Pierpoint Perspective$

Jeroen Bakker and Roy Zimmerhansl review Jeroen's blog post series of (In)Famous Hot Trades that involve securities lending.

The blog posts mentioned in the episode are listed as part of the timeline

Timeline

00:00 Introduction

8:04 Wirecard https://bit.ly/HotWirecard

11:09 Grenke AG https://bit.ly/HotGrenke

15:49 GSX TechEdu https://bit.ly/HotGSXTech

20:50 Volkswagen/Porsche and “what is a Short Squeeze?” https://bit.ly/HotVWPorsche

26:39 Citigroup https://bit.ly/HotCiti

34:12 Carillion https://bit.ly/HotCarillion

37:51 Nikola https://bit.ly/HotNikola

44:55 DoorDash IPO – a future short?

48:28 A request from Jeroen from Podcast Listeners

48:52 Jeroen’s favourite blog post(s)

51:50 Roy's “Thank Yous” and wrap-up

Pierpoint website

LinkedIn

Twitter

YouTube

Facebook

Instagram

Support the show

Lucinda Guthrie, Executive Editor, Acuris, has been covering financial markets as a journalist for the past 15 years. She has been at the heart of deals and deal-making and she takes listeners through a review of 2020 and looks forward to 2021.

You can find Lucinda on LinkedIn here

Learn more about Acuris products such as Mergermarket, Dealreporter and PaRR at: https://www.acuris.com/

Timeline

00:00 Introduction

2:50 What is Acuris and why is it relevant to Securities Finance

4:15 2020 - A roller coaster year

7:55 Pandemic-proof or Bottom-fishing?

10:33 Given COVID-19 impact, how are deals affecting structures?

13:17 Corporates return to public equity markets

17:50 What does a normal Q4 look like and how does 2020 compare?

19:22 Impact of Brexit

26:52 Preliminary outlook for 2021

32:00 What is a SPAC and what are they used for?

35:15 Working From Home and deal-making

40:40 Roy's wrap up

Pierpoint website

LinkedIn

Twitter

YouTube

Facebook

Instagram

Support the show

Max Budra of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) speaks with Roy Zimmerhansl about "Short Selling and Responsible Investment" a report released by AIMA in conjunction with Simmons and Simmons.

Follow Max and AIMA

AIMA Website

Max Budra on LinkedIn

Max's email: [email protected]

Short Selling and Responsible Investment

Timeline

4:50 EY Report – Investors place growing importance on ESG factors for Alternative Managers

7:30 Are ESG and Responsible Investment the same thing?

9:00 Differing standards and priorities on ESG and responsible investment

11:25 Using hedge funds to manage ESG risks

17:15 Different time horizons and the relevance of ESG factors

21:45 No longer “anti-vice” funds

24:25 Short selling – always a part of the “G” in ESG

27:22 Greenwashing

32:20 Will leading ESG companies outperform and reshape indices?

38:00 Retail vs Sophisticated investors challenges of ESG index construction and regulation

40:20 ESG Long Short funds

41:50 Other work AIMA is focusing on

46:02 Roy’s closing thoughts

Follow Pierpoint:

Pierpoint website

LinkedIn

Twitter

YouTube

Facebook

Instagram

Support the show

This week’s guest is Manooj Mistry who has been at the heart of the growth of the ETF market in Europe. Manooj shares his personal journey with Roy Zimmerhansl - the tremendous growth of ETFs in Europe over the past 20 plus years.

Manooj was formerly the head of ETFs and Index Investing at DWS (the asset management division of Deutsche Bank), where he was part of the team that established the Xtrackers ETF business in 2007, Europe's number two provider by assets under management. He also served as Chief Executive of DWS Investments UK Limited with responsibility for traditional investments and UK distribution. Prior to DWS, Manooj worked at Merrill Lynch International where he launched the first ETFs (LDRS ETFs) in Europe in April 2000.

Manooj on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manooj-mistry-9b0b39122

Whitepaper referenced by Roy: ETF Liquidity, Securities Finance and Collateral Management

Show timeline

02:15 Manooj at the beginning of ETFs in Europe

07:30 Why multiple stock exchange listings for ETFs?

13:05 Merrill exits business, early days of institutional ETF use

16:38 DWS enters ETF market but with a different focus on synthetics

20:10 Comparison between physically backed and swap backed ETFs

25:13 and then … the Global Financial Crisis

28:55 The battleground between synthetic and physical ETFs

35:30 Whatever happened to synthetic ETFs?

37:42 Where do ETFs go from here?

41:00 Manooj's experience as an investor doing securities lending

48:40 ESG and ETFs

53:00 Closing thoughts

56:39 Roy's wrap up

Follow Pierpoint:

Pierpoint website

LinkedIn

Twitter

YouTube

Facebook

Instagram

Support the show

Lynden Howie, European Head of Equity Finance speaks in-depth with host Roy Zimmerhansl about Synthetic Prime Brokerage.

You can follow Lynden and Cantor Fitzgerald as follows:

Cantor Fitzgerald Europe (including a section on Prime Services): https://www.cantor.com/global/europe/

Lynden on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynden-howie-70948031

Show timeline

02:12 Lynden's background in Synthetic PB

05:24 What is Synthetic Prime Brokerage?

07:48 Why do investors use it?

10:56 Why do Prime Brokers offer a synthetic alternative to cash markets?

14:21 Trading with competitors

22:45 Long and Short synthetic positions

23:30 Access products and does Synthetic PB take business away from securities lending?

29:00 Synthetic PB as a 'thing' - the structures

31:35 Trade execution and trading platforms

41:25 Key changes in the market over past 20 years

43:10 Closing thoughts from Lynden

44:25 Lynden as an educator and those who inspire us

48:15 Roy's wrap up

Follow Pierpoint:

Pierpoint website

LinkedIn

Twitter

YouTube

Facebook

Instagram

Support the show

Roger Cohen, founder of Portable Beta is an investor, derivatives specialist and academic, and joins host Roy Zimmerhansl to discuss ETFs; geared, leveraged and bear funds; ESG and quantum theory.

You can follow Roger's work as follows:

Roger Cohen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/portablebeta

Portable Beta: https://portablebeta.com.au/

Betashares (where Roger is an advisor): https://www.betashares.com.au/

Quantum Theory of Toilet Paper

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/portablebeta_the-quantum-theory-of-toilet-paper-activity-6657050516067061760-r2UJ

Show timeline

03:10 ETFs

06:45 Synthetic vs Physical ETFs

13:28 Involvement with BetaShares

16:00 ETF themes - adding value or chasing trends?

18:51 Geared, leveraged, short, bear funds

22:48 ESG including short selling

27:45 Bear Funds

30:00 Shorting in futures and cash markets

32:40 A securities lending analogy

36:54 A 'tweak' to retirement finances

43:30 Australia, Academia and big things from our childhood

45:47 Quantum Theory of Toilet Paper and 2020

48:35 Resilience and adaptation in 2020

52:10 Roy's wrap up

Follow Pierpoint:

Pierpoint website

LinkedIn

Twitter

YouTube

Facebook

Instagram

Support the show

Show Notes

Andy Dyson, CEO, International Securities Lending Association addresses a huge range of topical and challenging issues in a sweeping and fast paced one-hour interview with host Roy Zimmerhansl, Practice Lead, Pierpoint Financial Consulting.

Timeline:

2:27       Reflections on ISLA/ISF Virtual Conference series

7:01       SFTR Report Card

16:22    Comments on market resilience during the 2020 market turmoil

22:20    Capital Markets Union/CSDR

32:13    Digital Transformation/Common Domain Model

39:17    ISLA CDM Showcase (free to attend invitation link http://bit.ly/ISLACDM)

39:26    New ISLA Working Groups

45:05    ISLA Governance

52:17    The changing role of Trade Associations

55:38    Kudos to the ISLA team

57:07    Lessons from 2020

Key items of note:

·        The ISLA CDM Showcase webinar 1 December 2020 http://bit.ly/ISLACDM

·        Regarding the ISLA governance discussion (45:05), our podcast researchers uncovered that part of the ISLA Council for Sustainable Finance governance policy provides for the ICSF Chair - Radek Stech, to attend ISLA Board Meetings as and when ICSF activities or interests form part of the agenda. Well done to ISLA and ICSF for having this enshrined. Also, we understand anecdotally that this has been the practice since ICSF launch and Radek has attended accordingly. You can see the ICSF Governance document at https://www.isla.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ICSF_Governance.pdf

·        Andy Dyson’s blog: Reflections of the CEO, latest edition: https://www.isla.co.uk/blog/reflections-of-the-ceo-2/

Follow Pierpoint:

Pierpoint website

LinkedIn

Twitter

YouTube

Facebook

Instagram

Support the show

This episode features renowned short seller Fraser Perring of Viceroy Research. Perring called out Wirecard publicly and suffered the consequences of challenging a darling stock. Other major frauds followed including Steinhoff, which was a $7.4 billion fiasco.

Roy Zimmerhansl asks Perring to discuss a range of matters from the psychology of short selling through to what's next for Viceroy.

Show Timeline:

3:20 A background in life skills

5:25 Foreshadowing Grenke

6:44 Dealing with long term shorts - P&L and psychology

10:05 Finding Short Candidates

12:40 Regulator's reactions to Zatarra/Viceroy reports, allegations and short positions

19:35 Financial Terrorism

22:30 ESG & the value of short sellers

25:35 Surviving bad corporate news

30:09 Perring's fight back against personal attacks

32:00 Accessing securities for short sellers

34:30 The personal impact of exposing frauds

38:09 Where next for Viceroy?

Items mentioned in the podcast:

Wirecard blog post

Dividend Arbitrage blog post

Follow Viceroy Research:

Website: https://viceroyresearch.org/

LinkedIn: Viceroy Research

Twitter: follow Fraser - @AIMhonesty and @viceroyresearch

Under development https://www.criminalespionage.com/

Follow Pierpoint:

https://www.pierpoint.info

LinkedIn

Twitter

Facebook

YouTube

Support the show

Today's episode covers the topic of Managing Service Provider Relationships and includes a discussion on ServiceMatrix, a ground-breaking alternative to traditional vendor benchmarking. Host Roy Zimmerhansl is joined by Lawrence Inman, Senior Supplier Oversight and Relationship Manager, FundRock Partners Ltd and Andy Stephenson, Founder ServiceMatrix

Show timeline:

06:02 The role of Vendor Oversight

10:00 Outsourcing services

12:35 Monitoring Performance and KPIs

16:58 Where do surveys fit in?

25:00 The managed survey response flaw

27:40 Service providers DO want feedback!

30:12 Is ServiceMatrix a survey wrapped in an App?

31:37 Why is Pierpoint involved?

32:30 Timely feedback, but at what price?

43:57 So many surveys, so little time

45:42 Questions vetted by Investors

47:38 Closing thoughts from Lawrence

52:10 Closing thoughts from Andy

52:42 Show review from Roy

Follow FundRock Management

https://www.fundrock.com/

Twitter: @FundrockMC

Follow Pierpoint:

https://www.pierpoint.info

LinkedIn

Twitter

Facebook

YouTube

Support the show

The Pierpoint team, Jeroen Bakker, John Arnesen and Roy Zimmerhansl discuss and debate the value of Exclusive lending arrangements.  

Show timeline:

03:06 What is an Exclusive?

06:50 Exclusives - just another securities lending transaction?

10:00 What value does an Agent Lender add?

13:19 Direct to a Beneficial Owner or via an Agent?

20:02 The value proposition for a Beneficial Owner

26:16 Exclusives and Cash Collateral

34:50 The future for Exclusives

41:35 Closing thoughts on Exclusives

Follow Pierpoint:

https://www.pierpoint.info

LinkedIn

Twitter

Facebook

YouTube

Support the show