Odds on Open
Conversations with leading thinkers on trading and investing. Hosted by Ethan Kho. Produced by Patrick Kho.
Episodes
Hedge Fund Manager Joseph Walsh: Always Play Weaker Players
Checkout Flux 4.0 here: https://www.flux.live/flux4/index.html On this episode of Odds on Open, hedge fund manager Joe Walsh joins Ethan Kho to break down how probabilistic decision-making and bankroll management from high-stakes poker translate into institutional equity outperformance. Walsh outlines his framework for game selection across liquid markets, detailing why he deliberately avoids the
Ex-Goldman MD: "Credit Markets Move in Step Functions"
Geoffrey Williams spent more than a decade at Goldman Sachs, where he traded structured products through the 2008 financial crisis and later co-ran the CMBS trading business. In this episode of Odds on Open, he takes Ethan Kho inside the Goldman mortgage desk as Bear Stearns and Lehman collapsed. He explains how banks sold tens of billions of super senior protection on ABS CDOs for 10 basis points
Ex-Lehman Trader: AI Won't Give You Edge
Checkout Flux 4.0 here: https://www.flux.live/flux4/index.html In this episode of Odds on Open, Alpaca Co-Founder and CEO Yoshi Yokokawa breaks down the changing microstructure of systematic trading, the democratization of quantitative R&D, and why AI agents alone will never grant you a defensible market edge. As LLMs compress strategy iteration and backtesting feedback loops, the traditional
Retail Trader vs. Hedge Fund Manager: Where Is the Real Alpha?
Checkout Flux 4.0 here: https://www.flux.live/flux4/index.html Chris Camillo and Tom Costello go head-to-head on Odds on Open's first every debate episode. They answer a question every trader eventually confronts: who is actually better positioned to take risk — a concentrated retail investor with no LPs, mandates, or career risk, or an institutional hedge fund manager with a two-and-twenty pr
Ex-IMC Semiconductors Quant: AI Is Good Enough to Beat the S&P 500
Lihong Wang spent his career as a discretionary options trader at IMC, one of the world's largest market makers, trading semiconductor volatility on names like Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom. In this episode, he breaks down how a prop trading desk actually makes money: reading order flow to identify counterparties, trading against structured product hedging flows from Asian banks, warehousing benig
Hedge Fund Manager Alix Pasquet: How Small Funds Can Outsmart Multi-Managers
Checkout Flux 4.0 here: https://www.flux.live/flux4/index.html Alix Pasquet, hedge fund manager and Managing Partner at Prime Macaya Capital, breaks down how fundamental investors build durable edge in modern markets. In this episode, Alix explains the three sources of competitive advantage in the investment business — analytical, informational, and behavioral — and why exploiting group behavior b
Greed Makes Markets: Market Making From First Principles With an HFT Quant
How does market making actually work? In this lecture, former high-frequency trader Annanay Kapila (Flow Traders, Tower Research Capital; founder & CEO of QFEX) breaks down the mechanics of market making from first principles. He maps the systematic trading landscape—prop trading vs hedge funds, HFT vs mid-frequency—and explains why market making sits in the high-Sharpe, proprietary quadrant.
22-Year-Old Hedge Fund Manager: “Hedge funds are the least sexy business in the world”
Checkout Flux 4.0 here: https://www.flux.live/flux4/index.html Noah Kann is 22, running his third firm, and managing capital raised from some of the wealthiest families in America. On this episode of Odds on Open, Ethan Kho sits down with the co-CEO of Venari Asset Management to unpack what a 22-year-old hedge fund manager knows that 20-year Wall Street veterans miss: why running a hedge fund is t
He Started a Quant Fund in His Dorm. Now He's Building the Brokerage for Everything.
Checkout Flux 4.0 here: https://www.flux.live/flux4/index.html Lucas Schuermann started a market-neutral quant fund in his Columbia dorm room, trading stat arb across FX and early crypto markets, before dropping out to scale it into Q Capital. In this episode of Odds on Open, he breaks down how he electronified Genesis Trading's OTC desk as VP of Engineering — taking a phone-and-Telegram tradi
Inside the Billionaire-Backed Prediction Markets Hedge Fund
Checkout Flux 4.0 here: https://www.flux.live/flux4/index.htmlCamilo Saravia is the founder of BlueWalker Capital, a systematic hedge fund trading prediction markets — and possibly the only fund dedicated exclusively to the asset class. Backed by Daniel Howard, son of Brevan Howard co-founder Alan Howard, Camilo breaks down how the fund prints alpha across taker and maker strategies, reflexive vs.
World's #1 Oil Hedge Fund Manager: How I Made 200% While Everyone Lost 60%
Checkout Flux 4.0 here: https://www.flux.live/flux4/index.htmlJosh Young (Bison Capital) on Energy Alpha, Deep Value, and Activism in Small-Cap Oil & Gas: Josh Young runs a concentrated, long-only public equities energy fund that's up 200% since inception while the energy sector is down 60% — a spread he calls a statistical impossibility. In this episode, Josh breaks down the process behin
The Strategy Behind Asia’s $6 Billion Quant Fund: Quantedge
Checkout Flux 4.0 here: https://www.flux.live/Suhaimi Zainul-Abidi is the CEO of Quantedge, the Singapore-based systematic hedge fund that has compounded at roughly 20% net annualized returns for 20 years — growing from $3 million raised from friends and family to over $6 billion in AUM, with close to $5 billion of that from investment gains rather than fundraising. In this episode of Odds on Open
Ex-Balyasny PM: “Automation will increase demand for hedge fund talent.”
In this episode of Odds on Open, former Balyasny Asset Management (BAM) quantamental portfolio manager and Imply founder Ying Hua breaks down how top multi-manager hedge funds synthesize quantitative discipline with discretionary analysis to extract repeatable market alpha. Ying details the mechanics of constructing a systematic quantamental framework—ranging from automating volatility-adjusted po
~100% Returns in 2025, No Losing Year Since 2008: Erik Smolinski on Edge for Retail Trader Edge
In this episode of *Odds on Open*, hedge fund risk manager and derivatives trader Erik Smolinski deconstructs the structural mechanics of alpha generation, portfolio construction, and risk mitigation in liquid markets. Boasting a near-100% return last year and a flawless annual track record since 2008, Erik details how he transitions from profiling persistent market effects to engineering scalable
Ex-Citadel PM: All Hedge Fund Failures Are Because of One Reason - Rich Falk Wallace
In this episode of Odds on Open, we dissect the mechanics of institutional alpha generation with Rich Falk-Wallace, founder of Arcana and former portfolio manager at Citadel. Rich explains why the vast majority of hedge fund failures stem from flawed portfolio construction and mismanaged risk leakage rather than a lack of fundamental insights. We dive deep into how elite multi-strat platforms math
Ex-Two Sigma Quant: You Should Bet Against Bullish Analysts
Apply to Onyx’s trading event here: https://www.onyxcapitalgroup.com/uni-studentsIn this episode of Odds on Open, former Two Sigma quant Omer Cedar joins host Ethan to deconstruct how top-tier quantitative hedge funds systematically aggregate discretionary signals to isolate pure alpha. Cedar reveals the inner workings of institutional alpha capture programs, detailing how premier multi-manager po
Ex-Citadel Quant on Trading the Most Asymmetric Market - Neel Somani
Apply to Onyx’s Junior Tech Graduate Scheme here: https://verichain.io/apply/0aa1debe-ac6c-452f-9421-da6cbf4a3e8cIn this episode of Odds on Open, former Citadel quant researcher Neel Somani breaks down the opaque market structure and alpha generation mechanisms driving institutional power and natural gas trading. Neel explores the foundations of competitive edge within power markets, detailing how
LTCM Co-founder Victor Hagani: “Taking Risk Is Always a Negative.”
Apply to Onyx’s Junior Tech Graduate Scheme here: https://verichain.io/apply/0aa1debe-ac6c-452f-9421-da6cbf4a3e8cIn this episode of Odds on Open, we sit down with Victor Haghani, co-founder of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) and founder of Elm Wealth, to dissect why institutional alpha frequently breaks down during the position sizing phase. While standard market commentary focuses heavily on
Quant Hedge Fund Partner: Raising Capital Is Harder Than Generating Returns
Apply to Onyx’s Junior Tech Graduate Scheme here: https://verichain.io/apply/0aa1debe-ac6c-452f-9421-da6cbf4a3e8cDeWayne Louis (Versor Investments) returns to break down the part of the business almost no one explains: not generating returns, but raising the capital to scale them. After Versor pulled in half a billion dollars for an event-driven strategy with just two and a half years of track rec
Ex-WorldQuant Head of Data Strategy: Quants “Don’t Care About the Stock Market”
In this episode of Odds on Open, we deconstruct the evolution of alternative data and alpha generation with Matt Ober, former Head of Data Strategy at WorldQuant and Chief Data Scientist at Third Point. We dive deep into the institutional framework required to scale systematic trading strategies, the cultural friction of implementing quantamental processes within long-short equity pods, and the sp
The Secret to Uncorrelated Alpha in Crypto - Leigh Drogen on Starkiller Capital’s Sharpe Ratio of 4
Apply to Onyx’s Junior Tech Graduate Scheme here: https://verichain.io/apply/0aa1debe-ac6c-452f-9421-da6cbf4a3e8cLeigh Drogen, CIO of Starkiller Capital, joins the podcast to dissect the mechanics of a market neutral DeFi strategy currently operating at a 4 Sharpe ratio. We move past surface-level crypto narratives to analyze the quantitative scoring of protocol risk, code provenance, and the iden
“Market Crashes Are Good for My Strategy” - One-Man Hedge Fund PM George Livadas
Apply here: https://onyxcapitalgroup.com/uni-studentsGeorge Livadas, Portfolio Manager and founder of Peregrine Capital, joins the show to break down the mechanics of running a concentrated, defensive long/short strategy as a solo PM. We explore how George generates alpha by systematically avoiding "hedge fund hotel" crowding, focusing instead on microstructure edges within niche sectors
“If it is easy and obvious, there is no edge in it” - TD Quant Matt Schrager
In this episode of Odds on Open, TD Quant Matt Schrager discusses the microstructure of municipal bond market making and the technical challenges of extracting alpha from illiquid fixed income instruments. We analyze the shift from low-latency HFT frameworks to the probabilistic modeling and statistical pricing required for securities with fragmented liquidity. Matt details the mechanics of system
Ex-Tudor Quant PM: “There Hasn't Been a New Idea in Trading for 15 Years”
In this episode of Odds on Open, we go deep into the mechanics of edge, credibility, and the structural evolution of the hedge fund industry. Host Ethan sits down with Tom, a veteran Quant PM formerly of Tudor Investment Corp and Moore Capital, to deconstruct what separates the top-tier "pod shops" from the bottom 40% of funds that fail to preserve capital.Tom challenges the common perce
“Concentrated Strategies Will Do Extremely Well” - Sean Emory on Outperforming the Index
Sean Emory of Avery discusses the evolution of edge in liquid markets, specifically how to leverage alternative data—from App Store analytics to digital exhaust—to identify fundamental inflection points before they are reflected in the price. We dive deep into Sean’s underwriting process, exploring how institutional investors can use granular data sets to track thesis confirmation and identify a m
“It’s the Dumbest Market in the World” - Quant Trader Scott Phillips on Edge in Crypto
In this episode of Odds on Open, quant trader Scott Phillips joins the pod to break down why crypto remains "the dumbest market in the world" and a goldmine for systematic edge. We dive deep into table selection and why the lack of institutional competition allows for Sharpe ratios exceeding 2.0 through basic trend following and momentum strategies. Phillips explains the mechanics of mar
Now Is the Best Time to Become a Junior Analyst - Ex-Citadel and D. E. Shaw PM Brett Caughran
Get 10% off on Fundamental Edge: https://www.fundamentedge.com/odds-on-open-podcastIn this episode of Odds on Open, Ethan Kho sits down with Brett Caughran, founder of Fundamental Edge and a former Portfolio Manager at elite Tiger Cub and Multi-Manager (MM) firms.As generative AI and agentic workflows commoditize the "desktop research" layer of investing, the bar for generating idiosyncr
"Positions Can Be LESS Risky at Higher Prices" - Derek Pilecki on Finding Edge in Financials
In this episode of Odds on Open, Ethan Kho sits down with Derek Pilecki, founder of Gator Capital Management, to deconstruct his 20%+ annualized track record in the financial sector. While many generalist PMs view financials as a "sleepy backwater" or overly complex, Derek explains how he extracts alpha from regional banks, brokerages, and insurance companies by identifying fundamental b
How Billionaire Hedge Fund Managers Are Using Generative AI to Invest
In this episode of Odds on Open, we analyze the technical architecture of the data science layer within fundamental hedge funds. Guest Matei Zatreanu, founder of System2, discusses the tension between generative AI and the search for outlier-driven alpha. We move beyond the hype of LLMs to discuss the practicalities of expert network automation, the causal mapping of second-order macro effects, an
How the World’s Largest Oil Derivatives Trading Firm Is Navigating the Iran War
This episode was filmed on Thursday, March 12, 2026.Greg Newman, founder and CEO of Onyx Capital Group and the largest liquidity provider in oil derivatives markets, on what it actually looks like to run a market-making book when liquidity breaks down entirely. What most participants misunderstand about oil vol is that the outright price — Brent, WTI — is a proxy, not the market; the real informat
Annie Duke on Thinking in Bets - And Why Winners Can Be Wrong
Legendary poker champion, decision scientist, and author of "Thinking in Bets," Annie Duke deconstructs the mechanics of decision-making under uncertainty, shifting the focus from high-variance outcomes to the rigor of positive expectancy and robust process. Leveraging her background in professional poker and cognitive psychology, Duke explores how loss aversion and resulting—the cogniti
Meet the 25-Year-Old Running a Multi-Manager Hedge Fund
Zachary A. Levitt joins the pod to break down the architecture of a capacity-constrained multi-manager platform designed to harvest high alpha loads in niche, idiosyncratic markets. We dive deep into portfolio construction beyond the "Big Four" pod model, focusing on inverse-volatility weighting, discretionary risk overlays during regime shifts, and the mechanics of screening for relativ
Alpha Comes From a Differentiated View - Ex-Point72 Prop Research Head Kirk McKeown on Edge in 2026
Check out Carbon Arc here: https://www.carbonarc.co/Kirk McKeown, founder and CEO of Carbon Arc and former senior investor-facing operator across Glenview and Point72, on how alpha migrates as market structure, tooling, and competition evolve. What most investors misunderstand about “edge” is that it is rarely static and often lives in process design, information capture, and interpretation of sma
What Druckenmiller Style Investing Gets Wrong - Alfonso Pecatiello on Edge in Macro Trading
My Substack: https://ethankho.substack.com/Alfonso Pecatiello — known as "Alf" and founder of The Macro Compass and founder of Palinuro Capital, a macro hedge fund— joins Ethan Kho to break down the frameworks behind global macro trading, real economy money creation, and what it truly takes to build a macro hedge fund from the ground up.Alfonso Pecatiello spent years as a senior portfoli
“I think of everything as a bet” - Ex-SIG Quant Trader Andrew Courtney
Former Susquehanna International Group (SIG) Head Trader Andrew Courtney breaks down the reality of being a quant trader and market maker at one of the world's elite proprietary trading firms. He reveals what trading floors actually look like—multiple monitors covered with flashing numbers, signals, and price movements that traders analyze all day with zero lunch breaks and constant attention
“Conviction is dangerous” - Emerging Markets Hedge Fund Manager Sinan Xin
Sinan Xin manages an emerging markets tech hedge fund from New York, investing across China, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and beyond. In this conversation, he shares how he builds edge in some of the world's most volatile markets.We discuss:Why conviction can become bias—and how to tell the differenceBuilding durable relationships across geographies you're not fromThe evolution of edge:
“AI Makes Analysts Lazy” - Hedge Fund Manager Alix Pasquet on the Importance of Analog Training
In this episode, hedge fund manager Alix returns to Odds on Open to tackle what he calls the most important problem facing young investors today: the complete loss of analog training skills that created the greatest investors of previous generations. Alix runs a hedge fund that deliberately avoids AI tools for analysts, believing they're "extremely dangerous" because they optimize an
Why 20% of Hedge Funds Fail After One Year - Claudia Quintela on Why Managers Need Business Sense
Disclaimer: This is not a financial promotion and must not be seen as advice, but only as an educational pieceCláudia Quintela has spent 25 years connecting early-stage hedge fund managers with institutional capital. She's worked across FX, macro, and systematic strategies at State Street, UBS, Morgan Stanley, and Blenheim Capital, one of the world's largest commodity managers at its peak.
How I Built a 1.4-Billion-Dollar Quant Fund - Deepak Gurnani on Founding Versor Investments
In November 2025, I hosted a fireside chat at Columbia University with Deepak Gurnani, founder of Versor Investments, a $1.4 billion [1] quantitative hedge fund based in New York with offices in New York and Mumbai. Deepak spent two decades at Investcorp, where he built and led the firm’s hedge fund division. In 2013, he stepped away to found Versor with a singular goal: to build a research-driven
This Ex-Poker Pro Built a Hedge Fund by Betting Against Beta – David Orr on Asymmetric Bets
Ethan Kho interviews David Orr, a former professional poker player turned hedge fund manager. They discuss David's journey from poker to founding Militia Capital, his investment philosophy, and the lessons learned from both industries. David shares insights on risk management, the importance of finding asymmetric bets, and the challenges of the hedge fund industry. He also offers advice for as
How Leading Multi Strat Funds Hire - Recruiting Director Jesse Skaff on the Hedge Fund Talent War
Discover how top multi-manager hedge funds like Citadel and Millennium attract the brightest minds, the evolving talent strategies in the industry, and the unique traits that set successful candidates apart. Whether you're an aspiring finance professional or just curious about the inner workings of hedge funds, this episode offers valuable insights into the competitive landscape of financial s
How the World’s #1 Prediction Markets Trader Finds Edge! - Domer on Trading Global Political Events
What’s the difference between prediction markets trading and equities trading? On Odds on Open, the world’s #1 prediction markets trader Domer explains how prediction markets work as a form of information-based trading, where news and signals can arrive at any moment, forcing continuous price discovery and repricing. Unlike stock markets, where returns often depend on long-term growth, valuation m
Why SIG Tells Traders Not to Hedge! - Ex-SIG Trader and Moontower Founder, Kris Abdelmessih
❗ACCESS OPPORTUNITIES EXCLUSIVE TO OOO VIEWERS: https://app.youform.com/forms/e2jpsj4z ❗How do top hedge funds actually hedge trades? At SIG, traders were often told not to hedge. Most assume elite trading firms hedge every position, but Susquehanna (SIG) built its edge by avoiding hedging when trades had positive expected value (EV). Kris Abdelmessih—who later moved into portfolio management role
How High Frequency Trading Became “The Most Cutthroat Business!” - Ex-HFT Trader, Annanay Kapila
In this episode, former Tower Research and Flow Traders quant Annanay Kapila breaks down the reality of high frequency trading, HFT strategies, and top automated trading systems. He explains what quant researchers actually do inside elite firms—where world-class math talent competes in a true zero-sum market. Annanay goes deep into market making strategies, latency engineering, alpha generation, a
Youngest-Ever Citadel MD: What It’s Like to Work Side-by-Side with Ken Griffin
Former Citadel MD Michael Watson gives a direct look inside a multi-strategy hedge fund and what it was like working under Ken Griffin. He breaks down Citadel’s pod-shop model, its high-intensity capital allocation frameworks, and how Ken built a concentration of talent across quant trading, quant research, engineering in quant, discretionary equities, Python/C++, data engineering, and alternative
SIG Director: How Susquehanna Trains Top Traders with Poker
What’s it like being a trader at SIG? At Susquehanna International Group, Todd Simkin has trained some of the world’s best traders using poker strategy, probabilistic games, and decision-making under uncertainty that mirror real-world quantitative trading. In this episode, Todd breaks down how SIG teaches trading interns Bayesian updating, asymmetric information, market microstructure awareness, a
Ex–Goldman and DRW Trader on Trading Before Algorithms Took Over
John Knorring spent over a decade on the Goldman Sachs trading floor, leading natural gas trading through the 2000s—a period defined by trading in a financial crisis, Hurricane-driven volatility, the Amaranth blow-up analysis, and trading during 2008 when bank desks had to price massive option books overnight. He explains how bank trading desks, pit traders, handwritten tickets, and early prop tra
Ex-AIA Quant Director: Every Hedge Fund That Fails Makes THIS Mistake
How do you start a hedge fund—and where should you launch it? Daniel Xystus has done both. From Los Angeles quant to Chicago portfolio manager to CIO in Hong Kong and the Middle East, Daniel now helps new hedge fund managers navigate fund setup, regulation, and operations. We break down what it really takes to launch a hedge fund—choosing your fund domicile, building professional infrastructure, a
Ex- Citadel Analyst and Millennium PM: What It’s Like Inside Both Hedge Funds
Doug Garber, former Citadel hedge fund analyst and Millennium Management portfolio manager, joins the show to unpack what it’s really like inside two of the world’s top multi-manager hedge funds — and how each approaches portfolio construction, risk management, and hedge fund culture. Drawing from his years working at Citadel and working at Millennium, Doug explains why Citadel operates more like
GBE Founder Cory Paddock: Great Traders Know When a Regime Change Is Coming
How do you find trading edge in electricity markets? Cory Paddock, co-founder of GBE, explains how real alpha generation in power trading comes from anticipating paradigm shifts before the market sees them. In a renewable energy trading market shaped by constant regime change—coal replaced by gas, wind and solar reshaping grid topology, and data centers driving new load volatility—edge belongs to
Christina Qi Started a Hedge Fund From Her Dorm Room. Now, Top Trading Firms Now Buy Her Data.
Can you start a hedge fund as a college student? Christina Qi, co-founder of Domeyard, did—and later built Databento, a modern market data API used by top algorithmic trading and quantitative trading teams. We get into how high-frequency trading (HFT) actually works, why clean order book/tick market data matters for robust trading strategies, and how a product-led model beats “talk-to-sales.” Chri
She Left Citadel and Built a BILLION-DOLLAR Hedge Fund
Can you trade the stock market with AI? Yes: Renee Yao launched Neo Ivy Capital, a billion-dollar** AI hedge fund that uses AI in trading and investing to generate alpha. In this episode of Odds on Open, she explains how she built a quant hedge fund from scratch, scaling to over $1B AUM** with advanced AI hedge fund strategies that adapt to markets in real time and show how to trade stocks with ar
Former Nomura Managing Director: How the Sell-Side Created Modern Quant Finance
In this episode of Odds on Open, Ethan Kho sits down with Joe Mezrich, Founder of Metafoura LLC and former Managing Director at Nomura Quant Strategies, to reflect on nearly 40 years in quant finance. Joe’s career spans the early days at Salomon Brothers—where he helped pioneer factor models, risk modeling, and even early machine learning in finance—through senior sell-side research roles at Morga
Former Global Trading Director at Cargill: Edge in Commodities Trading Starts With Relationships
Former Cargill Global Trading & Risk Management Director Kristine Engman Hochbaum explains how commodities trading strategies and quant trading strategies really work. On Odds on Open, she breaks down the sources of trading edge and alpha generation in today’s commodities markets, from agriculture trading to energy and metals.We cover why physical vs. financial commodities trade differently, h
Hedge Fund Manager Ernie Chan: Use GenAI to Manage Risk, Not Predict Return
This week, Ethan Kho sits down with Dr. Ernest P. Chan — former quant at Millennium and Morgan Stanley, and now founder of PredictNow.ai and QTS Capital Management. Ernie is one of the best-known voices in quant finance, author of Quantitative Trading, and a pioneer in systematic trading strategies.We cover:- When machine learning trading models work in markets — and when they fail- Why financial
Ex-PDT Partners Director on How Small Trading Firms Can Still Compete
In this episode of Odds on Open, Ethan Kho sits down with Vinesh Jha, founder of Extract Alpha and former director of PDT Partners, to unpack lessons from the 2007 Quant Quake and how systematic investors can adapt in today’s crowded landscape.We cover:- What really happened inside PDT Partners when the firm lost $500M during the Quant Quake- Why so many quant hedge funds blew up in 2007 — and the
Former AQR and Two Sigma VP: How Quant Funds Will Use GenAI to Find Edge
What’s it really like working as a quant in fundamental research at Two Sigma—and how will AI, LLMs, and agentic workflows change quantitative trading strategies? Bill Mann, former Two Sigma fundamental researcher and founder of Harmonic Insights, joins Ethan Kho to break down how hedge funds build edge from widely available data and why “hacker” creativity still matters in systematic investing.Bi
Chris Kantos: How Natural Language Processing Can Generate Alpha
Can you analyze social media for investment decisions? How do hedge funds use Reddit posts, earnings calls, and SEC filings to find alpha? What’s the role of LLMs for financial analysis in 2025? Chris Kantos, Head of Quantitative Research at Alexandria Technology, joins us to explain how the buy side uses natural language processing (NLP), AI for investing, and text-based sentiment data to generat
Quant Trader and Kinetic Founder: Trading the Market is Like Playing Poker
Financial markets are a game, says Grant Stenger. So how do you win in the financial markets? Grant, a former Jane Street intern and current crypto founder, believes markets are the most competitive game on earth—and he's been training to beat them since high school.From card counting in middle school to landing a hedge fund internship at QuantRes before university, Grant shares how a lifelong obs
Robert Carver Ran a Multi-Billion Dollar Systematic Portfolio for Man AHL. Now He Invests Solo.
How do you become a solo quant trader and build your own systematic trading business? Robert Carver, ex-head of fixed income at Man AHL—a $63 billion systematic trading hedge fund—shares how he went from managing institutional capital to becoming an independent, full-time quant trader.He reveals the key skills, mindset, and tools needed to succeed in quant trading without working at a big firm, ho
Ex-Jane Street Trader: How to Find “Edge” in the Markets and Real Life
What is edge in trading—and how do hedge funds and quant traders find edge in 2025? According to Agustin Lebron, former quant trader at Jane Street and author of The Laws of Trading, edge is what separates average traders from those who thrive at a top hedge fund. But today, finding edge requires more than just a good model—it demands judgment, adaptability, and a deep understanding of how quant t
Venture Capitalist Avik Ashar: VC Is How Asia’s Richest Future-Proof Their Businesses
If venture capital underperforms the public markets, is it still worth the investment? For Avik Ashar, the answer is yes—but not for the reasons you think. Avik, a Principal at Riverwalk Holdings, an India-focused VC firm, argues that most people misunderstand how venture capital works and how to fairly evaluate VC fund performance.Venture capital, he explains, isn’t just about chasing unicorns or
Venture Capitalist Guy Horowitz: Some of the Best Founders are Assholes
Is venture capital dead? Not for Guy Horowitz, who boasts 20+ years in the VC ecosystem, holding the title of partner at firms like DTCP, 33N, and ESH.vc. In this episode of Build to Last, we unpack the changing face of early-stage investing and startup funding—from the 2000s hardware boom to the rise of software unicorns, and now the new frontier: AI-first companies. Guy shares battle-tested insi
Goodnotes COO Minh Tran: Schools That Ignore AI Will Fall Behind
How will AI affect education? Minh Tran has a lot to say about the future of learning in the age of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI. As the COO of GoodNotes—one of the world’s leading AI-powered note-taking apps—he’s at the forefront of how AI is changing the education system. For Minh, the future of learning is already here: “We need to rethink WHAT we teach, not just HOW we teach,
Quant Researcher and YouTuber Dimitri Bianco: Your Finance Degree is Worthless
Is a finance degree still worth it if you want to become a quant? In this week’s Build to Last episode, quant researcher and YouTuber Dmitri Bianco explains why he calls his own finance undergrad “a big mistake” — and why most quant roles today demand far more math, statistics, and programming than students realize. (The short answer to that first question is: no.)Dmitri shares how he went from a
Investment Migration Expert Krista Victorio: You Can Buy a Passport (Legally)
A second passport isn’t just for shady billionaires or globalist elites — it’s actually a legal, fast-growing strategy used by thousands of wealthy families to unlock global freedom. It’s also the core of a booming global industry that Krista Victorio, Partner at Orience, knows inside and out.On this episode of Build to Last, Krista explains how citizenship-by-investment works — and why families f
$1M+ Consultant Davide Sola: For True Success, "Think in Generations, Not Quarters"
At no other point in history the #corporate and #academic worlds been so deeply at odds. The former sees the latter as useless bureaucrat over-thinkers, while the latter sees the former as money-driven opportunists placing profit over principle. But Dr. Davide Sola is rallying against this. His experience spans both the #boardroom and the #classroom. Early into his #career, he worked at #McKinsey
After Years as a Startup Advisor, Illai Gescheit Says Kindness Is Edge
The startup world is dog eat dog. “Move fast and break things,” so goes the Silicon Valley adage. For Illai Gescheit, this does not have to be the case: “You can still move fast and break things and be a kind person as well,” he says. The unconventional mantra is plastered on his LinkedIn headline. “Kindness is my strategy,” it reads. Indeed, it’s a practice that Illai must commit to in his day-to
How Ryan Manuel Built an AI Startup Turning Policy Into Alpha
We live in a world of noise. Signals are in abundance. There is too much data, too much fuzz and fluff that makes decision-making a real challenge. It’s issues like these that founder Ryan Manuel is trying to solve. As the founder and CEO of Bilby, his main goal is to use AI and machine learning to automate regulatory and government analysis, turning fuzzy policy signals into real, actionable insi
How Silicon Sands’ Seth Dobrin Is Investing in a Future Where AI Is Used Responsibly
Every week, it seems that there’s always a new set of questions we’re pondering when it comes to AI: How will AI reshape the job market? How close are we to Artificial General Intelligence? Dr. Seth Dobrin, a General Partner at One Infinity Ventures and the founder of Silicon Sands, is here to give some clarity on these issues. What sets Seth apart in the world of AI investing is his commitment to
From Author to Publisher: How Dhira Vidhea Built Indonesia’s First Digital Literary Agency
Growing up, Dhira Vidhea loved to read and write. She’d devour John Green’s books as a teenager, and eventually wrote her own book titled “The Boy Who Broke In My Window” at age 13. “I always wanted to be an author,” she says. “That was my dream.” But publishing manuscript wasn’t as easy as she first anticipated: None of the literary agents she sent her book to wanted to work with her.From one cha
Where Energy, Grit, and Optimism Take You: How Keith Breslauer Went From Working at Lehman Brothers to Starting a €5 Billion Private Equity Firm
One of Europe’s notable private equity success stories started in New York.Meet Keith Breslauer: native to Washington Heights, NYC and now the managing director of Patron Capital, a London-based private equity firm specializing in real estate and property that he founded in 1999. Patron represents leading U.S. and European institutions, endowments, pension funds and family offices, with approximat
Daniel Mika Built an AI Startup at 17. Seven Years Later, He Invests in Them.
For founder and technologist Daniel Mika, the idea of building the future is as ordinary as the everyday. No surprise, then, that his first foray into the world of artificial intelligence started long before GPT and Grok were en vogue: In 2018, Daniel became co-founded GetDressed, an computer vision-powered fashion stylist, (at the time of launch, he was only 17).Daniel’s work in the startup world
When the Only Way is Up: Earl Valencia Turned $5 Million in Startup Funding Into Emerging Market Success
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