The Wall Street Lab

Uwe Wystup is the founder and Managing Director of MathFinance, a quantitative finance advisory firm. They specialize in the development of state-of-the art models for trading, sales and risk management. Their focus is on FX options, the volatility surface and structured derivatives. Uwe is also a Professor of Financial Option Price Modeling at the University of Antwerp, Honorary Professor at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, was a Visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he holds a Ph.D. in Mathematical Finance.

Please keep in mind this is not investment advice. Full disclaimer at the end of the podcast.

Are you interested in the difference between Plain Vanilla and Exotic Options? Or the difference between Finance and Quantitative Finance? And of course what skills you need to land a job in quantitative finance? Uwe explains the science behind exotic options valuations, how quantitative models get developed and improved upon. Learn how brokers, treasurers, and hedge funds interact in financial markets.

Markus Koch is a German Wall Street journalist and entrepreneur. He started trading friends & families money very early and had 70k€ debt at age 17. He then paid back the money by working at Bear Sterns before starting his own journalism company. Markus acted as Economic Advisor for the Web-Series "We, the economy", produced by Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen and was part of the Introduction of the Hollywood-Blockbuster Wall Street, Money never Sleeps" in Germany.

What does Star Wars, Jazz, or Casanova have to do with Finance? Markus brings Wall Street to retail investors.

This interview provides a very honest and open insight into Wall Street from an Insider's perspective. Markus shares his opinion on many different topics, ranging from Trading to Politics. We talk about how Markus lost his teachers' money, started at Wall Street while sleeping on his boss's couch. We talk about the stories that drive the stock market and what drives Markus to educate retail investors about finance. Markus gives insights into Trading and the traditions of the NYSE trading floor over the years.

Andreas Lukic is the Managing Partner of ValueNet Capital Partners, a Private Equity Firm based in Frankfurt. He is also the honorary Chairman of the Business Angels FrankfurtRheinmain e.V., one of the biggest Angel Investor networks of Europe where he engages to grow the Frankfurt Angel and Venture Capital ecosystem. Andreas has worked in Private Equity, Venture Capital and has been an Angel Investor himself for many years.

We spend a lot of time talking about the difference in Angel Investing, Venture Capital, and Private Equity. We also talk about how the investment process changes in all of the areas and what to watch out for when investing in startups. Other topics we get into are the differences and success factors of a good ecosystem for startups with some examples from Singapore and Frankfurt.

PART 2 - Mark Yusko is the Founder, CEO and Chief Investment Officer at Morgan Creek Capital Management, a company that provides investment management services to institutions and wealthy families. Prior to forming Morgan Creek, Mark was the President, Chief Investment Officer and Founder of UNC Management Company, the endowment investment office for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to that, Mark was the Senior Investment Officer for the University of Notre Dame Investment office, where he joined as an Assistant Investment Officer in October of 2003.

We spend a lot of time talking about asset allocation, manager selection, and portfolio construction, which are topics Mark is a true expert in. We also spend time discussing what Mark thinks makes a great investor, why he spends so much of his time putting his ideas into paper and sharing it with the world, and why he thinks institutions should include cryptocurrencies in their diversified portfolio.

This interview was broken down into two parts. The first leg of the interview was published two weeks ago.

This is the second part of our two-part interview, so check out the first part of the interview, which was released 2 weeks ago.

As always, make sure you share the podcast with anyone you think might benefit from the information. And don't forget to leave us a 5-Star review on Apple Podcasts or wherever fine podcasts are published!!

Please keep in mind this is not investment advice. Full disclaimer at the end of the podcast.

Luke, Leo & Andy

Mark Yusko is the Founder, CEO and Chief Investment Officer at Morgan Creek Capital Management, a company that provides investment management services to institutions and wealthy families. Prior to forming Morgan Creek, Mark was the President, Chief Investment Officer and Founder of UNC Management Company, the endowment investment office for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to that, Mark was the Senior Investment Officer for the university of Notre Dame Investment office, where he joined as an Assistant Investment Officer in October of 2003.

We spend a lot of time talking about asset allocation, manager selection and portfolio construction, which are topics Mark is a true expert in. We also spend time discussing what Mark thinks makes a great investor, why he spends so much of his time putting his ideas into paper and sharing it with the world, and why he thinks institutions should include cryptocurrencies in their diversified portfolio.

This interview was broken down into two parts, so stay tuned for the second leg of the interview, which will be published in 2 weeks.

02:00 – Mark's Background and his series of "happy accidents" 08:30 – Science Training and why he thinks it is a good background to have for investment professionals 12:00 – Lessons learned from Notre Dame and North Carolina 18:30 – Mark's view on the endowment model 24:30 – Access vs. Capacity in Venture Capital 29:00 – How much GP Commitment is too much? 33:00 – How Mark assesses new investment managers

This is the first part of our two-part interview. If you like the conversation, check out the second part of the interview, which will be released in 2 weeks (or if you are reading this in the future, you can just go to the very next episode and you will be able to listen to our next conversation).

As always, make sure you share the podcast with anyone you think might benefit from the information. And don't forget to leave us a 5-Star review on Apple podcasts or wherever fine podcasts are published!!

Please keep in mind this is not investment advice. Full disclaimer at the end of the podcast.

Luke, Leo & Andy

If you always wanted to have a real and unromantic view on what it takes to be a trader, this is the episode for you. Gerard is Principle at Epitrain, a financial markets, business, and project management training company. He also teaches Trading courses at the National University of Singapore, one of Asia's most prestigious universities and Singapore Management University. Gerard has been in the realms of trading since 1992, the very early days of trading in Singapore. In the past 25 years, from open outcry to electronic trading, he has seen it all. With his company he is working closely with universities, large banks, hedge funds, and financial institutions to train their people, help them make the right hires and much more.

Gerard, in his straight and unapologetic manner gave us very interesting insights into financial markets and trading more specifically. He also gave us the harsh truth about being in trading and what it takes to get into trading. We talk about his own experiences, stories from the markets, what he learned about skill and mindset throughout the years and what it really takes to succeed in financial markets.

Please keep in mind this is not investment advice. Full disclaimer at the end of the podcast.

You can find out more about Gerard at http://www.epitrain.com or add Gerard on LinkedIn.

He also recommends the book "The old man and the sea" and believes there are two interpretations of the book. And only with one you'll be successful in Trading. Do reach out to us or him to let us know your interpretation.

1:40 What is Gerard's background?

5:05 How do you make sure to win more often than you loose?

9:25 What do you do when the premises of your trade are broken?

11:45 what is the difference between trading and investing? And what is the difference between technical and fundamental analysis?

14:35: What makes people trade?

15:10 The unromantic part about trading!

20:10 What skills do you need as a trader?

26:10 How do you test and learn those skills?

31:05 How important is a university degree for trading? A hedge fund hiring example

36:25 What skills are important in an algorithmic trading world?

38:05 Do you have tips for people that want to get into algorithmic trading?

39:50 Algorithmic trading

42:30 last words and Challenge

As always, make sure you share the podcast with anyone you think might benefit from the information. And don't forget to leave us a 5-Star review on iTunes!

Luke, Leo & Andy

This week, we had the pleasure to speak to the current (as of July 2019) CEO of the CFA Institute, Paul Smith. In our conversation, we cover some of Paul's challenges in running the CFA Institute during his almost 5-year tenure, the future of the investment management industry, his vision for the organization, why he thinks it is important to have a mandatory Continuing Professional Development requirement for CFA Charterholders, as well as why he thinks young professionals interested in in investment management should strive to become CFA Charterholders. For more visit: www.thewallstreetlab.com

#33 David Salem - A Deep Dive into Capital Allocation

This interview is a true master class for anyone interested in capital allocation and manager selection. We had the great pleasure to speak to David Salem, the Co-Chairman of New Providence Asset Management, a firm that provides investment office solutions for endowments, foundations and family offices. David is also a contributor to Epsilon Theory, an online community in which he writes extremely thoughtful articles about investment management and combines it with his passion for the game of baseball.

Before assuming his current post, David served as a Managing Partner at Windhorse Capital Management, which merged with New Providence in 2018. For almost two decades before that, David served as the Founding President and CIO for the Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF), a non-profit investment cooperative that managed over $8bn on behalf of more than 700 endowed charities by the time he left.

We discuss many different topics during our conversation, which includes the Yale Model, which then became known as the Endowment Model and why David thinks it may be dangerous for institutions to try to replicate it. We also discuss David's framework for selecting money managers, what his due diligence process looks like and what he focuses on when meeting a money manager for the very first time.

The topics discussed include:

02:00 – David's background

06:00 – David's opinion what it takes to become a great investor

10:00 – The Endowment Model and why David thinks it may be dangerous for institutions to try to replicate it

16:00 – How does David thinks about diversification, as well as his thoughts on how to design an investment program

24:00 – David's thoughts on how one should account for human biases in the measurement of risk tolerance

33:00 – David's thoughts on Private Equity and crypto currencies

39:00 – David's personal process on how to select investment managers

43:00 – Characteristics David looks for (and seeks to avoid) in vetting money managers

49:00 – How does David prepare for a first meeting with a money manager, and what he spends the first meeting on

55:00 – What David thinks about the use of Investment Committee in making investment decisions

59:00 – How does David decide on how when to part ways with managers he has invested in

62:00 – David's thoughts on mentorship

Please keep in mind this is not investment advice. Full disclaimer at the end of the podcast.

As always, make sure you share the podcast with anyone you think might benefit from the information. And don't forget to leave us a 5-Star review on iTunes!

Luke, Leo & Andy

We had the pleasure to chat with Iven Kurz, founder and CEO of Evergreen GmbH. Evergreen is a German retirement focused Robo advisor. Before founding his own company, Iven was a total return fund manager for two of the biggest German Private Banks. The total return investing style Iven uses is called Passive Dynamic Investing, which is based on the Black-Scholes Option Pricing Theory and he used for many years. We dive deep into the weeds of this investment form and see why it is being used for retirement saving. Please keep in mind this is not investment advice full disclaimer at the end of the podcast.

The topics discussed include:

03:00 - investment philosophies

04:30 - How Iven got into Total Return investing

07:00 - portfolio insurance investing and what is passive dynamic investing (PDI)

12:30 - deep dive into PDI and Option Pricing theory

17:30 - what is the goal of PDI

23:55 - how does risk work in PDI?

26:40 - PDI for retirement planning and risk

29:00 - risk budgets

32:00 - predicting returns for PDI Investing

35:25 - about long-short total return investing

37:30 - What Evergreen does

40:50 What Evergreen does differently

43:30 - costs and risk premium for robo-advisors

47:20 - PDI and black swan events

50:15 - closing questions

As always, make sure you share the podcast with anyone you think might benefit from the information. And don't forget to leave us a 5-Star review on iTunes!

Find out more at https://www.thewallstreetlab.com/

Luke, Leo & Andy

This week's episode is a treat to all of the excel geeks out there. We are delighted to share the conversation we had with Joseph Lau, the only 2-time Financial Modelling World Champion at the ModelOff competition. We cover many interesting topics, ranging from his experience competing at the ModelOff competition, common mistakes people make in financial modelling, and tips on how to excel (pun intended) at financial modelling. Besides being a World Champion in his spare time, Joseph is a Director of Project Finance at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He is also a Co-founder of Spreadsheet Advantage, which is an Excel add-in designed to help excel users and developers increase their productivity. Joseph has a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, a master's degree in Applied Finance and a PhD in Pure Math.

The topics discussed include:

03:00 – Joseph's background

04:50 – Requirements for excelling at financial modelling

05:30 –How Joseph got involved in the ModelOff competition

06:15 – How does the ModelOff competition work

10:30 – Joseph's preparation to compete

12:00 – Joseph's experience competing at the ModelOff finals

13:00 – How has become a financial modelling world champion changed Joseph's career

15:15 – Joseph's tips on how to excel at financial modelling

17:50 – Areas in finance that requires strong financial modelling knowledge

19:00 – How to correct modelling errors

20:00 – The future of financial modelling

21:30 – How Joseph goes about training people in financial modelling

22:45 – Common mistakes in modelling

25:00 – Why Joseph retired from competing

27:15 – Why was Joseph nicknamed Fine Wine

As always, make sure you share the podcast with anyone you think might benefit from the information. And don't forget to leave us a 5-Star review on iTunes!

Find out more at https://www.thewallstreetlab.com/

Luke, Leo & Andy