ALO30: The Quiet Rewire of Portfolio Construction ft. Cian Walsh
Top Traders Unplugged
Niels Kaastrup-Larsen
4.8 • 712 Ratings
🗓️ 9 July 2025
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Cian Walsh, Head of Hedge Funds and Private Debt at Formue, joins Alan Dunne to explore what it means to allocate capital when the macro regime, client expectations, and the structure of markets are all in flux. He explains why the 60/40 model obscures more than it reveals, how he is adapting institutional frameworks for thousands of private clients, and what changes when you view hedge funds not as a bucket, but as a function. From the discipline of sizing trend in a sideways regime to the slow shift from vintage private credit to evergreen, this is a conversation about building portfolios that can hold together when the ground moves.
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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE
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Episode TimeStamps:
02:12 - Introduction to Cian Walsh
05:30 - How does institutional asset allocation stand out?
06:39 - Asset allocation in a shifting regime
09:33 - A move towards mass customization
10:26 - The 60/40 portfolio is dying - what is next?
13:28 - The challenges of implementing a total portfolio approach
17:16 - Dealing with underperforming strategies
20:09 - More growth or more all-weather?
23:30 - Why Walsh believes in systematic trading
28:51 - Do Walsh hold any long volatility strategies?
30:04 - Walsh's process for selecting managers
36:55 - Managing fees and the rise of Pod Shops
39:54 - Their approach to early stage allocation and risk
42:03 - How manager selection differs from asset allocation
44:32 - Their process of upholding expected returns and performance
46:55 - Balancing hedge fund allocation and private credit
50:20 - Does hedge fund allocation call for more caution?
52:46 - How to avoid sitting short on liquidity
54:48 - The pitfalls of the private credit space
58:19 - Will credit markets outperform growth equity markets?
01:00:27 - Walsh's key advice and book recommendations for other investors
Copyright © 2025 – CMC AG – All Rights Reserved
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2. Daily Trend Barometer and Market Score
One of the things I’m really proud of, is the fact that I have managed to published the Trend Barometer and Market Score each day for more than a decade...as these tools are really good at describing the environment for trend following managers as well as giving insights into the general positioning of a trend following strategy! Click Here
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And if you are hungry for more useful resources from the trend following world...check out some precious resources that I have found over the years to be really valuable. Click Here
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It's very much a credit-focused investment mindset about not making mistakes, being sufficiently |
| 0:15.8 | diversified and putting together a robust portfolio that's going to generate income over time. |
| 0:22.8 | So there is a convergence there which we need to be aware of. |
| 0:27.2 | I think that's the right approach. |
| 0:29.2 | You're getting an extra element of diversification there as well. |
| 0:34.6 | Imagine spending an hour with the world's greatest traders. |
| 0:38.3 | Imagine learning from their experiences, their successes, and their failures. |
| 0:42.3 | Imagine no more. |
| 0:44.3 | Welcome to Top Traders Unplugged, the place where you can learn from the best hedge fund managers in the world, |
| 0:50.3 | so you can take your manager, due diligence, or investment career to the next level. |
| 0:55.5 | Before we begin today's conversation, remember to keep two things in mind. |
| 0:59.5 | All the discussion we'll have about investment performance is about the past, and past |
| 1:03.7 | performance does not guarantee or even infer anything about future performance. |
| 1:08.2 | Also understand that there's a significant risk of financial loss with all |
| 1:11.5 | investment strategies, and you need to request and understand the specific risks from the investment |
| 1:16.6 | manager about their product before you make investment decisions. Here's your host, veteran hedge fund |
| 1:22.3 | manager, Nealz Kostrup Larson. |
| 1:37.2 | Welcome and welcome back to another conversation in our series of episodes that focuses on markets and investing from a global macro perspective. |
| 1:45.2 | This is a series that I not only find incredibly interesting as well as intellectually challenging, but also very important, |
| 1:50.3 | given where we are in the global economy and the geopolitical cycle. |
| 1:55.3 | We want to dig deep into the minds of some of the most prominent experts to help us better understand what this new global macro-driven world may look like. |
| 1:59.6 | We want to explore their perspectives on a host of game-changing issues |
... |
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