Thematic Investors
Thematic Investors is a podcast hosted by Kieran Cavanna, Co-Founder and CIO of Old Farm Partners. It focuses on institutional investment trends, featuring forward-thinking insights from monthly guests. Topics include energy transition, emerging markets, technology, endowment allocation strategies, and quantitative and discretionary investing strategies. The podcast is powered by Vidrio Financial.
Episodes
Thematic Investors: The Asian Investment Playbook | Highwest Global Management
Accounting for roughly $45 trillion of global GDP, Asian markets offer hedge fund investors compelling opportunities shaped by US-China decoupling and regional corporate governance reforms. While AI dominates headlines, a look beneath the surface across Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and India reveals far richer opportunities—making a disciplined regional playbook essential.
In our la
Thematic Investors: Fast-Tracking the US Grid – Policy, Power Demand, and Infrastructure
The demand dynamic for US power growth is significantly accelerating, with spending on new generation assets – necessary to keep pace – nearing $350B over the next five years. This presents a tremendous opportunity for institutional investors focused on the total energy complex and its ripple effects across infrastructure, commodities, and more. From a policy standpoint, flexibility wi
Thematic Investors: Envestra Capital on Investing in Europe’s Energy Transition
The world is changing rapidly as it searches for new energy alternatives to meet the growing demand of data centers, electric vehicles and to reduce carbon emissions. Add in geopolitics around Ukraine and Iran, and the infrastructure of energy supply lines becomes less stable. Given this landscape, how can thematic investors optimize portfolio strategies to generate returns across both energy and
Thematic Investors: Titan Advisors on Maintaining Focus to Build Resilient Portfolios
The early days of hedge funds can be described as somewhat akin to the Wild West, characterized by limited information flow, higher volatility, and the risk of losing focus that could easily derail any performance gains made. Today, the industry is run more efficiently with improved information flows and regulatory oversight, which cuts down on the “nefarious characters” that have existed in the p
Thematic Investors: A Front Row Macro Investing Seat to the World with Rob Citrone
Many successful careers in institutional investing are forged early from a high degree of passion, curiosity, and discipline in the space. These traits accelerate your learning curve and help you build a network that keeps you competitive over the long term. For those investors specializing in emerging markets, you add a focus on politics and whether leaders in those markets can actually implement
Thematic Investors: High Ground Investment Management on the Pathology of Long-Short Investing
What fuels the curiosity and drive to become a great investor? Could it be early teenage stock market experiments that return 20% or simply being bored in the UK’s equivalent of Iowa, allowing you to take deeper dives into company annual reports during summer breaks? Edgar Allen began his own investment career, fueled by these experiences, as well as through his studies as a budding pathologist. H
Winning Strategies in Macro Hedge Fund Investing: RV Capital and PinnBrook Capital
Throughout many of our past episodes on the Thematic Investors podcast, we have seen the differences in hedge fund investing strategies when East meets West. Given today’s trade and tariff environment, we wanted to expand the debate with two leading macro investors, pulling their insights on tariffs, U.S. exceptionalism, capital expenditures in areas like AI, and more.
We are honored to welcome Ro
Thematic Investors: Sio Capital on Balancing Success and Catalysts in Healthcare Investing
Investing in healthcare and biotech requires razor-sharp models, especially if you want to create more opportunities in this category through short selling. In today’s market, how can investors capitalize on short opportunities when AI, external Medicare Service pressure, policy regulation, and other factors are impacting healthcare investment targets and potentially derailing performance re
Targeting Investments in Commodities with John Ciampaglia
With the ongoing volatility of tariffs and trade wars, many institutional investors are looking towards the safe havens of precious metals and critical materials. These include gold, silver, palladium, uranium, and more. However, in many cases, these metals are not designed for rapid price increases. In 2025, we’re already seeing gold having a huge run, but will it continue?
In this latest entry
Thematic Investors: Hunters Moon Capital on Investing Across Europe
As the fiscal brakes start to come off of Europe, how can investors begin to take advantage of investment opportunities that are on the horizon? Many viewed the early days of the Trump presidency as negative, but could that view shift as pressure increases to move Europe closer together? Early movements are pointing towards a union of capital markets and banking, which could result in the breaking
Thematic Investors: Genna Lozovsky on targeting emerging market credit investment opportunities
When comparing emerging market equity investments to their credit investment counterparts, the scales quickly tip to favor credit investments by offering investors 150-200 basis points in real growth. The story on emerging market credit investments remains robust, but how does that growth translate across different regional markets? This is what we’re going to find out … Read More Read More
Thematic Investors: Analog Century Management a Billion Dollar Perspective on Hard Technology
In the world of institutional investing, many trailblazers didn’t start in finance. This field boasts talents from backgrounds, including musicians, philosophers, and even physicists. Take Val Zlatev, for instance. Originally a physicist, his journey took a thrilling turn during a Chicago event when he visited the commodities exchange. Upon looking down at the trading floor … Read More Read More
Thematic Investors: Arvind Sanger on Long-Short Energy Transition Investing
Long-short investors seriously targeting the energy sector need to adjust their nets and focus on placing bets on everything from coal, oil, natural gas, uranium, and other relevant sectors. This investment style isn’t about making massive directional wagers like a CTA fund; instead, it’s about leveraging macro trends to balance risks and seize opportunities in … Read More Read More
Thematic Investors: Plus Tick Management Exploring Old School Hedge Fund Returns
Exploring the depths of distressed investing can occasionally uncover undeniable proof that the asset is far from lifeless, revealing a scenario much more promising than the market price once suggested. All it takes is a catalyst to turn a dead investment into an opportunity with huge asymmetric returns. In the latest episode of the Thematic … Read More Read More
Thematic Investors: Will Homan-Russell on Asset Allocation Strategies in Shipping
In this latest episode of Thematic Investors Podcast, host Kieran Cavanna, Chief Investment Officer and Co-Founder, Old Farm Partners is joined by Will Homan-Russell, Chief Investment Officer, WMC Capital. Will brings his expertise on global shipping investment plays and how various market forces can impact the future of this industry. Each year, there are around … Read More Read More
Thematic Investors: Gavin Baker Blending Sci-fi, History and Literature for Tech Investing Success
Michael Steinhardt offered invaluable insights into investing, emphasizing the importance of conviction, balance, and the willingness to acknowledge mistakes. This rings especially true in the dynamic world of technology investments, where assessing asset pricing and risk in areas like artificial intelligence, application software, GPUs, and data management is crucial for success. In this latest e
Thematic Investors: Scott Bessent a Global Macro Veteran on the Path Ahead
Legendary basketball coach Pat Riley was once quoted as saying, “Keep the main thing, the main thing”, which is a great tip for anyone wishing to enter the field of macro investing on the global stage. Everyone has similar data but the secret is how you interpret that intelligence in terms of risk, economic indicators, … Read More Read More
Thematic Investors: James Davolos on why investors can’t paint-by-the-numbers in real asset investing
Looking for asymmetry in the institutional investing space, and making it a part of your core competencies is not an easy task. In many instances, this requires hard work built on chasing down inefficiencies in the market and going into research overdrive on an idea where very little sell-side coverage exists. This is where great … Read More Read More
Thematic Investors: Stuart Mitchell on the Investment Sale Across Europe
When looking at European investments how will the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy align on energy transition, innovative technology growth, financial services, and more? How can institutional investors capture this market when comparing them against more attractive U.S. opportunities? In our latest episode of the Thematic Investors podcast, host, Kieran Cavanna, speaks with Stuart … Read Mo
Thematic Investors: Alan Bezoza, DigitalBridge on finding the shiny penny in telecom investing
In the fast-paced world of institutional investing, the speed of innovation varies across different sectors. However, in the realm of telecommunications, investment strategies are constantly evolving. Whether your focus is on the cutting-edge upstream products like carriers, data centers, and telecom companies, or the dynamic downstream products such as semiconductors and the intricate supply chai
Thematic Investors: Why Institutional Investors Should Consider Uranium
When it comes to institutional investors exploring alternative energy sources uranium and nuclear energy present an intriguing opportunity. With the pressing need to address high global energy demands and combat climate change, this is an energy source that should not be underestimated. However, concerns still exist in terms of supply and demand as well as … Read More Read More
Thematic Investors: Fueling Technological Breakthroughs in Energy Transition
Back in 1962, President Kennedy declared that by the end of the decade the United States would have a man on the moon. Energy transition is an entirely different animal where the technology, consumer sentiment, and politics will require further progress before we can declare victory. In this inaugural episode, Kieran Cavanna, CIO, Old Farm … Read More Read More
