The Investors First Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

We are excited to welcome a friend of the show, Brent Sullivan of The Tax Alpha Insider. We discuss all things Tax Alpha as the investment puzzle is different when it comes to taxable investors. I have been fortunate to have known Brent since the very beginnings of his Tax Alpha Insider Newsletter, a highly successful, focused publication in the wealth management space. I often say that he could become the Michael Kitces of Tax Alpha. Brent is also behind the first Tax Alpha Conference, Basis Northwest, in Seattle on May 28th and 29th, which I will be attending.

Brent has an interesting career background, both corporate and entrepreneurial. As mentioned before, he is the Founder of The Tax Alpha Insider, as well as the Basis Northwest Conference. He was also a Software Engineer at Parametric, who is the godfather of direct indexing. Before that, he worked in Investment Banking and Asset Management. Brent holds a Masters of Engineering from Cornell University (Financial Engineering/Statistics), as well as a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of California, Riverside.

In this episode, we discuss all things Tax Alpha, as this is our first interview with Brent. We talk about the reasons he decided to launch this, why Tax Alpha is important now, and how this is one of the best times in history to be a taxable investor with all of the tools available. We discuss everything from householding/asset location, to direct indexing, to tax-aware long-short, buffer ETF's, 351 exchanges, advisor launched ETF's, assets that shouldn't be used for taxable investors, collars/variable prepaid forward contracts, heartbeat trades/ETF share classes, box loans, tax alpha as a volatility buffer, trader funds, etc. We also discuss the impact of AI on advisors and taxable investing, as well as taking the other side, why not just pay the taxes and keep things simple.

Today's hosts are Steve Curley, CFA (Co-Managing Principal, 55 North Private Wealth) & co-host Chris Cannon, CFA (CIO/Principal, FirsTrust).
Please enjoy the episode. You can follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn or at investorsfirstpodcast.com

Learn more:
https://www.taxalphainsider.com/
https://www.basisconf.com/

We are excited to welcome Joe Davis for this episode, currently Vanguard's Global Chief Economist and Global Head of the Investment Strategy Group. Many of you likely know various iterations of the Vanguard story, but most of the professionals I know do not know how big a research team they have.  Joe has a big influence on the company because he is also chairs the firm's Strategic Asset Allocation Committee. Ok, that was exhausting listing all of his titles, he is a busy person. Before that, he was still busy; he earned his M.A. and Ph.D at Duke University and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at the Wharton School of U Penn. Joe is a frequent keynote speaker and currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Portfolio Management and the Journal of Fixed Income.

In this episode, we are all over the place (which is normal), ranging from Vanguard's 50+ year history as a disruptor, to how many CFA charter holders are at Vanguard now (hint: a lot), their vast and under the radar research group, new CEO Salim Ramji, patents that Vanguard created in ETF space, the breakdown of active vs. passive funds in their lineup (which surprises many) and Joe's new book on AI. This was a great segue into the markets, with the impact of AI, Fed independence being potentially disrupted, a new multi-polar world, expected returns, potential market scenarios, and more.

Today's hosts are Steve Curley, CFA (Co-Managing Principal, 55 North Private Wealth) & co-host Chris Cannon, CFA (CIO/Principal, FirsTrust).

Please enjoy the episode. You can follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn or at investorsfirstpodcast.com

For our third episode of year six of the podcast, we welcome Herb Greenberg to the Investors First Podcast. Herb's career is incredible, with time as a journalist at major news outlets ranging from the Chicago Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle, to the WSJ, and also time at The Street and CNBC. It should be noted that he was born and raised in Florida and attended the University of Miami. Herb's energy and curiosity are up there with anyone we have interviewed in the history of this podcast.
In today's episode, we cover a wide range of topics, starting with Herb's successful career as a journalist, how he developed a niche in covering red flags on individual companies, how to use his intel to help mitigate risk, and what are his top red flags today, along with much more.

Today's hosts are Steve Curley, CFA (Founder/Co-Managing Principal, 55 North Private Wealth) & co-hostChris Cannon (CIO/Principal, FirsTrust)

Please enjoy the episode. You can follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn or at investorsfirstpodcast.com

Show Notes:

· Substack: https://substack.com/@herbgreenberg
· Site: herbgreenberg.com

For our second episode of year six of the podcast, we welcome my friend John Bowman to the podcast. I can't say enough positive things about what John is doing with the CAIA Association (as well as his predecessor Bill Kelly), both of whom put investors first, which is what this podcast is all about. John stepped in as CEO at the beginning of 2025 and we thought it would be great to hear his vision for where alternative investing is headed over the next decade. John is a speaker, writer, commentator and frequently keynoting industry conferences and has been featured in the WSJ, NYT, Pension and Investments, Financial Advisor, CNBC and more. John earned a BS in Business Administration from Mary Washington College and is a CFA charter holder, which is how we have known John for so long.

In this episode, we discuss past CEO Bill Kelly, miles traveled over the past year, the future of CAIA, liquidity budgets for investors and how to size an allocation to alternatives, the private/public convergence, tokenization of private assets, and more.

Today's hosts are Steve Curley, CFA (Founder & Co-Managing Principal of 55 North Private Wealth) & co-host  Kevin Laake, CFA, CAIA (Team Lead at Mariner Institutional). Both of us are past Presidents of CFA Society Orlando. It is worth noting that Kevin serves as a Chapter Executive for CAIA Florida, which is why I thought he would be great as a co-host for this episode.

Please enjoy the episode. You can follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn or at investorsfirstpodcast.com

Show Notes:

· From Vision to Action: CAIA's CEO on Shaping Tomorrow's Industry (https://caia.org/blog/2025/01/14/vision-action-caias-ceo-shaping-tomorrows-industry)
· Capital Decanted Podcast (https://caia.org/capital-decanted-podcast)
· Caia.org
· CFA stackable program (https://caia.org/stackable)

To kick off year six of the Investors First Podcast, today's guest is Tom Lee. Tom is the Managing Partner and Head of Research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, with over 25 years of experience in equity research. Formerly J.P. Morgan's Chief Equity Strategist, he is a top-ranked strategist and you will frequently find him on CNBC. Lee holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School and is a CFA charter holder.

In this episode, we discuss where the S&P 500 will end up in 2025 and areas of the market Tom likes in 2025. Tom discusses bitcoin and how it should be valued relative to gold. We talk about AI and its impact on the market, but more importantly, the importance of ethics as it relates to AI. We also discuss DOGE (which hasn't been discussed since Truman in the 40's), why more basketball players should shoot free throws underhand, and how he developed the granny shots strategy.

Today's hosts are Steve Curley, CFA (Co-Managing Principal at 55 North Private Wealth) & co-host Drew Papke, CFA (Director, Private Bank Investments at Fifth Third Bank).

Please enjoy the episode. You can follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn or at investorsfirstpodcast.com

Show Notes:

· FundSrat: https://fundstrat.com
· Complimentary Research: fsinsight.com
· Granny Shots: https://fsinsight.com/members/stock-lists/?category=granny-shots-stock-list
· Book rec: The Coming Wave (By: Mustafa Suleyman)

Today's guest is Rob Arnott, Founder and Chairman of Research Affiliates, where he actively contributes to research, portfolio management, product innovation, business strategy, and client relations. He co-manages several funds, including the PIMCO All Asset and RAE™ funds. Throughout his career, Rob has challenged conventional financial wisdom and pioneered strategies such as tactical asset allocation, global tactical asset allocation, tax-advantaged equity management, and the Fundamental Index™ approach.


Before founding Research Affiliates in 2002, Rob was chair of First Quadrant, LP, global equity strategist at Salomon Brothers, and CEO of TSA Capital Management. He has published over 150 articles and won numerous awards, including eight Graham and Dodd Scrolls awarded annually by the CFA Institute. Rob also received the 2013 William F. Sharpe Indexing Lifetime Achievement Award. Rob holds a summa cum laude BS in economics, applied mathematics, and computer science from UC Santa Barbara. (Note: bio condensed by ChatGPT).
In this episode, Rob gets us current since he last visited us in Orlando last February, with everything from market returns to the returns impact pre and post-election. We officially welcome Rob as a Florida resident, we discuss the beginning of Research Affiliates, along with indexes dumping stocks and the contrarian launch of his new ETF, NIXT, expected returns, AI and its impact on white-collar professionals, and more.


Today's hosts are Steve Curley, CFA (Founder, 55 North Private Wealth) & co-host Javier Perez, CFA (Director, BlackPoint Capital), both of us are Past Presidents of CFA Orlando.


Please enjoy the episode. You can follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn or at investorsfirstpodcast.com


Show Notes:
Link: Expected Returns Interactive Tool
Research Affiliates: https://www.researchaffiliates.com/
NIXT ETF: https://nixtetf.com/etf/

Today's guest is Marko Papic, Marko leads BCA Research's BCA Access and developed GeoMacro Research, the first discretionary macro-geopolitical investment strategy in finance. He connects clients with a broad expert network and custom research, having founded BCA's Geopolitical Strategy service. His book, Geopolitical Alpha, presents a framework for predicting investment outcomes. Previously, Marko was a Partner and Chief Strategist at Clocktower Group, advising institutional investors. His work is included in the CAIA curriculum and The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Geopolitics. Starting as a Senior Analyst at Stratfor, he has lectured at Stanford and Georgetown. Marko holds advanced degrees from the University of Texas and UBC.

This is the second time we have had the privilege of hosting Marko, almost 4 years ago on the button. Marko is no doubt one of our favorite guests in the history of this podcast.

In this episode, we cover the U.S. election, who will win and what America's foreign policy will look like for Trump or Harris. We discuss the powerful American consumer driven economy, how to position your portfolio, the untapped equity in American's homes, and getting us current on the last 4 years since the last time Marko joined us.

Today's hosts are Steve Curley, CFA (Founder, 55 North Private Wealth) & co-host Chris Cannon (CIO/Principal, FirsTrust)

Links:

https://www.bcaresearch.com

https://www.bcaresearch.com/marketing/geomacro

https://www.bcaresearch.com/marketing/report/gmac/what-geomacro/100026

Please enjoy the episode.

Today's guest is Jeremy Schwartz, CFA, Global Chief Investment Officer at WisdomTree. Before Jeremy started at WisdomTree in 2005, he was a head research assistant for Professor Jeremy Siegel and became his co-author on the sixth edition of the book Stocks for the Long Run. He received his B.S. in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and hosts the Wharton Business Radio program Behind the Markets on SiriusXM 132. Jeremy is a CFA charter holder and is a member of CFA Society Philadelphia.

In this episode, we start by covering Jeremy's charter holder story. We discuss how he first met Professor Jeremy Siegel while at U Penn and the amazing partnership they have had over the last couple of decades. We also dived into currency hedging in equity markets, the calculus behind launching a new ETF, his podcast and more.

Today's hosts are Steve Curley, CFA (Founder, 55 North Private Wealth) & co-host Chris Cannon (CIO/Principal, FirsTrust)

Please enjoy the episode. 

In this episode, we have the pleasure of hosting Michael Mauboussin, Michael is a highly respected figure in finance, celebrated for his deep insights into decision-making, behavioral economics, and investing. Michael is currently the Head of Consilient Research at Counterpoint Global (part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management).  He also serves as an adjunct professor of finance teaching Security Analysis at Columbia Business School (since 1993), teaching essentially the same class that Ben Graham started teaching in 1920. Michael is chairman emeritus of the board of trustees of the Santa Fe Institute, a leading center for multi-disciplinary research in complex systems theory. Mauboussin is best known for his influential books like "The Success Equation" and "Think Twice," which explore critical concepts such as the interplay of skill and luck in business and the power of counterintuitive thinking, which we will touch on in this episode. 

In today's episode, we cover a wide range of topics, including the ongoing public vs. private equity discussion, luck vs. skill as skill increases, stock market concentration, buybacks, valuation and advice for aspiring investment professionals. 

Today's hosts are Steve Curley, CFA (Founder, 55 North Private Wealth) & co-host Chris Cannon (CIO/Principal, FirsTrust)

Please enjoy the episode. You can follow us on Twitter & LinkedIn or at investorsfirstpodcast.com