be subject to risks which include, among others, risks related to investing in the semiconductor industry, special risk considerations of investing in Taiwanese issuers, equity securities, small-, medium and large-capitalization companies, foreign securities, emerging market issuers, foreign currency, depositary receipts, issuer-specific changes, market, operational, index tracking, authorized participant concentration, new fund, no guarantee of active trading market, trading issues, passive management, fund shares trading, premium/discount and liquidity of fund shares, non-diversified, and index-related concentration risks, all of which may adversely affect the Fund. Small, medium and large-capitalization companies may be subject to elevated risks. Emerging market issuers and foreign securities may be subject to securities markets, political and economic, investment and repatriation restrictions, different rules and regulations, less publicly available financial information, foreign currency and exchange rates, operational and settlement, and corporate and securities laws risks.

Investing involves substantial risk and high volatility, including possible loss of principal. An investor should consider the investment objective, risks, charges and expenses of a Fund carefully before investing. To obtain a prospectus and summary prospectus, which contain this and other information, call 800.826.2333 or visit vaneck.com. Please read the prospectus and summary prospectus carefully before investing.

© Van Eck Securities Corporation, Distributor, a wholly owned subsidiary of Van Eck Associates Corporation

Zach Levitt, CIO and Founder of Sixth Turn Capital and Opus One Asset Management joins Other People’s Money to discuss how he is standing up multi-manager platforms at just 25 years old by focusing on niche capacity constrained managers. Levitt discusses the benefits of combining uncorrelated capacity constrained strategies in a multi-manager platform, his unconventional path to founding a multi-manager platform, how mentorship has helped accelerate his growth, and how he goes about attracting talented investors to his platform.

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro

00:48 Skipping the Analyst Track and Founding a Hedge Fund at 25

07:14 Many Great Track Records Indicate Nefarious Information Was Traded On

09:42 What Does a Good Capacity Constrained Manager Look Like?

13:38 What Level of Correlation is "Uncorrelated"

18:20 What Level of Capacity is "Capacity Constrained"?

21:30 Mentorship Through Podcasts & Cold Outreach

26:13 Convincing Managers To Join Your Platform as a 25 Year Old

28:46 Investor Interest in SMAs vs Commingled Funds

35:25 Battling Startup Costs

39:06 Selling Talented Investors on Your Success Story

43:39 Risk Management and Cutting Portfolio Managers

47:38 Marketing "Hypothetical" Track Records

52:32 Next Stages of Growth

54:20 Assessing the Capacity Limits

57:17 Can PA Traders Become PMs?

Val Zlatev, Portfolio Manager and Senior Partner at hard tech specialist hedge fund Analog Century Capital Management joins Other People’s Money to discuss what he thinks investors still fail to appreciate about the secular growth of AI and semiconductors. He also discusses why DeepSeek was so misunderstood, other aspects of the AI supply chain, the state of the analog chip cycle, running long/short and market neutral strategies and garnering interest from the large multi-manager platforms.

Learn More About Analog Century Capital Management: https://www.analogcm.com/

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:15 What is Hard Tech?

02:41 The Evolution of the Hard Tech Sector From the 90s to Now

05:04 Investors Are Underweight Hard Tech

11:09 The Massive Impact of the End of Moore's Law

16:59 New Investment in Semiconductor Capacity

18:08 Why AI Should Be Compared to Cloud, Not Fiber

22:55 What Investors Got Wrong About DeepSeek

25:41 The US Government's Impact on AI & Chips

33:04 The Chinese Government’s Involvement in AI & Chips

35:13 Dominant Players in Chinese Semiconductor Market

39:12 The AI Supply Chain Beyond Semiconductors

43:53 Analog Semiconductors & Power Management

49:55 Winners, Losers, and Fakers in AI

57:03 Research Process for Hard Tech

01:01:25 Dispersion in Hard Tech Returns

01:03:31 Trading and Portfolio Construction at Analog Century

01:08:13 Market Neutral & Garnering Interest From Multi-Manager Platforms

01:12:20 Market Neutral vs Long/Short Investors

01:14:51 The Value of Partners and Team Continuity

01:16:42 Conclusion