ALO06: Betting against Buffett ft. Ted Seides
Top Traders Unplugged
Niels Kaastrup-Larsen
4.8 • 712 Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2022
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, Alan Dunne is joined by Ted Seides, host and creator of the Capital Allocators podcast, to discuss the investment approach and philosophy of David Swensen, the Yale Model and how Seides has used the model to develop his own approach, whether being a hedgefond allocator has become gradually more difficult over the years, the bet Seides made with Warren Buffett, asset allocation vs. manager selection and the challenges to overcome, what Seides has learned from doing his podcast, decision making processes and governance, crypto currencies and digital assets and much more.
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In this episode, we discuss:
- The philosophy of David Swensen and the Yale Model
- How the role of hedge funds has changed over the years
- The bet Seides made with Warren Buffett
- Asset allocation vs. manager selection and the challenges to overcome
- What Seides has learned from doing his podcast
- The importance of leadership and time management
- The difficulty of making a good decision in the heat of the moment
- The future of crypto currencies and digital assets
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Episode TimeStamps:
00:00 - Intro
03:23 - Ted’s background
07:35 - How Seides deviates from Swensen in his approach
10:36 - The Yale Model and the end of 60/40
15:55 - Is it more difficult to be a hedgefond allocator now?
23:03 - Asset allocation vs. manager selection
31:35 - What has Seides learned from doing his podcast?
39:58 - Learning by doing vs. learning from courses etc.
41:22 - What has Seides learned from interviewing CIOs and Allocators?
43:35 - What constitutes good and bad governance?
49:14 - Ted’s perspective on crypto currencies and digital assets
51:55 - Macro trends in the coming years
53:39 - Reflection on the success of Ted’s podcast
57:47 - How Ted’s role has evolved
01:01:21 - Thanks for listening
Resources discussed in this Episode:
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I think if you look at, you know, the bet that I created with Warren Buffett |
| 0:10.1 | on kind of hedge funds versus the market was 2008 to 2017. |
| 0:15.2 | And if I look back, you could say almost from the time the Fed came in in 2009, that that really began the period of time |
| 0:22.9 | with rates very low and competition higher and higher and increasing, that you just saw this gradual |
| 0:30.6 | diminution of returns pretty much across hedge fund strategies. And there's a couple of factors in that, |
| 0:36.5 | right? One is just a level of |
| 0:37.5 | interest rates because you're not paid on a short rebate. But the other one is that you could look |
| 0:41.3 | back and say there's just more and more competition. And eventually the competition and all these |
| 0:46.3 | incredibly talented hedge fund managers kind of caught up with the ability of them in aggregate |
| 0:52.0 | to generate really attractive returns. |
| 0:59.8 | Imagine spending an hour with the world's greatest traders. |
| 1:04.3 | Imagine learning from their experiences, their successes, their successes, and their failures. |
| 1:06.3 | Imagine no more. |
| 1:12.7 | Welcome to Top Traders Unplugged, the place where you can learn from the best hedge fund managers in the world, |
| 1:17.2 | so you can take your manager due diligence or investment career to the next level. |
| 1:21.2 | Before we begin today's conversation, remember to keep two things in mind. |
| 1:25.0 | All the discussion we'll have about investment performance is about the past, |
| 1:28.7 | and past performance does not guarantee or even infer anything about future performance. |
| 1:30.3 | Also understand that there's a significant risk of financial loss with all investment strategies, |
| 1:34.6 | and you need to request and understand the specific risks from the investment manager |
| 1:39.1 | about their product before you make investment decisions. |
| 1:42.4 | Here's your host, veteran hedge fund manager, Niels Kostrup Larson. |
... |
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