In this episode, the ReSolve team is joined by Doomberg, a popular regular on the show, to discuss a wide range of topics including AI, geopolitics, energy, and the financial markets. They delve into the complexities of the emerging multipolar world, the rise of China in the technology sector, the implications of AI, and the potential risks and nuances within different levels of the capital structure.

Topics Discussed

• The rise of China and its implications for the Western world in terms of semiconductors, high computing, and Quantum computing

• The potential of AI and its transformative impact on professional lives and the world at large

• The geopolitical risks, specifically the Chinese intent on dominating the business landscape

• The unique situation of Taiwan as a major producer of semiconductors and its implications for global supply chains

• The challenges of predicting the decisions of nonlinear systems and the impact of major perturbations on politics, energy, society, and culture

• The role of social media in amplifying voices from the edge of the network and the challenges this presents for lay people and experts alike

• The potential for a breakdown in trust between the population and the government-media-medical nexus

• The impact of the changing energy landscape on the U.S.'s geopolitical world view

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of the emerging multipolar world, the role of AI, and the geopolitical shifts in the global landscape. It provides valuable insights into the intricacies of these topics and strategies to navigate the uncertain future.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Portable alpha (or as we like to call it: Return Stacking) has become increasingly popular in the financial media (including recent notes from industry giants like BlackRock, Russell Investments, and AQR) but many advisors are left asking: What does portable alpha mean? How might it benefit clients? How can I implement it?

At Return Stacked Portfolio Solutions we have made it our mission to thoughtfully and transparently help allocate into a portable alpha framework for client portfolios.

Join us for this deep dive podcast with Corey Hoffstein, CIO of Newfound Research, and Rodrigo Gordillo, President and Portfolio Manager at ReSolve Asset Management Global, as we explore:

• What 'Portable Alpha' is: Review of the history and theory of the concept.
• Outperformance Potential: Portable alpha/return stacking allows allocators to stack asset classes/strategies with positive expected returns on top of core assets which can help improve the likelihood of outperforming the market.
• Diversification Benefits: Using return stacking to stack low correlation strategies on top of the core portfolio can help reduce portfolio drawdowns, thus influencing likelihood of achieving financial plan goals.
• Behavioral Benefits: Sticking with low-correlation diversifiers can be difficult for clients. Return stacking can improve the likelihood clients stick with diversifiers long enough for them to realize the benefits.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

In today’s ReSolve Riffs we’re taking the opportunity to introduce the inaugural episode of a brand new podcast channel called the Get Stacked Investment Podcast. In this series, we dive deep into the world of Return Stacking, exploring the latest projects, content, and insights from the www.returnstacked.com website.

Co-hosted by Corey Hosteen, CIO of Newfound Research, along with the support of our own Mike Philbrick and Adam Butler this promises to be an insightful and valuable too in your investment arsenal. Subscribe to the Get Stacked feed using the link in the description to stay up-to-date with the latest episodes and never miss a beat in the exciting new world of Return Stacking.

In this episode, Corey Hoffstein from Newfound Research, and Rodrigo Gordillo and Adam Butler of Resolve Asset Management Global, discuss the concept of return stacking and its implications for investors. They delve into the challenges of beating the large-cap U.S. equities market, the shift in conversations about return stacking from risk management to creating excess returns, and the potential of diversification in generating consistent positive excess returns.

Topics Discussed

• The difficulties of beating the large cap U.S. equities market and the need for diversification

• The shift in conversations about return stacking from risk management to creating excess returns

• The potential of diversification in generating consistent positive excess returns

• The idea of dictum in the markets and the difference between behavioral time and statistical time

• The concept of risk parity and the importance of maintaining balance in portfolio risk

• The role of trend following in risk management and return stacking

• The potential of stacking strategies in enhancing portfolio returns

• The structural challenges in implementing return stacked strategies in portfolios

• The importance of diversification in ensuring investment success

This episode provides valuable insights into the concept of return stacking and its potential in enhancing portfolio returns. It is a must-listen for investors interested in diversification strategies and the future of investment management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

This week we had the pleasure of hosting Mark Yaxley, founding partner of Strategic Wealth Preservation, which specializes in the acquisition and storage of precious metals for investors around the world. He also brought his team member Philip Zappacosta to the conversation, which covered topics that included:

• Mark’s journey through the commodity space, before founding SWP
• The reasons that drive investors to own physical precious metals
• Different wealth objectives – creation vs growth vs preservation
• Property rights and jurisdiction considerations
• Understanding the role gold has played throughout history
• Watching the behavior of central banks
• Why loyalty to an asset-class doesn’t always stem from being “bitten by a bug”
• Why gold should be considered true money
• The role of other precious metals in portfolios
• The densest precious metal that you probably never heard of
• Silver – hundreds of industrial applications, less attractive in Asia and Europe and likely the most underpriced today
• Bar sizes, purity, utilities and different premiums
• The importance of holding smaller bars for liquidity – fractional ownership in the physical space
• Why gold hasn’t performed as expected in a year of high inflation
• When to invest in futures, ETFs or miners vs outright physical metals

Thank you for watching and listening. Happy holidays, see you in January.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

This week we spoke with Glen Burella, PhD, Vice President, Business Development at Abbey Capital (US). Glen previously worked on the investment research side of Abbey Capital having a background in quantum computing and a theoretical physics PHD.

Our conversation with Glen covered the following themes:

• The incredible combination of stocks and trend following
• Glen’s attraction to science and math
• A glimpse inside a PhD in quantum physics
• First days at a new quant firm
• Behind the scenes at Abbey Capital’s research division
• Launching new products and taking business risk
• Abbey Capital’s focus on multi-manager portfolios
• Why multi-manager instead of single ensemble?
• Dealing with performance fees in a multi-manager portfolio
• Segregated accounts vs trade netting
• Selecting managers and assembling portfolios
• The role of CTAs in institutional mandates
• How CTAs are an optimal solution for the coming inflation volatility regime

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

This episode features Ben Hunt, founder of Second Foundation Partners, which hosts the Epsilon Theory content portal.

I reached out to Ben because I’d been starting to feel myself shifting gears on my feelings and perceptions around the ongoing COVID pandemic, and I knew Ben would be able to help put things in proper perspective.

For most of the past 18 months or so I have been firmly in support of most of the measures taken by governments to manage the health impacts of the virus. We adhered strictly to lockdown guidelines, supported border closures, followed protocols, and received vaccines and boosters as soon as they were available.

But over the past few weeks I’d felt myself becoming frustrated with the lack of progress on the policy front. After all, residents of developed countries have had access to highly effective vaccines for almost 9 months. Every resident has had ample opportunity to get fully vaccinated at no financial cost, and residents of many countries have had plenty of time to get free booster shots.

Yet still, here we are. Everyone I talk to seems to be much more terrified of testing positive than of actually getting the virus. Everyone wants to travel, or go back to university, or see family – live a fulfilling life with the people we care about! – but they’re petrified about facing trip cancelations, quarantines, and/or huge expenses from a positive COVID test.

Isn’t the world upside down when most people are more afraid of running afoul the regulations in place to prevent a danger, than they are of the danger itself!

These are the themes I felt I needed to cover with Ben, and we did cover most of them in our 90 minute conversation. Ben was extremely patient and generous with his time, wisdom and insights. However, I admit to still feeling like several critical points went unresolved. This gap was definitely my fault, and not Ben’s. It just took me a few days of further ruminating to see the holes I wanted to fill.

I think this is an important and timely conversation with someone who understand the topic from top to bottom, and who sees the issues with clear eyes, and a full heart. I hope you get as much value out of it as I did.

Daruis Dale is the Founder and CEO of 42 Macro, an investment research firm that aims to disrupt the financial services industry by democratizing institutional macro-grade risk management frameworks and processes. Prior to founding 42 Macro, Darius was a Managing Director and partner at Hedgeye Risk Management, an independent investment research firm based in Stamford CT. He joined us for jam-packed and timely conversation that included topics such as:

• Positioning for inflation volatility and the “Midas Touch”
• The Fed and accelerating the taper
• The Dynamics of the recent “Friday Smackdown”
• The missing “Guardians of the Gate”
• The implications for bonds
• Cyclical changes and secular regimes
• Declaring regimes and pricing them in
• Portfolio construction and conditional probability
• Why you don’t get paid for being too early
• Frontrunning pricing with intuition and expectations
• The Style Factor and why it’s the best predictor
• Back-testing regime ensembles
• Covariance ranking, layering and beta ranking in portfolio construction
• Selecting and weighting macro indicators
• Behavioral Economics and why being different is important
• The impact of Bitcoin on portfolios
• The effects of expensive markets relative to inflation
• Policy mistakes and corrections

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Phil Huber is the Chief Investment Officer of Savant Wealth Management, and author of The Allocator's Edge: A Modern Guide to Alternative Investments and the Future of Diversification. He joined us for a great discussion that covered topics such as:

• Educating advisors on the role of alternative strategies in portfolios and their benefits
• Recency bias and why “hindsight is 60/40”
• A different approach to building a truly balanced portfolio
• Why allocators find it difficult to diversify away from stocks and bonds, despite recognizing how expensive they currently are
• Dealing with an environment that most financial professionals have never come across in their lives
• Embracing alternative risk premiums and trying to understand why they work
• Private equity and hedge funds – the ‘gateway’ alts
• Niche vs large managers – why size matters and finding the sweet spot
• Path dependency and sequence of returns
• Communication challenges and getting clients across the line to embrace a novel approach
• Line item risk vs portfolio ‘gestalt’
• Fiduciary responsibilities, diversification, fees and behavioral considerations
• Behavioral coaching as an integral part of an advisor’s job
• A wide range of experiences and unrealistic expectations – why alternative strategies haven’t been fully embraced by retail investors
• In the absence of value, we negotiate price
• Overcrowding, passive-flows and factor underperformance
• The pitfalls of overly conservative assumptions
• Minimizing regret vs maximizing utility
• Plan vs planning – a perpetual, ongoing exercise

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Jack Forehand is co-founder, partner and CIO at Validea Capital, and is also the co-host of the popular Excess Returns podcast. He joined us for an awesome conversation that included topics such as:

• The different styles for interviewing guests –preparation vs improvisation
• Factor models to decompose the returns achieved by famed managers
• Peter Lynch and the real mystery behind his track-record
• Momentum vs return chasing
• Cycles, underperformance and the benefits of combining different methodologies
• The hard problem of factor allocation based on historical returns
• A pragmatic approach that earned Jack his Twitter Handle – @practicalquant
• Education, discipline and adherence
• The incredibly long winter experienced by the value factor – is it over
• Behavioral vulnerabilities – knowing about them doesn’t dampen their effect
• Holding minimum amounts of cash – the additional tail-wind for indexed products
• Tracking error can be more painful than the risk of losses
• Why finding your like-minded tribe is a crucial component of sticking with a strategy

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Perth Tolle is the founder of Life + Liberty Indexes, an index provider and sponsor of the Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF – a first of its kind strategy that uses personal and economic freedom metrics as primary factors in its investment process. She joined us for a great conversation that included:

• How her early life in China, Hong Kong and the US shaped her perceptions of freedom
• Isolating the “freedom factor” and using it, not as a tilt, but the primary basis for investment decisions
• The enormous task of quantifying, converting, and scaling 76 different metrics, many of which are qualitative
• Political, judicial, economic and social – freedom measured in its many forms
• Settling contradictions when different freedoms collide
• Why Perth has avoided the ESG label
• The many signs that suggested that this was a product that needed to exist
• Stumbling onto a fishing trip with industry heavy-weights and securing seed capital
• Reaching the important milestone of USD 100 million assets under management
• Forging her own path in an extremely competitive and challenging industry
• Accepting that she can no longer travel to several countries because of her work
• Her partnership with Alpha Architect
• New projects on the horizon

Thank you for watching and listening  See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

This week we had the pleasure of hosting our friend Jon Aikman, President and CIO of ReSolution Investments, for a broad conversation on the three-lettered acronym that has taken the investment world by storm in the last few years: ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance. We covered:

• How a background in law, banking and academia developed into a passion for impact investing
• While the environment has drawn most of the attention, we shouldn’t overlook the social and governance agenda
• Untangling definitions and acronyms
• Anti-carbon policies running ahead of replacement technology
• Oil isn’t going away any time soon – think carbon sequestration
• Environmental goals at odds with shareholder value maximization
• One man’s waste is another man’s biofuel
• Investors’ time horizons are often too short to take long-term externalities into account
• Any time people make investment decisions for non-economic reasons, opportunities arise
• How dislocations impose ripe opportunities for active management
• Green washing, opportunism and gaming the system
• Incorporating inflation hedging within an ESG framework
• The temporal question – developed nations evolved and polluted, emerging markets want the right to do the same
• The tough economic decisions governments, companies and individuals are likely to face in the coming years

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Tom Morgan is Director of Communications and Content for the Knall/Cohen/Pence (KCP) Group at Stifel. He writes a weekly missive called The Attention Span, which curates and synthesizes content, ideas and frameworks to help readers make sense of an increasingly complex world.

Tom, Richard, Mike and Adam wandered into a wide range of topics, but the central theme orbited around humanity’s universal craving for meaning and connection in the vacuum created by the post-modernist Western focus on empirical rationalism. Along the way we touched on the following subjects:

• The central importance of authenticity and following your passion to stand out and build community in an increasingly hostile information ecosystem
• The importance of intuition as a connection to the “extended mind” and the example of George Soros’ sore back
• The human obsession with the sacred and the profane, and how this need manifests in tribalism in the absence of religious context
• The West’s devilish obsession with left-brain priorities like data, taxonomies, definitions, and process, which are devoid of context and meaning
• The critical role of emergent dynamics in shaping our world from the bottom-up
• The potential for evolutionary processes to converge on awful solutions
• Potential dangers in applying constraints or directions in complex dynamic systems
• How asymmetrically powerful actors like Facebook’s engagement AIs might corrupt natural evolutionary processes and lead us down a dark path
• Why we are accelerating toward universal irrelevancy and must soon rethink the value of individuals and our social contracts
• How to “dance” with complexity and find the joy in adapting rather than controlling
• Why all meaningful change happens at the border of order and chaos
• Why the most important leaps forward always seem insane right up to the point when they are universally accepted

This is obviously a long list, but there is so much more between the lines and in the connective tissue of the discussion. The ReSolve crew had a lot of fun with this conversation and we think you will too.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Wes, Patrick and the Alpha Architect Team are long-time friends of ReSolve, and were gracious enough to join us last-minute to discuss their huge win in the ETF white label space, with the launch of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF. Wes and team are known for their pure factor ETFs, but in the last few years they’ve pivoted from asset management to create an ETF Architect division, offering the “picks and shovels” for external managers to offer niche strategies with tight operations and low costs.

Wes and Patrick give us the straight goods on what it takes to launch a successful ETF, including:

• Overcoming their academic focus on factor-oriented quant strategies to entertain more diverse offerings
• How “ETF Innovation” differs from traditional approaches and fund conversions
• The “minimum effective dose” of operating capital and market buy-in necessary to facilitate a successful ETF launch
• A deep dive into the levers of economics and margins for launching and operating an ETF
• Insights on changes to tax and regulatory rules proposed by the Biden administration, and the economic merits of equalizing ETF and mutual fund tax treatment
• Evolution in market access – how investors access ETFs vs mutual funds and how to get shelf space for fund products
• The special considerations involved in launching a Bitcoin ETF
• Overcoming the negative roll yield typical of Bitcoin futures
• The state of arbitrage in the digital asset space, and why juicy returns will probably persist

You will not find a more candid, competent and credible team than Wes and Patrick to get the unfiltered version of what you need to deliver a successful ETF launch. It was also amazing to learn more about the machinations involved in standing up a crypto asset product, and getting a glimpse into the future of the space.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

In this episode, the ReSolve team is joined by Jared Dillian, the editor of The Daily Dirtnap and author of the book No Worries: How to Live a Stress-Free Financial Life. They delve into a variety of topics, including the power of diversification, the importance of understanding financial stress, and the current state of global financial markets.

Topics Discussed

• Jared Dillian's perspective on the current macro views on monetary policy, hard assets, and other financial matters

• The concept of financial stress and how to minimize it, focusing on debt and risk

• The importance of time and rational decision-making in buying a house

• A discussion on the current state of advice in the financial industry

• The 'Awesome Portfolio' - a diversification strategy that includes stocks, bonds, cash, gold, and real estate

• The role of gold in a diversified portfolio and its comparison to Dennis Rodman's role in a basketball team

• The potential future of inflation and its impact on the global economy

• An exploration of emerging markets, with a focus on India and Argentina

• A discussion on potential future challenges in the financial market, including the possibility of high interest rates

This episode offers valuable insights into financial stress, diversification strategies, and the future of global financial markets. It's a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of the financial world and gaining strategies to navigate the uncertain financial landscape.

Traditional portfolios are faced with the prospects of depressed expected returns in the coming years, as implied by current stretched valuations of stocks, and near record low rates and credit spreads for bonds. Our recently released paper – Return Stacking: Strategies for Overcoming a Low Return Environment – co-authored by Rodrigo and our good friend Corey Hoffstein, shows how investors may materially improve their chances of success by allocating to uncorrelated managers that may offer more ‘bang for your buck’ and free up valuable ‘portfolio real-estate’. Fielding questions from the ‘Twittersphere’ as well as our live audience, this episode covers:

• The pitfalls of emulating large institutions with limited portfolio agility and mandate flexibility
• Stellar returns and recency bias – why so many investors remain anchored to the ‘60/40 portfolio’
• Why stocks and bonds are structurally not designed to thrive in high inflation and/or low growth environments
• How loose fiscal policy, layered atop highly expansive monetary policy, strengthens the case for persistent inflation
• A trip down portfolio theory memory lane
• Risk transformation and financial alchemy
• Leverage aversion – concentrated bets vs capital efficient diversified return streams
• Structural diversification, tracking error and absolute returns
• Return stacking as a form of liability hedging for advisors
• Finding structural edges and tilting the odds in one’s favor

The team also discussed the importance of separating the underlying components of any strategy, not only across asset-classes, but also beta, alpha, styles, and tilts, in order to use them as building blocks to create tailored portfolios with desired exposures.

There’s also an “Easter Egg” where Adam discusses the results of a forthcoming paper on the shockingly large potential benefits of trade and fee netting in multi-strategy products.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Whether stemming from a recession, a policy shock, a terrorist attack, or a global pandemic, financial markets periodically go through major selloffs. It has always been this way. Euphoria eventually leads to panic, every time. Another way to look at these crashes is through the lens of volatility (and its commensurate rise), which has become a fundamental component of investment decisions. As time goes by, innovations can (and will) suppress volatility and can sometimes give the impression that risk has been eliminated, but that is always a fool’s dream. Eventually the piper must be paid.

Our guests this week were Benn Eifert (Founder & CIO) and Scott Maidel (Head of Business Development), of QVR Advisors, a boutique asset manager that specializes in strategies seeking to profit from volatility and all its downstream effects – including attempts to suppress it. We covered:

• How markets fundamentally changed following the Great Financial Crisis
• Call overwriting – the favorite strategy of yield-thirsty institutions
• Why ‘selling vol’ is too broad a term and has all but lost its meaning
• Everybody wants protection – reflexivity and the options tail that wags the equity dog
• The behemoth equity hedged strategy that now moves the market at the end of every quarter
• “Gradually, then suddenly” – the nature of volatility
• Gamma & Vanna – the second-order ‘Greeks’ and their outsized influence in short-term moves
• Execution is key – don’t trade against the Flash Boys
• Buying what you don’t want to build
• Systematic vs Quant

Benn and Scott also described in detail QVR’s two main lines of business – absolute return and tailored solutions – providing insight into their processes and competitive advantages. We also discussed the distinct nature of different market crashes, trade monetization, rebalancing, and much more. It was a fascinating conversation and a true lesson on the current structure of equity markets.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

We had a very special guest this week – Roy Niederhoffer, founder and president of R. G. Niederhoffer Capital Management, a NY-based quantitative investment firm. With a strong musical background and an original plan to become a neuroscientist, Roy might have led an academic life if it weren’t for his programming skills and an offer to join his older brother’s hedge fund, one that he couldn’t refuse. He joined us for a fascinating conversation, covering topics such as:

• His early life, a diverse set of interests and becoming a highly-skilled generalist
• Striking out on his own – why would an institution ever invest with a 26-year old running computers in his living room?
• Developing short-duration strategies that are uncorrelated to both traditional and alternative investments
• Long volatility vs short volatility strategies
• The inescapable dopamine rush of capital markets and the importance of managing emotions
• Trend-following, convexity, and why the frequency of observations matters so much
• Behavioral neuroscience applied to markets
• Leaning into the work of Danny Kahneman and dissecting his magnum opus over dozens of weekly sessions
• Identifying price patterns that will trigger predictable emotional responses from market participants – therein lies the edge
• The difference between strategy management and risk management
• Printing of fiat money and the conditions for an elimination event that can wipe out multi-generational wealth

He also summarized his general investment theory, which seeks to identify asset-class characteristics that can be generalized, those that will remain idiosyncratic, and some that might eventually spill over into other markets. Roy is a true polymath, with a unique perspective and a generous disposition to share his knowledge.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

“The unfortunate truth is, very few want to hear an optimistic take on the world during a pandemic.”

Human beings evolved to pay closer attention to negative vs positive information. For our ancestors, the cost of seeing danger where there was none was a cortisol spike and an unnecessary sprint, but dismissing a real threat might have led them to be a predator’s next meal.

Our guest this week was Laurence Siegel, Director of Research at the CFA Institute Research Foundation and author of “Fewer, Richer, Greener: Prospects for Humanity in an Age of Abundance”. We discussed the main themes from his book, including:

• The case for techno-optimism
• Demographics, healthcare and lifespan
• Inflation, deflation and hedonic adjustments
• Pollution, climate modelling and the wide range of possible outcomes
• Why nuclear power is a crucial component of a greener energy matrix
• Differences across geographies
• Economics, capital markets and realistic expectations

We also debated the future of cities, real-estate costs and possible changes to the jobs market if we extrapolate current trends.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

“Don’t hide from risk; find it and attack it.”

We were joined this week by none other than Tom Basso (Enjoytheride.world), trend following legend, author of Panic-Proof Investing and The Frustrated Investor and known as ‘Mr Serenity’ from his depiction in Jack Schwager’s best-selling Market Wizard series. From his ten-dollar a week paper route, to earning enough money to buy his first mutual fund, our conversation spanned a few decades and included:

• A chemical engineer’s approach to capital markets
• Commodity futures as the ultimate training ground in the 1970s
• Black Monday, Dotcom Crash, GFC and Covid – a career shaped by ‘crisis alpha’
• A business mindset to asset management, and early struggles as a salesman
• Retiring from money management, and smiling ever since
• Taking much more risk in retirement than when he managed funds
• Improving his techniques and the evolution of his edge
• Solving the investment puzzle – codify your rules, size trades appropriately, and most important, work on your mental game

We dug deeper into the latter point, discussing the benefits of stoicism, meditation, journaling and other techniques that can improve one’s mental game, both in trading and in life. Tom also shared insights into some of the different strategies he runs and parameters he watches closely, as well as his friendship with Eric Crittenden and becoming chairman of Standpoint Funds.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

As a growing percentage of Baby Boomers prepare for retirement, they are confronted with the uncomfortable prospect of record stock and bond valuations. Even the most optimistic capital market assumptions suggest the 60/40 portfolio is unlikely to deliver the returns many nest eggs have been built for.

To help us get a clearer picture of the challenges and opportunities faced by retirees in the coming decade, we had the pleasure of speaking with Michael Finke (Professor of Wealth Management) and David Blanchett (Managing Director and Head of Retirement Research at QMA). Topics included:

• The crucial importance of updated and realistic capital market assumptions
• Lifespan, “healthspan” and the prospects of retirements that last well over 30 years
• Why ‘probability of success’ is no longer an adequate yardstick for retirement planning
• How to prepare if we are indeed stuck in a perpetually low interest rate environment
• The fundamental dynamics of sequence of returns
• Guaranteed incomes, utility and nuance – true outcome vs probability of failure
• The difference between a TIPS ladder and an annuity
• Longevity annuities and optimal spending rates
• Purpose Investment’s Longevity Pension Fund – combining a tontine, an annuity and a balanced portfolio
• Analyzing other tailored products

We also discussed how any tool, no matter how sophisticated, is still bound to the ‘GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) problem’, why these problems are not limited to retail investors, a highly effective cake analogy to describe solutions to longevity risk, and much more.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

A casual observer of modern economies might be forgiven for feeling that life is pretty good. And they might reasonably credit neoclassical economic principles for facilitating what appears to have been a great leap forward in global prosperity. At the same time, we are occasionally confronted with news of looming global calamities, which are a product of the exact same policies that brought about this apparent prosperity: irreversible climate change, unprecedented global private credit, global asset bubbles to name just a few.

Our guest this week, Professor Steve Keen, has spent a lifetime demonstrating why neoclassical economics is fundamentally self-terminating because it fails to account for realities imposed by the physical world. He walks us through the root issues and describes an economic framework for sustainable growth and more even prosperity. In particular we discussed:

• The roots of the 2008 global financial crisis and how he predicted it in advance
• How the 1972 report “Limits to Growth” successfully forecast how the global economy would run headlong into resource boundary conditions
• Richard Vague’s findings that accelerating growth of private credit has presaged every major financial collapse in the past few centuries
• How the misguided work of two economists in the early 1990s has led to catastrophic policy and climate consequences
• The financialization of housing and its impact on home prices, demand for private credit, and a return to feudalism
• How to incorporate resource consumption and waste into modern economic models
• The character and potential positive impact of a modern debt jubilee

Professor Keen is not a man who minces words. Pour yourself an Irish coffee and settle in for a jarring ride.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator.

This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

One of the major trends catalyzed by the era of low interest rates and excess liquidity has been the drive towards real assets. Uniqueness and scarcity premiums are paid in assets as diverse as real estate, art, digital assets, and fine wines. With our friend Jason Buck (CIO of Mutiny Fund) as co-host, we were joined this week by Atul Tiwari (CEO of Cult Wines) for a deep dive into the world of investable fine wines. Topics included:

• Atul’s journey – from reformed lawyer and finance executive to managing liquid, wooden-barreled assets
• Separately Managed Wines – tailored solutions for different objectives
• The industry’s original 800 pound gorilla and his point system – reverse-engineering for a single palate
• Specialization and diversity – the multiple voices currently driving wine culture
• The surprising existence of wine futures
• Vintage ranges, consumption windows, storage and handling
• Value vs growth dynamics, with no easily accessible beta – and some serious negative carry
• Insurance, free ports and bonded warehouses – geographic diversification and avoiding double taxation
• Bypassing auctions and buying only when authenticity can be verified

Enriched by Jason’s experience as a former restauranteur and Mike’s passion for the subject, the conversation also touched on underappreciated vineyards, great documentaries, and tips for finding appropriately aged wine in restaurants. A special thanks to sommelier Amanda McCrossin (@SommVivant) for joining our live chat (and adding tons of pedigree to Jason’s views). If there was ever an episode that you should consider pouring a glass for, this is it.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

If you’ve been following international news over the past few years, you’ve likely noticed brewing tensions between major countries, even before the pandemic struck. Proxy wars, diplomatic tensions and regional skirmishes have been flaring up across the globe. To help us make sense of these events and how they may impact financial markets, we had the distinct pleasure of hosting none other than Dr. Pippa Malmgren, former presidential advisor, best-selling and award winning author. Her expertise sits at the intersection of geopolitics, economics and technology, leading to a wide-ranging conversation that covered topics such as:

• Family business – growing up in Washington, D.C. as the daughter of an advisor to four US presidents
• Why members of the armed forces are operating as if there is already a global conflict at hand
• Disputed borders, near misses and the risk of miscalculations – skirmishes below most peoples’ radar
• Thucydides Trap – Rising China, declining US and the possibility of superpowers clashing
• Political polarization in the US and globally
• Information bubbles and the search for common purpose
• The Great Gatsby vs The Grapes of Wrath – two opposing narratives emanating from the same catalyst
• AI, Quantum Computing and Robotics – a closer look at the 21st century’s battlefield

We also discussed the positive and negative effects of the digital age and the exponential increase in available information, the race for natural resources in the Arctic, opportunities and risks investors should be mindful of, and much more. Pippa was on her usual top form and very generous with her time, which made for a fascinating and highly entertaining episode.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

With our good friend Dave Nadig (CIO and Director of Research at ETF Trends) as co-host, we had the pleasure of speaking with Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Investment, which manages the world’s largest crypto index fund. A veteran of the ETF industry, Matt brings institutional gravitas to a nascent sector and has recently authored the CFA Institute’s curriculum guidelines for digital assets. Our conversation included:

• Crypto as a currency looks highly unlikely to succeed, but as a technological advance it is highly unlikely to fail
• One of the most interesting problems in the space: very few people actually understand blockchain technology and its multifaceted capabilities
• The biggest risk in digital assets is behavioral
• Why market-cap weighted may be quasi optimal – size matters in a sector driven by network effects
• The delusional notions of Bitcoin replacing the USD
• The crucial importance of frequently rebalancing a portfolio that holds highly volatile assets
• A shifting zeitgeist and the typical question – from “will it go to zero?” to “what is a reasonable weight range?”
• Why UniSwap may be the greatest entrepreneurial story of the past decade

We also discussed DeFi (Decentralized Finance), technological updates and the excitement around the Ethereum ecosystem, tax implications and much more. A big thanks to Dave Nadig, not only for the introduction to Matt and co-hosting the episode, but for flexing his healthy skeptical muscles and pushing back at times – it made for great entertainment!

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

In this episode, Andy Constan, a veteran Wall Street professional, joins the ReSolve team to discuss the intricacies of the Federal Reserve's interest rate policies, the impact of long-term borrowing rates on the economy, and the role of financial advisors in the investment industry. They delve into a wide array of topics, shedding light on the complexities of asset allocation, the influence of policy makers on market dynamics, and the future prospects of bonds and equities.

Topics Discussed

• Andy Constan's perspective on the Federal Reserve's interest rate policies and their impact on long-term borrowing rates

• The role of financial advisors in the investment industry and the importance of informed conversations between advisors and clients

• Insights into the complexities of asset allocation and the challenges of stock picking

• The impact of long-term interest rates on the economy and the potential implications for inflation

• The role of policy makers in changing market dynamics and the potential effects of their decisions

• Predictions for the future performance of bonds and equities, and the factors that could influence these outcomes

• The potential impact of government spending and fiscal policies on the expected trajectories of the market

This episode is a deep dive into the complexities of financial markets, interest rates, and asset allocation. Andy Constan provides valuable insights from his extensive experience on Wall Street, making this a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the intricate dynamics of the investment industry and the potential future of bonds and equities.

This is “ReSolve Riffs” – published on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

Following our first conversation with David Fauchier (Portfolio Manager at Nickel Digital Asset Management), he insisted that we had to speak with Thomas Braziel, Founder and CIO of 507 Capital, who he claimed was one of the most interesting and independently-minded investors he had met in the digital asset space. With David as co-host, our awesome conversation with Thomas covered topics such as:

• Why almost all his stories begin with a bankruptcy
• Opportunities that don’t scale tend to offer the juiciest returns
• The reason some of these trades work is precisely because they are not scalable
• His perspective on the Mt. Gox debacle and why he has been buying claims on it for years
• Claims investing – why many distressed assets fly under the radar of most allocators
• His unique investment style – if Soros and Buffet had an ‘investment love child’
• Different models for claims investing – from complex factoring to ‘loon shot buccaneering’
• Getting along with all the players in the space can be a form of alpha

We went deep into the inner workings of the space, including how different countries treat personal liabilities in bankruptcies, the contrasts between English Common Law and the US legal system, and what it means to go ‘forum shopping’. Yet another highly entertaining and educational episode and we hope you enjoy it.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

For this podcast we had the pleasure of being joined by Fred Pye, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of 3iQ Corp. He is also the Chairman of 3iQ Digital Holdings Inc. 3iQ is a pioneer manager in the digital asset space, with a variety of Canadian and international mutual funds and ETFs providing access to a variety of cryptocurrencies.

On this episode we discuss:

• The early history of trailblazing unique asset classes
• The QSC/OSC and Bitcoin – a commodity, a security or a currency
• Closed-end funds – their advantages for investors
• Four years, plus 10,000 pages of due diligence
• Frontier asset classes and client retention
• The impact of Bitcoin on third world economies
• The future of the Blockchain

We thoroughly enjoyed this episode and hope that you will too. See you next week.

This is GestaltU from ReSolve Asset Management where we debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global*.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global*.

 “A year ago, digital assets were a fringe asset class, the mere mention of which could spell career risk. Now, the career risk is likely if you completely ignore the space.”

Global markets are evolving at a blinding pace, and investors often find themselves in a race to catch up with what are sometimes truly tectonic shifts. Nowhere is this more emblematic than in the digital assets realm. We had the pleasure of once again hosting Tyrone Ross Jr, along with his new business partner Eric Ervin – founders of Onramp Invest – for a fascinating conversation that covered:

• A ‘meeting of minds’ that resulted in Onramp Invest
• The fast and furious migration of digital assets into the common zeitgeist
• Trying to seamlessly integrate Onramp Invest into advisors’ workflow – ease of access is crucial
• Onramp Academy – filling the education vacuum and establishing a foundation for conversations
• Integrating traditional finance with the crypto world
• The difference between digital assets and digital currencies
• One third of the S&P500’s market cap is represented by financial services – the size of the DeFi (Decentralized Finance) Pie
• The importance of properly anchored risk expectations for a highly volatile and emerging asset class

The discussion also included frameworks for understanding both the value of digital assets (think network effects) and their possible place in portfolios (where rebalancing is of paramount importance). Eric and Tyrone shared their screen to walk us through their portal and some of the very useful tools they’ve created for investors.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global*.

“There are two types of truths – one that can be derived from first principles, and another that emerges from a common set of beliefs or a shared narrative.”

It was our great pleasure to speak this week with Demetri Kofinas, host of the popular Hidden Forces podcast. We have been keen listeners to Hidden Forces for some time and have admired Demetri’s ability to dive deep into topics as diverse as epistemology, philosophy, global macro and digital assets, to name just a few. Our conversation included:

• Demetri’s background in media and journey to establishing Hidden Forces
• Disillusionment after the Great Financial Crisis and conspiracy rabbit holes
• Is the fracturing US political system beyond repair?
• The Trump Phenomenon – cause, symptom or catalyst?
• Hyperrealism, information bubbles and the struggle to find common ground
• Fiat news and narrative wars
• Defining truth – the trouble with epistemology
• Digital assets, financial nihilism and generational divide
• US, China and Russia – the geopolitical backdrop

Demetri also walked us through his process for generating ideas for episodes and cited memorable guests that have helped shape his understanding on many of the subjects we touched upon. It was a truly fascinating conversation and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global*.

“As the discount rate drives towards zero, it inflates every asset on the planet, including their correlations. Today’s dominant factor is discount rate risk.”

Fasten your seatbelt and dial down the speed on your podcast player, because you are in for an epic ride. With our good friend Corey Hoffstein (CIO of Newfound Research) as co-host, we were once again joined by one of the most interesting and thought-provoking guests we’ve had on the show: Chris Schindler (Co-founder, CEO and CIO of Castlefield Associates). This incredibly rich and nuanced conversation touched on themes that included:

• Who is “on the other side” of trades and investment strategies – persistent wealth transfers that lead to positive utility for both parties, with no “willing losers”
• Crowded and anti-crowded trades – drilling into the reflexive nature of markets
• What leads to crowding – structural and behavioral reasons, along with naturally-long players
• Why alternative risk premia (aka investment factors) have become shockingly crowded, and where investors might find blue ocean in the space
• Behavior doesn’t manifest in a vacuum – why the efficient market hypothesis is naturally at odds with human synchronization
• Alpha in traditional investments implies being early and/or different
• Social media, riot theory and the emergent phenomenon of crowds
• The ultimate CIO’s dilemma – where do we go from here?
• The moral hazard trade – governments, central banks, and self-fulfilling prophecies
• A basket of call options is always preferable to a call option on a basket

We also covered some of the underlying reasons for market synchronization, how many steps ahead of the crowds are likely to lead to profitable trades, and much more. This episode contains more nuggets of wisdom than we could count and is certainly worth saving for future reference.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global*.

“Life – and investing – are more like poker than chess”. This week we had the honor to speak to none other than Annie Duke, former World Series of Poker champion, author of “Thinking in Bets” and “How to Decide”, and thought leader in the field of decision-making. Co-hosted by our good friend Brian Portnoy (founder of Shaping Wealth), the conversation covered:

• How planning for a life in academia led her into a successful poker career
• Applying her background in cognitive science to advance her game – Annie’s “Aha! moment"
• Not all poker is created equal – tournaments, cash games, iterations, and strategic differences
• Nature vs nurture – cognitive flexibility and turning a hedgehog into a fox
• Cognitive Reflection Tests and why they may indicate a larger appetite for conspiracy theories
• The Dunning-Kruger effect, overconfidence and naïve realism
• The pervasive influence of the sunk cost fallacy and how we might keep it in check
• Group think, cognitive laziness and why most people tend to anchor to the first response they hear

We also explored the illusion of explanatory depth (and why often the answer lies within the question), the effects of tight feedback loops, and multiple applications for life and investment decisions. Towards the end we caught on to the fact that Annie had actually been incepting us with ideas from her new book all along. We had been looking forward to this conversation for some time and it exceeded our expectations.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

How we can prepare for every investment scenario.

We discuss:

• Risk Parity and Futures Markets
• Leverage and Value Diversification
• Outsourcing Expertise
• Integrating Asset Classes to Maximize Returns

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global*.

This week we were joined by Brandon Caruana and Brian Tang, cofounders of Cayman-based Cartan Group, a consulting firm that specializes in blockchain technology solutions. The two combine for a deep and broad knowledge base of the emerging digital asset space, which made for a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation that included topics such as:

• The full ‘crypto stack’ – core networks and their multiple layers
• Block sizes and transaction speeds – features or bugs?
• Proof of work vs proof of stake – validation methods and relative merits
• Energy costs, algorithm rules and security
• Trade-offs between different blockchains and layers – what problems are they trying to solve?
• Why base layers are always more secure than the stack
• Why Bitcoin is the asset-equivalent of a duck-billed platypus
• Asset-backed coins and varying collaterals for stable coins

We also discussed the attractive features of the Algorand protocol, Helium and ‘proof of space’, and the generational divide between living in the analog and digital realms. The conversation devolved into philosophical musings on Artificial Intelligence and techno-utopia (and at times dystopia), a future of abundance and the pursuit of passions and callings, which left us with the ultimate question: is AI going to eat, rule or serve the world?

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

How can we manage for scenarios when Liquidity evaporates?

We discuss:

• The mechanics of a Liquidity Shock
• The Fed and the Long Volatility Gap
• Diversification, Tail Hedge Protection and Theta Bleed
• Dennis Rodman and the Long Vol Trade
• Yield, Growth and Inflation

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global*.

Our guest this week was Robert Cantwell, founder and CIO of Upholdings, the first hedge fund in the US to be converted into an ETF. His career arc, beginning on the institutional side of the business and then actively seeking out more experience as a business operator, armed him with the flexibility of both mindset and strategy to embrace disruptive new trends. The conversation included:

• The differences between building a company and managing money
• Why ETFs, the modern vehicles, aren’t yet wholly embraced as the premium vehicle
• Size matters – margins vs scalability
• The future is unconstrained by geography or time-zones (and probably lives on the blockchain)
• The tradeoffs between a nimble portfolio and tax implications
• Doing your homework – speak to the five people that know the most about a given company or topic (yes, much easier said than done)
• Time arbitrage – the best alpha you can have is a longer investment horizon than most market participants

We also discussed the time-varying nature of the market’s fear over specific industries and investment categories, seizing the opportunity provided by low rates and volatility spikes, and why the US government’s “business model” is fundamentally flawed. Robert also shared a couple of stories from his experience working with Bono Vox, as well as a take on U2 that you would probably never expect.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Introduction

In this episode, we are thrilled to have Jeff Weniger, the Chief U.S. Strategist for WisdomTree ETFs, back on the show. Jeff shares his insights on a range of topics, including the 'pension wars' concept, the potential for a domino effect in global equity markets, and the role of financial engineering in shaping investment strategies.

Topics Discussed

• Discussion on the 'pension wars' concept and its potential impact on asset flows over the next several years

• Exploration of the potential domino effect in global equity markets and the implications for investment strategies

• Insight into the role of financial engineering in shaping investment strategies, with a focus on the 1980s and 1990s

• Analysis of the impact of rising natural gas prices on diversified enterprises and the broader market

• Discussion on the future of work, with a focus on the shift towards remote work and its potential implications for the labor market

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of global equity markets, the potential impact of the 'pension wars' concept, and the future of work. Jeff Weniger's insights provide valuable strategies to navigate the uncertain financial landscape and better understand the intricacies of investment strategies.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – published on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

This is GestaltU from ReSolve Asset Management where we debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global.

The Crypto space is gaining more interest every day. David Fauchier is a Portfolio Manager and allocator at Nickel Digital Asset Management, with eight years of experience in the digital asset space. Prior to joining Nickel, David was CIO of Cambrial Capital, a London based fund of funds, which specialized in sourcing and selecting market neutral managers in the digital asset space. He also sits on the Advisory Board of Global Digital Finance, an industry membership body engaging policy makers and regulators to advocate for industry best practice in cryptoassets.

On this episode we discuss:

• The history of money regimes
• The cottage industry and new definition of “Market Neutral“
• Contrasting allocation criteria for digital vs traditional managers
• Fund Managers and “The Five Aces“
• Paranoid Cowboys
• The plumbing of fund management
• The three approaches to Crypto investing
• Cumulative “IQ Points“

As an addendum, we were able to debrief with David on the evening of the May 19th crypto liquidation event to hear first-hand how institutional traders experienced the event in real-time.

This was a wide-ranging conversation as David provided in depth insight into the paths taken during the current evolution of Crypto and where he feels it may lead us from here.

We hope you enjoy this informative interview.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global*.

And in the blink of an eye, a year went by.

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, we recorded a conversation on the global investment landscape in the wake of competing narratives and heightened uncertainty. The Pandemic Portfolio episode paved the way for what would become ReSolve Riffs, our ‘happy hour’ conversation on investment (and sometimes other) topics. Forty-seven episodes later, we looked back at this first year, the lessons we learned and what we might expect going forward:

• Global Macro – the all-encompassing theme and ‘elemental soup’ of investment decisions
• Inflation, reflation and the commodities boom
• The role of the US dollar
• Guardians of the narrative
• Equities – ‘beta vortex’, gamification and continued FOMO markets
• Volatility, convexity and tail-protection
• Major trends on the horizon – ESG, VR and the awesome power of blockchain technology

We also revisited worthy episodes that might have been overlooked, including those that explored behavioral biases, market psychology or were just downright entertaining. Towards the end, reminiscing gave way to forecasting, as we speculated on the evolving fields of AI and gene-editing and how they might impact the world in the coming years.

Thank you for being a part of this incredible first year. We hope it’s the first of many. See you next week.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

How can we move from Factor Beta to Alpha?

We discuss:

• Swensen, Yale and aligning incentives
• The cycles of factor investing
• Machine learning, the Bias/Variance trade off and Alpha
• Ensembles
• Sustainable Alpha through continuous Innovation

What additional Sleeves can we add to maximize diversity?

We discuss:

• Style premia, factors, smart beta – the benefits and risks
• Efficient negative Sharpe ratios
• Redemptions and “noise traders”
• Larry Swedroe and anomalies
• Value characteristics and correlations
• Flows and Arbitrage opportunities

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global*.

“The global macro game is far from boring!” Juliette Declercq, Founder & Global Macro Strategist at JDI Research, is not one to mince words, neither on her monthly reports, or on the rare occasions she grants an interview. We had the privilege of hosting her this week for some deeply insightful macro riffing that included:

• Her bullish case for global equities, particularly European companies
• Why Big Tech shouldn’t be considered a growth (or long-duration) asset
• Financial repression as the most urgent macro challenge of our times
• Inflation, yield curve (no control) and the USD
• Fiscal policy as the avenue for increased money velocity
• Crypto Asset – disintermediation, securitization and network effects
• Banking vs DeFi – the hybrid way forward (and the importance of customer service)
• Exponential possibilities within the Ethereum ecosystem

We also explored Juliette’s investment framework, which takes on a trader’s vantage point – looking no further than the next 12-18 months – and seeks to maximize returns from her best ideas by “allowing winners to run”.  It was an extremely engaging conversation, drawing many questions from the audience.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

How do we eat Sharpe ratio and meet financial goals with a maximally diversified portfolio?

We discuss:

• Using leverage in a robust and diversified portfolio to preserve diversification while achieving target returns
• Why “credit” is not a distinct asset class and does not increase diversity
• Integrating your bets
• The repercussions of levering up
• What makes Risk Parity hard

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global*.

Jim O’Shaughnessy (chairman and co-CIO of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management) is a Wall Street legend. He is one of the “OGs” of quantitative investing, a best-selling author, and more recently also turned podcaster with his Infinite Loops channel. Jim joined us for a roller-coaster of a conversation that covered:

• The beauty of marrying science fiction with real science
• Interviewing people you look up to, and why “no man is a hero to his valet”
• A fast-changing world requires non-linear thinking
• Aspirational leadership and nurturing self-confidence
• Acquiring knowledge, mental models and the future of education
• How openness to failure can set us up for success
• Unrelenting optimism – buying the call option on mankind

We also discussed the future of the wealth advisory industry, which Jim is confident will be highly dependent on client customization, and we could have easily gone on for a few more hours. But Jim lost his connection towards the very end, mid-laugh (a memorable snapshot for those of you also watching), leaving Adam, Mike and Richard to riff by themselves for the last few minutes.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Traditional yields are low, so how do we meet our funding obligations?

We discuss:

• Rebalancing highly diversified portfolios to generate 3%-5% in excess returns
• The Diversification Ratio and maximally diversified portfolios
• The increased value of maximally diversified commodity sleeves
• Special advantages for non-institutional investors

Hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global.

As is often the case with sharp and curious minds, our guest this week traveled a meandering route through his career. While studying meteorology and public health in university, Eric Crittenden (CIO of Standpoint Asset Management) stumbled into an economics class and fell in love with complex dynamic systems. He then joined a family office that was uniquely focused on levering into technology companies in the run up to the Dotcom Crash, a debacle that strengthened his views on the importance of diversification and risk management. We discussed:

• From a purely cartesian market view, to recognizing the crucial role played by psychology and behavior
• Early appreciation for the “elevator down, escalator up” type of risk
• How to give investors both what they want and need
• His whitepapers, especially “Does Trend Following Work on Stocks?”
• Why it’s harder to raise capital for diversified strategies, but also harder to get fired
• Liquidity weighting versus risk weighting
• Why collecting a risk premium means you are on the “wrong side” of skew
• Disaggregating term structure from price appreciation in returns – why carry pays

Our conversation also covered the benefits of signal generation that combines different phenomena, why in theory, investors want diversification and risk management (but not so much in practice), and much more. A widely entertaining episode, with no words minced and even a moment of collective catharsis.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

Michael Harris started trading rates and derivatives 30 years ago. He is the Founder of Price Action Lab and the developer of the first commercial software for identifying parameter-less patterns in price action 20 years ago. In the past 10 years he has worked on the development of DLPAL, which is a software program designed to identify short-term anomalies in market data for use with fixed and machine learning models.

In this wide ranging interview we discuss:

• Back testing and generating trading signals on an Atari Console
• Loss Compression and Forecasting
• Data Mining – microfeatures, micropatterns and trend following
• The hit rate, payoff ratio, profit factor and the Profitability Rule
• Data Mining Bias and Data Snooping
• The Seven Weekly Strategies
• The direction of probability

The conversation was interesting and enlightening as Michael provided new insights into emerging financial technologies. We hope you enjoy it. Thank you for listening.

In this episode, the ReSolve team is joined by Jason Buck, co-founder and CIO of Mutiny Funds, to delve into a range of topics, from the concept of ergodicity, portfolio construction, and the importance of diversification in investing. They also discuss the intricacies of the capital efficiency and tax implications of various investment strategies.

Topics Discussed

• Jason Buck's explanation of ergodic and non-ergodic concepts using the analogy of Russian Roulette

• The importance of understanding expected value in portfolio construction

• The role of offense plus defense in winning investing championships

• The concept of capital efficiency in using leverage and its implications for investment strategies

• The tax implications of Return Stacking and how to navigate them

• The significance of broad diversification in investment strategies

• The impact of different market conditions on the performance of long volatility managers

• The importance of maintaining line items in the portfolio for risk protection

This episode provides valuable insights into the complexities of investment strategies, portfolio construction, and the importance of diversification, and is a must-listen for anyone interested in understanding the nuances of investing and portfolio management.

This is "ReSolve's Riffs" – published on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick, and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management Inc.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association ("NFA"). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Diversity of investments only produces “diversification” if asset classes are held in proper balance.

We discuss:

• The 60/40 portfolio and why it’s not diversified or risk-balanced
• The advantages of Global Risk Parity Portfolios
• How leverage helps to preserve diversification

Hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global.

This week we were joined by Lawrence Hamtil, founder and principal at Fortune Financial Advisors, author of their popular blog, as well as an active member of the FinTwit community. His power lifting hobby and contrarian nature permeate his writing and investment philosophy, which made for a great conversation that included:

• Why you can’t fire a cannon from a canoe – the importance of building a solid foundation
• Discipline, preventing major injuries/drawdowns and proper benchmarking – investment wisdom drawn from weight-lifting
• “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons” – Jim Rohn
• Investment approach shaped by the turmoil of the Great Financial Crisis
• Tobacco, defense contractors, and other “less desirable” sectors– benefiting from narrative-induced externalities
• Low beta, minimum variance and inflation risks

We also delved into his barbell approach for equities, sector allocations and their cyclical natural, ESG, regulatory moats, and how to avoid value traps.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

Investors are often prone to “home-country” equity bias and other heuristics that leave them under-exposed to the world’s many diverse opportunities.

We discuss:

• The importance of global asset class diversity
• Ray Dalio and the “All Weather Portfolio”
• Making portfolios resistant to inflation and growth shocks

Hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global.