1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. 2 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:21,480 Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to another episode of The Odd Lots Podcast. 3 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:22,880 Speaker 2: I'm Tracy Alloway. 4 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:23,920 Speaker 3: And I'm Joe Wisenthal. 5 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 2: Joe, I've been reflecting on this year. It's been a 6 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:28,280 Speaker 2: busy year. 7 00:00:28,440 --> 00:00:29,320 Speaker 3: Yeah, go on. 8 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:32,080 Speaker 2: In fact, we're recording this. We're on yet another trip. 9 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:35,760 Speaker 2: We're in Huntington Beach for this year's future Proof conference, 10 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:38,200 Speaker 2: which is always a fun time an event I always enjoy, 11 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:40,559 Speaker 2: but we happen on the road a lot. Yeah, and 12 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:43,480 Speaker 2: I feel like the entire year is starting to feel 13 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 2: very surreal for me. It feels just very different to 14 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:50,240 Speaker 2: prior years for many different reasons. But I was also 15 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:53,760 Speaker 2: thinking one of those reasons is because it seems harder 16 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:57,560 Speaker 2: and harder to do portfolio construction nowadays. And I know 17 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:01,240 Speaker 2: that sounds really weird, given that markets are still at 18 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 2: record highs and everything seems to be going reasonably well, 19 00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 2: even though we had that terrible jobs number. But if 20 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:10,360 Speaker 2: I think back to the big leg down that we 21 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:14,680 Speaker 2: saw this year, it seemed really scary because basically everything 22 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:16,000 Speaker 2: sold off at once. 23 00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:16,360 Speaker 4: Right. 24 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:18,240 Speaker 3: You know what I really like. I like how you 25 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:20,480 Speaker 3: started this with this philosophical thing like we're out on 26 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:21,120 Speaker 3: the road and. 27 00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 2: All this, and then I was like, how do I 28 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:23,440 Speaker 2: protect my. 29 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:26,960 Speaker 3: Portfolio and reflecting and then the surreality of the times 30 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:30,000 Speaker 3: and now we bring it around to portfolio construction. But no, 31 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:32,040 Speaker 3: that's true, and there's two a couple of things going on. 32 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:34,840 Speaker 3: So one is the sort of like cross asset class moves. 33 00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:37,240 Speaker 3: The other thing is and is very related to that. 34 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:39,319 Speaker 3: I mean it's the flip side of this, which is 35 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:42,760 Speaker 3: correlation breakdown. And then there was still this other element 36 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:45,039 Speaker 3: that I think there is a play where at least, 37 00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:47,400 Speaker 3: like I would say, there's two more things, which is 38 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:50,440 Speaker 3: that one within us assets, the winners are still the winners, right, 39 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 3: especially a lot of these big tech names, so you 40 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:54,760 Speaker 3: haven't gotten the sort of secular and people. 41 00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 2: Have been talking about overvaluations for forever. 42 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:01,080 Speaker 3: And then the fact that you know you're not getting 43 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:04,760 Speaker 3: paid much to take on volatility risk or volatility measures 44 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:07,360 Speaker 3: are still very low. So there's a lot of difficult, 45 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:08,519 Speaker 3: unintuitive things going on. 46 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:10,400 Speaker 2: And I don't even know what a tail risk hedge 47 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:12,560 Speaker 2: actually looks like at this point, because I would have 48 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:16,079 Speaker 2: thought like, well, obviously maybe you diversify into long duration 49 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:18,960 Speaker 2: bonds or something like that. But then in April when 50 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:21,320 Speaker 2: we had the big sell off long duration and not 51 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 2: do that well either. So it kind of has me 52 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:27,000 Speaker 2: scratching my head about if you were worried about stuff 53 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:30,440 Speaker 2: both literally and figuratively perhaps blowing up at this point 54 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:33,280 Speaker 2: in time, what would you be doing, Like, what does 55 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:35,000 Speaker 2: a tail risk hedge actually look like? Now? 56 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:37,840 Speaker 3: You like buke gold that's already at record high. Yeah, yeah, 57 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:39,080 Speaker 3: it's confusing. 58 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:41,480 Speaker 2: Yes, Okay. So on that note, I'm very happy to 59 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:43,959 Speaker 2: say we actually have the perfect guest to talk about 60 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:47,880 Speaker 2: tail risk insurance and just tail risks in general, someone 61 00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:50,399 Speaker 2: who's been working on Wall Street for a really really 62 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:53,680 Speaker 2: long time and has a very storied career, lots of 63 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:57,720 Speaker 2: stories involving big names that you and I would definitely recognize. 64 00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:00,240 Speaker 2: We're going to be speaking with. Veneer Bensali is, of 65 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:03,239 Speaker 2: course the founder of a long tail Alpha and again 66 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:06,120 Speaker 2: has worked at many many firms previously. We'll get into 67 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:08,200 Speaker 2: all of that. Veneer, thank you so much for coming on. 68 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:09,480 Speaker 4: All thoughts, thank you for having me. 69 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:11,920 Speaker 2: So I should just go ahead and ask you to 70 00:03:11,919 --> 00:03:15,040 Speaker 2: give a sort of five minutes summary of your career 71 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:18,000 Speaker 2: because it is kind of amazing. But the important thing 72 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:20,280 Speaker 2: is you didn't start out as a trader, You started 73 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:21,360 Speaker 2: out as a mathematician. 74 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:25,239 Speaker 4: Yep. I started out as a theoretical physicist. I was 75 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:28,799 Speaker 4: finishing my PhD at Harvard, and this is nineteen ninety one. 76 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:30,880 Speaker 4: The recession had just hit. I didn't know what a 77 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:33,360 Speaker 4: recession was. I wanted to be a professor, but my 78 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 4: job evaporated because I was going to go work at 79 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:39,160 Speaker 4: the super colliders. The Superconducting SuperCollider got canceled by Congress. 80 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:42,600 Speaker 4: Nineteen nineties. I had a post dot lineup in France 81 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:45,160 Speaker 4: and one I think it was in Texas and Austin, 82 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,640 Speaker 4: and I got a call out of Wall Street, out 83 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:51,280 Speaker 4: of Goldman. They were looking for quants like me to 84 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:54,880 Speaker 4: work on options trading or options model building rather, I 85 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:57,960 Speaker 4: should say. So I went and interviewed, mostly because of 86 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 4: the free trip in New York. I went there, got 87 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:03,280 Speaker 4: interviewed by an elderly gentleman who was taking notes saying, 88 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 4: doesn't know any finance. For disclosure, I knew no finance. 89 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:09,119 Speaker 4: I had no interest in it. It was Fisher Black 90 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 4: who was in Really Oh wow, I decided Black Scholes fame. 91 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:16,680 Speaker 4: Little did I know when I turned that job down 92 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 4: from Goldman. I took another job at City Bank, trading derivatives, 93 00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:23,080 Speaker 4: because in my mind was a sabbatical. I was going 94 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:24,599 Speaker 4: to do this for about six months to a year 95 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:27,359 Speaker 4: and then go back to physics. Well, little did I 96 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:30,280 Speaker 4: know that my whole life would become basically, very deeply 97 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 4: connected with ation trading. So that's what I've been doing. 98 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:34,360 Speaker 4: And we'll talk a lot more about dail risk getting 99 00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:34,839 Speaker 4: in a second. 100 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:37,320 Speaker 2: Wait, I got to ask why did you decide to 101 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:40,800 Speaker 2: turn down Goldman? And given the Fisher Black himself was 102 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:42,800 Speaker 2: doing the interview, and you chose to go to City 103 00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:43,120 Speaker 2: at that. 104 00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:45,719 Speaker 4: Time, Well, one was a research job at Goldman, and 105 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:49,640 Speaker 4: the job at City was actually trading drivens. And since 106 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 4: trading was so far away from what I knew, and 107 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:54,120 Speaker 4: this was really supposed to be a vacation for me 108 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:56,480 Speaker 4: for about a year, like found like a good thing 109 00:04:56,520 --> 00:04:57,520 Speaker 4: to do, for a fun thing to do. 110 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:00,960 Speaker 3: Rather, did you ever feel like always so curious about 111 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,680 Speaker 3: stories from the early days of physicists going to Wall Street. 112 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:06,440 Speaker 3: Was there a period where you felt like it was 113 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:07,960 Speaker 3: a bit beneath I mean, you call it kind of 114 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:10,720 Speaker 3: a vacation job. Did it feel intellectually beneath you for 115 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:13,160 Speaker 3: a while, and then did it eventually become sort of 116 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:16,800 Speaker 3: genuinely intellectually satisfying in the way that maybe you had 117 00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:19,919 Speaker 3: anticipated an academic career to become so interesting. 118 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:23,279 Speaker 4: Though the modeling certainly at those days seemed a little 119 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:25,359 Speaker 4: too naive. So for instance, I'll give you an example 120 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:28,840 Speaker 4: very first trade that we did, large trade. I was 121 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:30,720 Speaker 4: a city bank at the time, and it was an 122 00:05:30,720 --> 00:05:33,719 Speaker 4: interest rate gap on yen. Interest rates linked to the 123 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:36,719 Speaker 4: dollar yen, so it was basically a two factor option 124 00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:40,240 Speaker 4: called hybrid option. And it turned out that at a physicist, 125 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:43,240 Speaker 4: I was very easy. It was very easy for me, 126 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:45,320 Speaker 4: and I was very able to write a Monte Carlo 127 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:48,920 Speaker 4: to write this knockout gap, but for the finance people 128 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:51,280 Speaker 4: it was kind of tough. So the math was very easy. 129 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:54,400 Speaker 4: But I also learned that trading is not just math. 130 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:56,920 Speaker 4: Trading is a lot of behavioral stuff and so on, 131 00:05:56,960 --> 00:05:59,560 Speaker 4: and that I just obviously had to learn. And I 132 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:01,960 Speaker 4: have some great stories of stuff that I did really 133 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:04,120 Speaker 4: badly back in nineteen ninety ninety four. 134 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:07,200 Speaker 3: Tell us the story I did badly well, So nineteen ninety. 135 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,400 Speaker 4: Four, if you remember, in a nineteen ninety three the 136 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:12,480 Speaker 4: fed ad eased and rates were quite low, and everybody 137 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:14,680 Speaker 4: was long the front end of the yeld curve and 138 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:16,719 Speaker 4: buying year dollar features contracts. 139 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:18,600 Speaker 3: Wait, didn't it talent around here go bankrupt? 140 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:21,799 Speaker 4: Yes, yes, yes, we'll get to that exactly. So February 141 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:24,200 Speaker 4: of nineteen ninety four, the Fed raised race by twenty 142 00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 4: five and then very surprisingly April eighteenth of that year, 143 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:31,200 Speaker 4: they did an inter meeting increase. And at that time 144 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:33,800 Speaker 4: bond market has always sold off quite a bit, and 145 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:37,040 Speaker 4: I just did what human beings you do, which is 146 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:39,120 Speaker 4: that on mean reversion. So I tried to buy the 147 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:41,760 Speaker 4: bond market, and tried to buy the bond market again 148 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:44,799 Speaker 4: and again and again until I realized that there's something 149 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:48,360 Speaker 4: called trend following and exit. And I think the bond 150 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:51,840 Speaker 4: market sold off a good fifteen twenty points and finally 151 00:06:51,839 --> 00:06:55,520 Speaker 4: I recouped all that. It was a brutal few months 152 00:06:55,520 --> 00:06:57,800 Speaker 4: of literally getting my face ripped off. 153 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 2: So one other thing, I'm curious the sort of early 154 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:04,680 Speaker 2: days of quants, But what exactly was the pitch to scientists, 155 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:07,920 Speaker 2: whether they're you know, mathematicians or physics guys. When these 156 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:10,400 Speaker 2: big banks or big trading firms are trying to recruit 157 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:12,840 Speaker 2: back then, because you know, like quant was in the 158 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:15,120 Speaker 2: I know we had nineteen eighty seven by them, but 159 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:18,200 Speaker 2: it was still relatively in the early days. So I'm 160 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:20,800 Speaker 2: really curious, like what they told you about what you 161 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:21,560 Speaker 2: would be doing. 162 00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:25,440 Speaker 4: So from the modeling side is pretty straightforward, right, the 163 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 4: blactual equation and stochastic calculus. Stochastic finance is basically what's 164 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:33,320 Speaker 4: called the eight equation or the diffusion equation in physics, 165 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:37,840 Speaker 4: and that's something that every physicist learns when they're in 166 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:40,640 Speaker 4: early graduate school. It's like solving a partial differential equation. 167 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:43,360 Speaker 4: So the math is exactly identical the math of finance. 168 00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:46,800 Speaker 4: And maybe that's the problem actually in retrospect now that 169 00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:49,480 Speaker 4: having done this for thirty years and thirty plus years 170 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:52,520 Speaker 4: and survived, maybe that's the problem because the beauty can 171 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:57,600 Speaker 4: somehow hide the frictions underneath it. From the trading side, 172 00:07:57,640 --> 00:07:59,440 Speaker 4: when I first started crating, I think it was very 173 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:04,040 Speaker 4: simply being mathematically sharp and quick and being able to 174 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:08,679 Speaker 4: answer quizzes just made interviewers feel like they were getting 175 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:11,120 Speaker 4: smart people on the desk that they could train right 176 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:12,600 Speaker 4: the blank canvas, so speak. 177 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:17,280 Speaker 3: So once people on these desks got armed with PhD 178 00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:21,400 Speaker 3: physicists and understanding of like Brownian motion and stuff like that. 179 00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:26,080 Speaker 3: Did that change how the actual markets traded from your perspective, 180 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:30,000 Speaker 3: like sort of pre and posts that, did assets conform 181 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:34,480 Speaker 3: more to as models anticipated because of the model effect 182 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:38,120 Speaker 3: on them? Like what was your observation of actual existing 183 00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:40,800 Speaker 3: market behavior pre and post the physics revolution? 184 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:43,320 Speaker 4: Oh? Absolutely, And this is a very important question because 185 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:45,839 Speaker 4: if you fast forward to twenty eighteen, the Big XIV 186 00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:48,800 Speaker 4: debacle and the bottomagedin and a lot of things that 187 00:08:48,880 --> 00:08:51,760 Speaker 4: happen now and actually fundamentally, what we do now, what 188 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:54,520 Speaker 4: I do now is related to this fact that there's 189 00:08:54,559 --> 00:08:58,400 Speaker 4: a very night feedback loop between models and markets and models. 190 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:00,280 Speaker 4: So give you a very simple example, Right, you have 191 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:03,920 Speaker 4: an option that you've sold to somebody, and you have 192 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:06,000 Speaker 4: to manage the risk. Of course, when you sell the option, 193 00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:09,240 Speaker 4: you're getting a multimary premium. That's why you sell it. 194 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:11,480 Speaker 4: You're getting an insurance premium, so to speak. But then 195 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:13,520 Speaker 4: to manage the position, you have to delta hedge. But 196 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:15,640 Speaker 4: delta hedging means that you have to buy and sell 197 00:09:15,679 --> 00:09:18,760 Speaker 4: the underlying asset and some higher order greeks as well, 198 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:21,680 Speaker 4: Gamma vega data that you've all read about. But delta 199 00:09:21,679 --> 00:09:25,520 Speaker 4: hedging requires people to be able to buy and sell 200 00:09:25,559 --> 00:09:28,040 Speaker 4: so that they are the seller. The market maker is 201 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:30,679 Speaker 4: locally flat of course, so the market maker, that's what 202 00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:33,520 Speaker 4: you do, and that's how you earn your keep, earn 203 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:36,680 Speaker 4: your visa, so to speak. The problem is that there's 204 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:39,880 Speaker 4: an idealization in mathematics or mathematical finance that you can 205 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:44,079 Speaker 4: do this at an unlimited size, and size doesn't matter, 206 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:48,360 Speaker 4: but it matters. Liquidity is actually not there. The basic 207 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:52,199 Speaker 4: assumption of black shoals is that you can continuously trade 208 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:55,520 Speaker 4: with almost zero transactions costs. Well, that's just not true 209 00:09:55,520 --> 00:09:57,839 Speaker 4: in real markets. As a matter of fact, in the 210 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:00,840 Speaker 4: last maybe two years even you've seen liquidity in the 211 00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:04,760 Speaker 4: EMNI futures contracts, which are possibly the I would take 212 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:07,600 Speaker 4: the zero to order hedging instrument for the equity markets 213 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:11,160 Speaker 4: go down relative to the high levels, frequently go down 214 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:13,640 Speaker 4: to maybe one twentieth or one fiftieth office level. So 215 00:10:13,679 --> 00:10:16,360 Speaker 4: people just can't get out. So what happens is that 216 00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:19,640 Speaker 4: people sell options, then they start delta hedging. Delta hatging 217 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:23,880 Speaker 4: results in the options market reacting to the delta, then 218 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:26,720 Speaker 4: results in new hedges coming in. So this feedback loop 219 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:30,280 Speaker 4: gets tighter and tighter and tighter until something breaks. And 220 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:33,280 Speaker 4: when something breaks and the box shut down, which is 221 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:36,319 Speaker 4: today's environment, you actually have no liquidity and that's when 222 00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:39,200 Speaker 4: you get these crashes like Liberation Day on April second. 223 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:42,240 Speaker 2: Vall Mageddon was definitely one of the more weirder events 224 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:45,520 Speaker 2: in markets because everyone could see what was going to 225 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:48,640 Speaker 2: happen when the VIX curve actually inverted, Like you could 226 00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:51,280 Speaker 2: see that all these products were going to go absolutely 227 00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:54,480 Speaker 2: belly up and no one, no one seemed to react 228 00:10:54,520 --> 00:10:56,800 Speaker 2: to it until it was like much, much too late. 229 00:10:57,320 --> 00:10:59,320 Speaker 2: That reminds me so one of the reasons that we 230 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:02,320 Speaker 2: are interviewing you here in Huntington Beach is because you 231 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:05,120 Speaker 2: used to work at Pimco with Bill Gross. In the 232 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:07,840 Speaker 2: last time we spoke to Bill Gross, I think was 233 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:10,800 Speaker 2: actually at Huntington Beach two years ago, and one of 234 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:13,440 Speaker 2: the things we spoke to him about was volatility selling, 235 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:16,560 Speaker 2: and Bill kind of became the poster child for a 236 00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:19,520 Speaker 2: little bit of volatility selling, at least in the bond 237 00:11:19,559 --> 00:11:21,839 Speaker 2: market in the sort of like Guesse. It would have 238 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:25,520 Speaker 2: been twenty fifteen around then, mid sort of twenty tens area. 239 00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:29,480 Speaker 2: I'm really curious who's selling fall now and how has 240 00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:31,360 Speaker 2: it changed over the course of your career. 241 00:11:31,679 --> 00:11:34,240 Speaker 4: Yeah, so a great little site point there. So Bill 242 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:35,800 Speaker 4: and I've been great friends. As a matter of fact, 243 00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:38,720 Speaker 4: I went to pimcoll because I heard Bill speak at 244 00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:40,800 Speaker 4: a talk when he was advertising in book back in 245 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:44,800 Speaker 4: two thousand and Bill's an amazing genius, great investor, and 246 00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:47,480 Speaker 4: one of the best compliments I got. Recently, I was 247 00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:49,760 Speaker 4: communicating with him and he said, I have your paper 248 00:11:49,800 --> 00:11:51,319 Speaker 4: at the top of my reading list and I said, 249 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:53,800 Speaker 4: wish paper, Bill, And he said, this paper that I 250 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:58,319 Speaker 4: wrote with Larry Harris on the volatility selling ecosystem that 251 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:01,800 Speaker 4: basically you grew up before twenty eighteen. So yes, So 252 00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:05,640 Speaker 4: Bill actually in a sense invented the sole idea of 253 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:10,600 Speaker 4: selling volatility in fixed income, especially through buying mortgages or 254 00:12:10,679 --> 00:12:14,719 Speaker 4: explicit selling of straddles and strangles and what we realized. 255 00:12:14,840 --> 00:12:16,840 Speaker 4: And again I was head of analytics at pimcos, so 256 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:19,440 Speaker 4: over the last or over fifteen years or so I 257 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:22,720 Speaker 4: was there, I got to see and help him manage 258 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:26,040 Speaker 4: the quantitative risks of those portfolios. We ended up educating 259 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:29,880 Speaker 4: a lot of our clients at that time about volatility selling, harvesting, 260 00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:33,120 Speaker 4: wall premiums and so on, which did end up adding 261 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:35,679 Speaker 4: quite a bit of as Bill calls its structural alpha 262 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:40,079 Speaker 4: to the Pimco portfolios and twenty thirty forty basis points 263 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:43,120 Speaker 4: every year. What happened is that everybody got educated and 264 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:46,120 Speaker 4: it became part of the academic lore and everybody realized it. 265 00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:48,280 Speaker 4: There was a lot of crowding, and it's a little 266 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:50,560 Speaker 4: bit like selling insurance, right, so when you find that 267 00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:53,440 Speaker 4: one insurance policy selling works, then you say, why don't 268 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:57,120 Speaker 4: become multi line insurance provider, so you start telling insurance 269 00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:00,280 Speaker 4: policy and everything. And so what has happened now over 270 00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:04,520 Speaker 4: my career it have gone from institutional selling, where first 271 00:13:04,559 --> 00:13:07,320 Speaker 4: of it was hedge funds, then it was large sophisticated 272 00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:11,000 Speaker 4: mutual funds like Pinco, who could actually still fit it 273 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:14,559 Speaker 4: inside of the mutual fund complex because selling naked options 274 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:18,320 Speaker 4: is not really allowed unless you cash back it. And 275 00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:21,200 Speaker 4: then over time it has now gone to all the 276 00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:26,000 Speaker 4: do it yourselfers, so all the wealth offices and family 277 00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:31,080 Speaker 4: offices and large endowments, and this whole area which is 278 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:35,640 Speaker 4: now called alternative risk premiums, is based on this idea 279 00:13:36,160 --> 00:13:39,440 Speaker 4: that you can go and sell volatility in various forums 280 00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:43,720 Speaker 4: explicit forms or implicit forms to generate income. So everybody's 281 00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:44,080 Speaker 4: doing it. 282 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:47,000 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the answer. Everyone. Even more people are doing it. 283 00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:50,000 Speaker 2: So when we see alternative risk premia, it's basically a 284 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:51,640 Speaker 2: vall selling overlay. Is that it? 285 00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:54,320 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean you can make it more or less sophisticated. 286 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:55,880 Speaker 4: I mean it's a little bit naive to say it's 287 00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:58,880 Speaker 4: only wall selling, but wall selling is a very important 288 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:01,440 Speaker 4: component of it. And there were some great papers by 289 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:06,240 Speaker 4: people from AKR who took every asset class, so equities, bonds, credit, 290 00:14:06,520 --> 00:14:10,120 Speaker 4: foreign exchange, and then also sliced stray down in various 291 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:12,800 Speaker 4: types of strategy, style and quality and momentum and so on. 292 00:14:13,160 --> 00:14:15,720 Speaker 4: They made like a sixteen by sixteen matrix, and then 293 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:19,760 Speaker 4: they recreated this what I'd consider to be more sophisticated 294 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:23,480 Speaker 4: sounding ball selling, But it really is ball selling. And 295 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:26,120 Speaker 4: what people do, just to be very clear, is it's 296 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:29,600 Speaker 4: not just ball selling. They also layer on other things 297 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:32,000 Speaker 4: like trend following on top of it to create a 298 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:35,320 Speaker 4: counterbalance to the ball selling, because trend following is naturally 299 00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:54,120 Speaker 4: a ball liking or ball long ball type of strategy. 300 00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:58,440 Speaker 3: Going back to I hadn't realized that about the declining 301 00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:02,520 Speaker 3: or the collapsing liquid within the many futures. But is 302 00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:06,320 Speaker 3: there some sort of I don't know, law of thermodynamics 303 00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:08,800 Speaker 3: or something. I don't know if that's the term or 304 00:15:08,800 --> 00:15:12,160 Speaker 3: that's the analogy in market where such that when some 305 00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:17,160 Speaker 3: instrument becomes the hedging instrument of choice, the more popular 306 00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:20,560 Speaker 3: that gets, the less capacity there is for liquidity in 307 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:22,200 Speaker 3: that instrument. Is that sort of what's going on? 308 00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:24,760 Speaker 4: Yeah, So in this case, the even futures contract are 309 00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:28,720 Speaker 4: basically a speculation vehicle. They're a cash equitization vehicle, so 310 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:30,640 Speaker 4: they serve a lot of different purposes. But I think 311 00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:33,600 Speaker 4: the biggest thing that's going on here is that, starting 312 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:36,560 Speaker 4: maybe about ten years ago and somewhat surreptitiously, the market 313 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:39,520 Speaker 4: morphed from human market makers. So when I started trading, 314 00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:42,960 Speaker 4: it was human market makers. I still remember when I was, 315 00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:45,920 Speaker 4: you know, in the nineteen nineties, Tommy Baldwin on the 316 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:48,960 Speaker 4: pit of the CBOT floor chicagoboard to trade floor. You know, 317 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:51,920 Speaker 4: you would do a trade and Tommy Baldwin, and he 318 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:54,320 Speaker 4: was legendary obviously, he would lift his hand up and 319 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:56,200 Speaker 4: the market would stop and turn and go the other 320 00:15:56,240 --> 00:15:58,120 Speaker 4: way humans could do that. 321 00:15:58,240 --> 00:15:58,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, but what. 322 00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:02,200 Speaker 4: Happened surrepticiously or very strangely over the last fifteen or 323 00:16:02,240 --> 00:16:05,640 Speaker 4: ten years maybe, is that the human beings have sort 324 00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:09,840 Speaker 4: of left this market making area and ninety plus percent 325 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:12,640 Speaker 4: is being made by bots. And what bots know very 326 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:15,520 Speaker 4: well self survival is extremely important to them is as 327 00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:19,280 Speaker 4: soon as they see a liquidity tidal wave coming so 328 00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:21,600 Speaker 4: nami coming at them, they just get out of the way. 329 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:25,960 Speaker 4: Liquidity just becomes very episodic and muhammadalarians to call it 330 00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:29,360 Speaker 4: latent ill liquidity, which is just the fixture of the 331 00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:32,720 Speaker 4: markets today. It looks liquid and when you don't need it, 332 00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:34,560 Speaker 4: it's there, but if you need it, it's not there. 333 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:37,120 Speaker 2: So how do you actually deal with that as a trader? 334 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:39,560 Speaker 4: Yeah, so as a trainer. So this comes back to 335 00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:44,080 Speaker 4: the role of options fundamentally, right, So what do options 336 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:47,200 Speaker 4: in the world of quantitative finance. You can take an option, 337 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:49,320 Speaker 4: you can replicate it by doing delta hedging and so on, 338 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:52,840 Speaker 4: basically looking at the partial derivatives of an option pricing equation, 339 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:55,400 Speaker 4: or you can say I'll just buy the option. An 340 00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:59,240 Speaker 4: option is a contractual agreement between you and the option provider. 341 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:01,960 Speaker 4: So if there's ill liquidity, and if you believe this 342 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:04,080 Speaker 4: is a fixture of the environment that we're going to 343 00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:07,080 Speaker 4: live in, then there is no other way than to 344 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:11,760 Speaker 4: actually have a contractual agreement with somebody where you're delegating 345 00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:16,240 Speaker 4: the illiquidity is to them, so you are buying it 346 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:20,280 Speaker 4: when the premium is cheaper. But trying to delta heget 347 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:23,720 Speaker 4: yourself is like literally trying to put an elephant to 348 00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:25,959 Speaker 4: the eye of a needle. It's just people just cannot 349 00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:28,280 Speaker 4: work out. I mean, I just can't. I just can't 350 00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:32,280 Speaker 4: imagine the market collectively trying to get to that needle. 351 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:34,760 Speaker 4: These days, there is just nothing there. 352 00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:37,840 Speaker 3: Let's talk about April for a second, and maybe that 353 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:40,600 Speaker 3: period like between April second and April ninth, because there 354 00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:42,720 Speaker 3: was a market event, for sure, and it was also 355 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:45,840 Speaker 3: a real economic event with many things going on that 356 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:48,800 Speaker 3: weren't just lines on a chart, et cetera. And we 357 00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:51,080 Speaker 3: know it sort of happened there with the tariffs and 358 00:17:51,119 --> 00:17:53,240 Speaker 3: then the reversal of some of the tariffs and what 359 00:17:53,359 --> 00:17:55,920 Speaker 3: so forth. Since then, we've seen some of these correlation 360 00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:58,880 Speaker 3: breakdowns that some of our previous guests have talked about. 361 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:02,399 Speaker 3: From your perspect active, you know, whether it's April second 362 00:18:02,359 --> 00:18:04,840 Speaker 3: and three, April ninth, or April second through Now, what 363 00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:08,760 Speaker 3: happened then such that maybe some maybe is it a 364 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:10,680 Speaker 3: new regime? What changed in that month? 365 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:12,479 Speaker 4: Yeah, So I think one of the thing that is 366 00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:16,080 Speaker 4: going on is we are slowly undergoing a regime shift. 367 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:17,840 Speaker 4: And I'd like to always paint this picture, and I'll 368 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:19,679 Speaker 4: come to your question right after I give you this 369 00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:22,600 Speaker 4: big macro picture. From the sixties to the eighties. Sixties 370 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:25,200 Speaker 4: to the mid eighties, you had this period of rising inflation, 371 00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:29,560 Speaker 4: rising volatility, non credible central banks, and stuff was kind 372 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:32,000 Speaker 4: of breaking and people were behind the curve. Then you 373 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:34,399 Speaker 4: had the vulker increase of interest rates starting in the 374 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:39,440 Speaker 4: nineteen eighties and until the maybe late twenties twenty twenty 375 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:42,119 Speaker 4: call it twenty twenty one, COVID was an accelerant. You 376 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:46,760 Speaker 4: got negative yels and falling volatility, credible central banks and 377 00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:49,640 Speaker 4: so on. And I think we've actually turned the corner again. 378 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:52,080 Speaker 4: So starting in twenty twenty twenty one, I think we 379 00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:54,840 Speaker 4: are probably going to look more like the sixties to 380 00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:59,119 Speaker 4: eighty than nineteen eighty seven to twenty twenty. Now, having 381 00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:01,399 Speaker 4: put that backdrop, you know, in front of US. I 382 00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:04,879 Speaker 4: think the issue really comes back to, yes, there is 383 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:07,879 Speaker 4: a regime shift, both in terms of people's response function 384 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:11,639 Speaker 4: and how quickly things happen. So one data point that 385 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:14,040 Speaker 4: I can realize since I started trading is in the past, 386 00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:17,199 Speaker 4: when crises would happen, even including the GFC, which I 387 00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:20,560 Speaker 4: lived through and did fairly well, it used to take months, 388 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:23,320 Speaker 4: maybe weeks for things to correct, and you had time 389 00:19:23,359 --> 00:19:26,920 Speaker 4: to plan and time to execute. Then Vollmageddon maybe took 390 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:31,560 Speaker 4: a few days twenty twenty COVID it maybe happened in 391 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:35,320 Speaker 4: a few days to few hours, and then starting this year, 392 00:19:35,359 --> 00:19:38,440 Speaker 4: it feels like things are actually happening on an hourly 393 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:42,080 Speaker 4: to maybe minute basis. For instance, in April, when the 394 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:45,280 Speaker 4: big crash happened and the correction happened, all the action, 395 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:48,479 Speaker 4: including some of our trading, happened in the pre pre market, 396 00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:51,000 Speaker 4: so the markets had not even opened up, and if 397 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,119 Speaker 4: you needed to do something, you had to do it 398 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:56,040 Speaker 4: during the night session because that's where all the action was. 399 00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:58,320 Speaker 4: So I think that's one fixture of what's going on 400 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:01,440 Speaker 4: right now, is that stuff is happening much faster, and 401 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:05,000 Speaker 4: it does feel like the balance that's tilted in the 402 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:09,600 Speaker 4: favor of more automated trading rather than human driven trading. 403 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:13,800 Speaker 2: Let me ask a philosophical question about tail risk protection, 404 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:16,760 Speaker 2: which is, whenever there's a blow up, we suddenly get 405 00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:19,080 Speaker 2: all these stories about tail risk funds that have done 406 00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:22,480 Speaker 2: phenomenally well out of last month's chaos or whatever it 407 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:25,520 Speaker 2: might be, and then no one talks about them for 408 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:27,000 Speaker 2: like the next three years. 409 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:30,200 Speaker 3: You don't know how they're bleeding dry during those other months, right. 410 00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:32,359 Speaker 2: That's right, until we got another blow up, and then 411 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:35,600 Speaker 2: the cycle repeats itself in your mind, What is the 412 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:37,880 Speaker 2: purpose of tail risk protection? 413 00:20:38,119 --> 00:20:40,480 Speaker 4: Yeah, this is very simple, and I've been trying to 414 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:42,840 Speaker 4: do this. This is actually one of my missions since 415 00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:46,440 Speaker 4: I started our firm, is not just managing the risk, 416 00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:48,640 Speaker 4: but also trying to educate people and what the purposes. 417 00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:51,440 Speaker 4: This purpose is very similar to insurance, and not everybody 418 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:54,320 Speaker 4: needs it. If you don't live in California earthquake prone 419 00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:56,840 Speaker 4: zone or in Florida hurricane and prones on, you don't 420 00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:58,959 Speaker 4: need the insurance. But if you're going to run a 421 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:03,040 Speaker 4: large equity heavy portfolio, and by the way equities have 422 00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:05,560 Speaker 4: demonstrated over the last hundred years and maybe going forward, 423 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:09,560 Speaker 4: are the one way to create long term wealth because 424 00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:11,720 Speaker 4: people go to work. The first thing I learned when 425 00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:13,199 Speaker 4: I was a city bank from my boss told me 426 00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:16,560 Speaker 4: was just look at log GDP versus log SMP. The 427 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:19,520 Speaker 4: charts are aligned. Basically, if people work, the market goes up. 428 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:21,159 Speaker 4: So what that means is that you need to be 429 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:23,359 Speaker 4: invested in the stock market. And the more you invest 430 00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:25,600 Speaker 4: in the stock market, the more likely it is that 431 00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:28,840 Speaker 4: you're going to make higher compounded returns over time. But 432 00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:32,320 Speaker 4: also you will suffer big drawdowns. And one of the 433 00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:36,119 Speaker 4: biggest problems with people's behavioral function is that when the 434 00:21:36,119 --> 00:21:39,719 Speaker 4: markets collapse, they forget their plans and they liquidate. So 435 00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:42,840 Speaker 4: what tail risk fundamentally does. It's not a fund that 436 00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:45,600 Speaker 4: you should look at isolation and say is this fund 437 00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:47,840 Speaker 4: a good performer or not? Just like you would not 438 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:50,879 Speaker 4: go back home and say, well, what was the total 439 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:55,760 Speaker 4: return on my home insurance policy? Right? It's just negative percent? 440 00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:59,480 Speaker 4: Right every single year? So would you quit buying insurance? 441 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:02,719 Speaker 4: You won't, because home insurance or car insurance is not 442 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,879 Speaker 4: an investment. It is the cost of doing business. So 443 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,240 Speaker 4: that's the context in which one should think about dail 444 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:12,080 Speaker 4: risk catching is it allows you to first protect yourself 445 00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 4: from yourself in that events, and then secondly, when the 446 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:18,680 Speaker 4: markets are down, the value of those hedges going up 447 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:21,520 Speaker 4: allows you to buy assets on the cheap, which results 448 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:22,359 Speaker 4: in compounded growth. 449 00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:26,119 Speaker 3: Why hasn't Wall Street created an instrument where you could 450 00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:30,720 Speaker 3: sell away your liquidity to protecting from yourself automatically. I'm 451 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:33,880 Speaker 3: going to invest in this fund and I cannot sell 452 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:35,280 Speaker 3: until the year twenty sixty. 453 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:36,679 Speaker 2: Isn't that called lockups? 454 00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:39,399 Speaker 3: But to those funds that actually exist, could I buy that? 455 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:43,000 Speaker 3: And then there's two things that intuitively seem that A. 456 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:48,400 Speaker 3: You protect yourself from yourself. B You diversify automatically by 457 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:51,960 Speaker 3: the fact that you're across time. And then see presumably 458 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:55,320 Speaker 3: that would be more stable for securities, lending and collect 459 00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:58,640 Speaker 3: the little instrument? Has Wall Street created a fund that 460 00:22:58,680 --> 00:22:59,600 Speaker 3: one can't get out of? 461 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,719 Speaker 4: I think, like Chrissie just mentioned, hedge funds like to 462 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:03,679 Speaker 4: have lock ups, and. 463 00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:06,440 Speaker 3: I should just be able to buy an e TF 464 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:07,120 Speaker 3: that I can't sell. 465 00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:10,040 Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that if you can get over the regulators. 466 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:11,880 Speaker 4: I think that we are living in a world where 467 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,560 Speaker 4: mark to market daily and av et cetera. For ETFs 468 00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:17,560 Speaker 4: and port transparency is required but I do think. I mean, 469 00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:20,720 Speaker 4: one one very sophisticated institutional investor who was a client 470 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:24,439 Speaker 4: of ours actually said I would bay you more if 471 00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:26,360 Speaker 4: you sold me a product that actually had a longer lock. 472 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,639 Speaker 3: Because this is a question I have about portfolios and 473 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:32,399 Speaker 3: diversification in general, and it goes back to the point 474 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:34,800 Speaker 3: that you made about how stocks have done very well 475 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,720 Speaker 3: and the expectation is that as long as the economy growers, 476 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:41,840 Speaker 3: stocks will continue to do well for a while. Sixty 477 00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:44,760 Speaker 3: forty was a craze, right, and this is a good 478 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 3: portfolio over your treasury is and your stocks balance out. 479 00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:51,720 Speaker 3: But why should like, what is the case for diversification, 480 00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:55,520 Speaker 3: Let's say, sitting aside the behavioral fact that people sell 481 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:58,720 Speaker 3: it the lows, what is the case for diversification when 482 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:01,520 Speaker 3: there is this asset class that does so well over time? 483 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,160 Speaker 4: Yeah, so this is great. Though, if you could guarantee 484 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:06,280 Speaker 4: that this asset class would keep growing always, then you 485 00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:09,080 Speaker 4: woul one hundred percent be on stuff. Now, what bonds 486 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:12,640 Speaker 4: traditionally used to do was they provided you with income 487 00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:15,200 Speaker 4: that when the stock market wasn't doing well, at least 488 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:17,399 Speaker 4: you wouldn't go completely broke because you would have some yield. 489 00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:19,359 Speaker 4: But I think it got taken to an extreme right, 490 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:20,760 Speaker 4: I mean to the greatest example, and I wrote a 491 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,680 Speaker 4: whole book on this topic is is the European Central 492 00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:26,160 Speaker 4: Bank followed the Japanese Central Bank and then they start 493 00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:28,600 Speaker 4: buying it negative yields. Yeah, and they convinced all the 494 00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:31,440 Speaker 4: indexers to keep buying bonds with them, right, I mean 495 00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:33,480 Speaker 4: think about this. You were buying bonds, meaning you were 496 00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:36,120 Speaker 4: lending somebody money and you were paying them interest. And 497 00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:38,600 Speaker 4: at that point, diversification is an insult. I mean, you 498 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:42,399 Speaker 4: don't want to buy a negatively yielding bond along with 499 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:45,040 Speaker 4: stocks because it does nothing for you. And we're living 500 00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:48,000 Speaker 4: the consequences of it today because the bond market over 501 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,000 Speaker 4: the last five or seven or ten years even has 502 00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:52,639 Speaker 4: had absolutely dismal zero turns. 503 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:55,840 Speaker 2: Joe, do you think people who want positive yielding bonds 504 00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:56,840 Speaker 2: are entitled still? 505 00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:59,600 Speaker 3: That was your tradition. Yeah, I still think that. I 506 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:03,280 Speaker 3: still don't. Anyone is entitled to yield. No, I don't. 507 00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:04,879 Speaker 3: If you want to take the risk, go get it. 508 00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:07,720 Speaker 3: But the sort of moral demands that the government must 509 00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:10,760 Speaker 3: provide you yield for what for not spending and doing anything? 510 00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:11,280 Speaker 3: Give me a break. 511 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,240 Speaker 2: Joe spent a good year making fun of yielding. 512 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:19,080 Speaker 3: That's great, go out collect your yield. I'm happy for you, 513 00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:21,520 Speaker 3: But don't pretend that it's some sort of moral insult 514 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:24,359 Speaker 3: that the government isn't providing you risk for yield. That 515 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:26,359 Speaker 3: is my only that is my only stamp. 516 00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:30,560 Speaker 2: That's I would argue, the US government's most important role. Anyway, 517 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:32,720 Speaker 2: Let's go back for a second. So it's not just 518 00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:35,280 Speaker 2: the insurance idea you touched on this, but it's also 519 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:37,600 Speaker 2: the idea that, like, you can get a massive windfall 520 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:39,840 Speaker 2: when there's a market crash, and then you can use 521 00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:42,560 Speaker 2: that money to actually go on a buying spree at 522 00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:45,639 Speaker 2: a time when markets are cheap and everyone else is 523 00:25:45,800 --> 00:25:47,960 Speaker 2: you know, short on cash and they can't do the same. 524 00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:51,320 Speaker 2: How do you actually deploy that into practice, and how 525 00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:54,919 Speaker 2: do you scale, for instance, and expected windfall against that 526 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,560 Speaker 2: type of assets that you could potentially buy. 527 00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:01,080 Speaker 4: Yeah, I think this is where the principles thinking becomes 528 00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:03,600 Speaker 4: really important. So you have to look at every portfolio 529 00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:05,879 Speaker 4: is different, right. So one of the other mistakes I 530 00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:07,920 Speaker 4: think people make is they think you can just pick 531 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:09,640 Speaker 4: up a finance one on one book and say every 532 00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:12,240 Speaker 4: portfolio is identical. It's all risk neutral, and everybody is 533 00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:15,399 Speaker 4: exactly the same. It's just not the case. Public fund 534 00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:18,320 Speaker 4: that has a forty percent or fifty percent funded ratio 535 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:21,520 Speaker 4: is very different than a ninety percent or a bank 536 00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:23,719 Speaker 4: that's one hundred and twenty percent fully funded, right, so 537 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:26,080 Speaker 4: everybody has different needs. The first thing that you do 538 00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:29,840 Speaker 4: is you look at the underlying portfolio's posture. How much 539 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:33,600 Speaker 4: loss can you take, look at the systemic risk shocks 540 00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:35,800 Speaker 4: that they can actually withstand. So you run a shock, 541 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:39,240 Speaker 4: you run a full distribution analysis and figure out what 542 00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:42,760 Speaker 4: is the outcome under which they will be under so 543 00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:45,320 Speaker 4: much distress or so much duress that they might end 544 00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:47,840 Speaker 4: up having to liquidate assets. And there are actually quite 545 00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:50,000 Speaker 4: a few like that right now, where if the stock 546 00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:52,840 Speaker 4: market went down twenty percent and privates went down about 547 00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:56,320 Speaker 4: twenty percent, in order to raise liquidity for distribution, they 548 00:26:56,359 --> 00:26:59,480 Speaker 4: would have to actually sell seed corn, right. So it's 549 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:02,480 Speaker 4: really really bad. So that's an existential risk that you 550 00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:04,840 Speaker 4: want to quantify. So the first thing that you do 551 00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:06,520 Speaker 4: is you figure out what that risk is a full 552 00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:10,080 Speaker 4: distribution of outcomes, and then you look at the instrument 553 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,919 Speaker 4: set that's out there in the marketplace. Starting from the 554 00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:17,480 Speaker 4: most reliable and surprisingly enough, like Joe mentioned already, the 555 00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:21,440 Speaker 4: cheapest one, which is equity option volatility. You can buy 556 00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:25,320 Speaker 4: those put options, but people who are not willing to 557 00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:28,360 Speaker 4: be a lot of continuous premium, you can do more 558 00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:31,639 Speaker 4: sophisticated tricks where you can buy indirect heages, for instance, 559 00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:34,320 Speaker 4: credit to false opts. Today, the CDX index, if you 560 00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,280 Speaker 4: don't see the charts, it's actually tighter than it was 561 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,560 Speaker 4: pre the GFC. It's the tightest has ever been because 562 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:43,439 Speaker 4: people are buying it for cosmetic yield reasons, so there 563 00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,600 Speaker 4: are a lot of derivative instrumental Cosmetic yield simply means 564 00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:49,119 Speaker 4: that the total yield, if you look at the yield 565 00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:52,520 Speaker 4: of a corporate bond today, it is basically treasury yield 566 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,120 Speaker 4: plus some spreads. So the treasure yields are at quite 567 00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:58,080 Speaker 4: four and a half four percent, but the spreads are 568 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:00,679 Speaker 4: actually very tight, only fifty basis points to see the X, 569 00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:03,879 Speaker 4: So you're getting a five percent six percent yield, which 570 00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:05,680 Speaker 4: in the context of where we were three years ago, 571 00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:06,240 Speaker 4: it looks. 572 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:07,520 Speaker 3: Like it's cosmetic. 573 00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:11,439 Speaker 4: It looks good, it looks good, but actually you are 574 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:15,160 Speaker 4: taking that risk. Okay, keep going that it's a cosmetic yield. 575 00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,000 Speaker 4: You're decorated yield, So to me, the yield is not 576 00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:20,600 Speaker 4: justified by the risks that I underlied. So there's various 577 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,040 Speaker 4: instruments that you can use and create a portfolio of 578 00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:24,080 Speaker 4: these types of hedges. 579 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:43,720 Speaker 3: Is tailor risk hedging like insurance from as from a 580 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:46,880 Speaker 3: structure of how people buy it? Is it like insurance 581 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:50,720 Speaker 3: where people sort of reload every year in a sort 582 00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:53,320 Speaker 3: of okay start of the new year. What is the 583 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:55,680 Speaker 3: tail risk I want to put on et cetera, or 584 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:57,560 Speaker 3: something that renews and they have to keep paying a 585 00:28:57,600 --> 00:28:59,959 Speaker 3: fee or is it just sort of something that can 586 00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:03,480 Speaker 3: be set it and forget it a permanent allocation. That's 587 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:05,840 Speaker 3: sort of the tail risk heage. Like talk to us 588 00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:08,080 Speaker 3: about the business of selling a tail risk cage. 589 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:10,560 Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely. So it goes up to the highest level 590 00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:13,760 Speaker 4: where this becomes part of where you guys started portfolio construction. 591 00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:16,680 Speaker 4: It's an acid allocation decision. It's not a trade. So 592 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:19,280 Speaker 4: the context has to be that if the agents are 593 00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:22,760 Speaker 4: aligned up meaning boards and trustees and so on, they 594 00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:25,960 Speaker 4: think of this decision as protecting the portfolio or making 595 00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,600 Speaker 4: a more robust portfolio. As part of the DNA and 596 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:31,440 Speaker 4: the tail risk becomes part of the how you re 597 00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:34,040 Speaker 4: balance your portfolio over the long term. Okay, so that's 598 00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:37,280 Speaker 4: how you set up the strategic portfolio. But then to 599 00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:41,960 Speaker 4: your point, every year, yes, you have to renew this policy. 600 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:44,680 Speaker 4: You re have to have to recommit premiums. Now you 601 00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:47,040 Speaker 4: can prefund for the next five years if you wanted to. 602 00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:51,120 Speaker 4: But because options decay, in order to have this reliable heade, 603 00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:53,720 Speaker 4: you sort of have to buy new options. 604 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:56,880 Speaker 2: What would be the worst kind of tail risk hedging 605 00:29:56,960 --> 00:29:59,440 Speaker 2: in your view? Is it, you know, too expensive or 606 00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:01,760 Speaker 2: does it not actually work when there is a big 607 00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:02,360 Speaker 2: market crash? 608 00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:02,480 Speaker 3: Like? 609 00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:06,080 Speaker 2: What is the ultimate sin of a tail risk strategy? 610 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:09,240 Speaker 4: Ultimate sin absolutely is the one where promises to work 611 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:11,120 Speaker 4: but doesn't work. Right, So a lot of people try 612 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:14,560 Speaker 4: to reduce your costs by creating synthetic strategies. 613 00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:14,720 Speaker 2: Right. 614 00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:17,600 Speaker 4: I already mentioned futures markets aren't very deep when you 615 00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:20,360 Speaker 4: need them. But there's a lot of strategies which actually 616 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:24,120 Speaker 4: use a future's replication strategy like the nineteen eighty seven 617 00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:27,320 Speaker 4: crash also purported to do. And those strategies typically don't work. 618 00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:30,320 Speaker 4: And so there's many that promise and they look like 619 00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:34,320 Speaker 4: they are cheaper and they don't cost any bleed, but 620 00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:36,840 Speaker 4: they also do not deliver, which, again going back to 621 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:40,800 Speaker 4: April second, the only thing that worked during that April 622 00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:45,960 Speaker 4: second to April eighth period was reliable hedging using index options. 623 00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:48,760 Speaker 4: Not that duration didn't work. Tr and following didn't work 624 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:52,000 Speaker 4: a lot of other ult eupremium strategies didn't work. So 625 00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:54,640 Speaker 4: that is the cardinal's sin. You just do not have 626 00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:58,480 Speaker 4: the luxury to go to the constituency of clients whoever's 627 00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:00,480 Speaker 4: bought it and said, you know, we're to be too 628 00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:01,880 Speaker 4: smart and oops, it didn't work. 629 00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:05,840 Speaker 3: Yeah, as you mentioned that, to even talk about buying 630 00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:08,440 Speaker 3: a tail risk, heade, you have to sort of understand 631 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:11,600 Speaker 3: is what is the existential risk for the fund? And 632 00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:15,080 Speaker 3: different funds have different flavors of existential risk depending on 633 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,320 Speaker 3: how funded they are, And so obviously an entity that's 634 00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:20,200 Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty percent funded is going to have 635 00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,440 Speaker 3: very different risk scenarios than one that's forty percent funded. 636 00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:25,920 Speaker 3: But you said something interesting, which is that and I've 637 00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:27,840 Speaker 3: been thinking about this a lot in a different context, 638 00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:31,120 Speaker 3: which is how levered is the financial system or the 639 00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:34,320 Speaker 3: real economy to an ongoing rise in the stock market. 640 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:37,040 Speaker 3: How important is that? And at what point does even 641 00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:41,960 Speaker 3: a sideways stock market, let alone to decline, become risky 642 00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:44,600 Speaker 3: for something that could break. And you know, we used 643 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:46,240 Speaker 3: to think credit is the thing that breaks, but I 644 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:48,080 Speaker 3: wonder if it's in the stock area thing. Now where 645 00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:50,280 Speaker 3: you really get the problem with the equity values don't 646 00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:52,840 Speaker 3: go up? Tell us more about what you said about 647 00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:57,400 Speaker 3: what happens to various types of economically important players. If 648 00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,880 Speaker 3: the stock market one day stops going up for sustained 649 00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:01,720 Speaker 3: period of time. 650 00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:02,880 Speaker 4: I think you have a big problem. 651 00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:03,120 Speaker 2: Right. 652 00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:06,000 Speaker 4: So not only is the stock the whole system for 653 00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:08,520 Speaker 4: one ks and public pensions, they're all levered up to 654 00:32:08,520 --> 00:32:10,920 Speaker 4: the stock market because that's the only way you can 655 00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:12,840 Speaker 4: get to your seven and a half or eight percent 656 00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,520 Speaker 4: actual yield. So if the stock market doesn't keep going 657 00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:17,720 Speaker 4: up and keep delivering those kind of returns, it's very 658 00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,840 Speaker 4: hard to get to that point. Maybe if inflation rises, 659 00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:23,960 Speaker 4: at least again cosmetically, maybe the long bond gets up 660 00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,240 Speaker 4: to seven percent or eight percent and everybody can just 661 00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:29,080 Speaker 4: lock it in and immunize and you're there. But in 662 00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:31,120 Speaker 4: real terms, you're not going to have the income that 663 00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:33,000 Speaker 4: you need thirty years from now to retire. 664 00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:33,760 Speaker 1: I'm fine. 665 00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:36,440 Speaker 3: I have a Zurperer mortgage. Yeah, so I have a 666 00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:39,160 Speaker 3: mortgage that's locked in from that one keep week period 667 00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:39,440 Speaker 3: of time. 668 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:41,840 Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. So the system is very levered. And then 669 00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,920 Speaker 4: corporate credit clearly is very very concentrated. We all read 670 00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:47,720 Speaker 4: about pains and so on, but corporate credit, based on 671 00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:52,000 Speaker 4: the Mertin model again that connects equities to corporate credit spreads, 672 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:53,680 Speaker 4: is also levered to the stock market. So if the 673 00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:56,960 Speaker 4: stock market suddenly had a big sell off, corporate credits 674 00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,760 Speaker 4: wide Now, which is the real problem, right, because if 675 00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:03,640 Speaker 4: corporate credit widens out and the cost of borrowing goes 676 00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:07,360 Speaker 4: up for all the corporations, maybe not the Fang stocks, 677 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:09,880 Speaker 4: but the four hundred and ninety three other stocks, then 678 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,920 Speaker 4: how does the system produce? Because our whole system is 679 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:16,920 Speaker 4: based on borrowing and I don't think very many companies 680 00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:20,120 Speaker 4: in the US can function if your cost of operating 681 00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:21,440 Speaker 4: your business was ten percent a year. 682 00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:24,800 Speaker 2: Okay, Well, on that note, we would be remiss to 683 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:27,400 Speaker 2: have a tail risk person here and not ask what's 684 00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:29,880 Speaker 2: the big risk that you see on the horizon in 685 00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:32,200 Speaker 2: let's just say the short to medium term. 686 00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:34,920 Speaker 4: So I think for me, The biggest risk right now 687 00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:37,720 Speaker 4: is what people have been talking about is, you know, 688 00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:40,480 Speaker 4: the so called and I call it so called the 689 00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:43,520 Speaker 4: FED independent paradigm shift, because I don't believe the FED 690 00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:46,560 Speaker 4: was ever really fully independent. But now it's coming to 691 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:49,280 Speaker 4: the foe that the fiscal and monetary authority they're actually one. 692 00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:53,080 Speaker 4: So what happens in the aftermath if the FED actually 693 00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:57,160 Speaker 4: becomes part of the central government the fiscal authorities. I 694 00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:59,440 Speaker 4: think at that point all bets are off because that's 695 00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:04,200 Speaker 4: the one anchor that everybody, whether realistically or not, has 696 00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:07,920 Speaker 4: held onto. But if interest rates can change just based 697 00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:13,319 Speaker 4: on the need to finance something, that totally upside down 698 00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:15,360 Speaker 4: the financial system. So to me, that's the single biggest 699 00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:16,000 Speaker 4: risk right now. 700 00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:19,840 Speaker 2: So would that materialize into an inflationary risk for instance, 701 00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:22,120 Speaker 2: and then would you be focused on what you can 702 00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:22,960 Speaker 2: do to offset that? 703 00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:25,480 Speaker 4: Yeah, inflationary risk and I think one of the best 704 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:28,000 Speaker 4: option traits. Again this is not a direct option. So 705 00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:30,200 Speaker 4: going back to what you were asking before, you don't 706 00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:34,040 Speaker 4: always just have to pay premium. The yield curve steepener 707 00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:37,239 Speaker 4: where you buy the short end of the yield curve 708 00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:39,359 Speaker 4: and you sell the long end of the yield curve 709 00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,040 Speaker 4: Today you can do it through using swaps and all 710 00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:44,760 Speaker 4: that for essentially zero net carry. So here's an option 711 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:47,640 Speaker 4: very similar to shorting the negatively liding bond market in 712 00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:49,799 Speaker 4: Europe a few years ago, where if you put a 713 00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:53,359 Speaker 4: youth curve steepener on either in a hyper inflationary maybe 714 00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:56,880 Speaker 4: not hyper but a lot high inflationary scenario, or in 715 00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:00,719 Speaker 4: an aggressive FED cut, the yield curve steepens. So yes, 716 00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:03,000 Speaker 4: so that environment is the environment in which the curve 717 00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:07,640 Speaker 4: steeper could work. And yes, my zero to order prior 718 00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:11,239 Speaker 4: forecast would be that if we lose explicit independence of 719 00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:13,560 Speaker 4: the FED, the yield curve actually steepens a lot more. 720 00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:16,560 Speaker 3: Something I'm interested in. So, you know, you're talking about 721 00:35:16,680 --> 00:35:20,839 Speaker 3: the recent eras and the sixties and eighties and things 722 00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:22,520 Speaker 3: may have gotten a little on glued, and then the 723 00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:25,000 Speaker 3: Vulgar era and then the post COVID era, and now 724 00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:29,560 Speaker 3: this question about whether what's left of FED independence is 725 00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:32,239 Speaker 3: at risk. You know, you're a physicist, and are a 726 00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:34,920 Speaker 3: lot of people in your space are mathematicians. Is there 727 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:37,719 Speaker 3: a limit to how much you can sort of math 728 00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:39,839 Speaker 3: it out, so to speak, Because a lot of these 729 00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:43,480 Speaker 3: questions are external to mathematics, and so how do you 730 00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:48,320 Speaker 3: think about the limits of quantitative analysis when we're dealing 731 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:51,480 Speaker 3: with things like will the political system allow the Federal 732 00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:52,719 Speaker 3: Reserve to remain independent? 733 00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:55,480 Speaker 4: Yeah, I think a lot of it is actually non quantitative. 734 00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:57,000 Speaker 4: And what I've learned, even though I come from a 735 00:35:57,080 --> 00:36:00,440 Speaker 4: quantitative background, is not the math itself, but it's the 736 00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:02,680 Speaker 4: sequence of logical arguments that you can make to get 737 00:36:02,719 --> 00:36:05,000 Speaker 4: to a conclusion. Right. So, for instance, we knew even 738 00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:09,279 Speaker 4: before fancy mathematics was discovered, you know, Lagrongins and so on, 739 00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:13,120 Speaker 4: that gravity exists. Gravity's existence has been known before maybe 740 00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:16,319 Speaker 4: math was invented, but gravity has been there. And so 741 00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:19,480 Speaker 4: I think there's some central laws of finance which will 742 00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:23,600 Speaker 4: still continue to exist regardless of the mathematical modeling of them. 743 00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:25,800 Speaker 4: And you know, the Bill Grows When I used to 744 00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:28,440 Speaker 4: work with him, he used to say, some things we 745 00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:32,239 Speaker 4: can take for granted I'm paraphrasing it, but the steepness 746 00:36:32,239 --> 00:36:33,839 Speaker 4: of the youth curb, the fact that the youth curve 747 00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:37,400 Speaker 4: needs to be upward sloped for the financial system to function, 748 00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:39,960 Speaker 4: because people lend money in order to get something in return. 749 00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,480 Speaker 4: Those are not mathematical devices. Those are really just the 750 00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:46,200 Speaker 4: way the capitalist system works. So I think you can 751 00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:49,920 Speaker 4: take the quantitative modeling to its own limit. But there 752 00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:53,399 Speaker 4: are certain things that have happened in our system where 753 00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:56,360 Speaker 4: we are a point now where gravity so to speak 754 00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:58,520 Speaker 4: of the financial markets are going to have to take over. 755 00:36:59,239 --> 00:37:02,680 Speaker 2: But presumably also if you can't predict the politics, because 756 00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:05,760 Speaker 2: it's very difficult, especially nowadays, if you can't predict the politics, 757 00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:09,080 Speaker 2: then maybe right sizing your positions becomes more important, and 758 00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:12,880 Speaker 2: so the maths actually becomes one way of dealing with 759 00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:17,200 Speaker 2: the very uncertainty, non mathematical element of what's going on. 760 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:19,560 Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. And I think to take that point one 761 00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:24,160 Speaker 4: step further, so correlation has been the greatest gift since 762 00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:26,800 Speaker 4: the nineteen mid eighties to twenty twenty. Right, so you 763 00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:29,960 Speaker 4: got stocks and bonds to say sixty forty. Stocks went up, 764 00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:31,880 Speaker 4: bonds went up, and they were diversifying, which is what 765 00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:33,880 Speaker 4: a beautiful place to be in, right, sounds nice? Ye, 766 00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:36,399 Speaker 4: So that was a freebe And again this goes back 767 00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:39,600 Speaker 4: to financial gravity, so to speak, that state of affairs 768 00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:41,920 Speaker 4: that free lunch should not exist. So I think we 769 00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:44,720 Speaker 4: might be entering a phase where stocks and bonds maybe 770 00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:47,960 Speaker 4: are actually not diversifying, and you have to look at 771 00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,440 Speaker 4: other things gold, of course, as you mentioned, maybe bitcoin, 772 00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:54,720 Speaker 4: who knows. But I think the fact that reliable insurance 773 00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:59,200 Speaker 4: or portfolio protection is so available today using the options 774 00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:01,439 Speaker 4: market would be the place where I would look. 775 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:04,640 Speaker 3: When you look at the long end of the yield 776 00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:08,319 Speaker 3: curve today in the US, is there an element in 777 00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:12,000 Speaker 3: which these concerns about the loss of FED independence are 778 00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:16,000 Speaker 3: being priced in right now? If suddenly you could snap 779 00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:19,560 Speaker 3: your finger and know for a fact that the federalill 780 00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:21,359 Speaker 3: operate it as it has been for the last twenty 781 00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:24,000 Speaker 3: years for the next twenty years, would there be a change? 782 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,040 Speaker 3: Is there some margin that's concerned there? 783 00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:26,400 Speaker 4: You know what? 784 00:38:26,719 --> 00:38:27,880 Speaker 3: I don't know if the FED is going to be 785 00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:30,239 Speaker 3: a committed inflation fighter as well as it has been 786 00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:33,280 Speaker 3: in the past. Therefore I'm demanding extra yield today. 787 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:35,319 Speaker 4: No, not yet, I don't think so. Maybe a slight 788 00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:37,040 Speaker 4: amount of premium has gone up. But one of the 789 00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:39,880 Speaker 4: most striking features of the system is that if you 790 00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:42,359 Speaker 4: look at the treasury yields, look at the thirty year 791 00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:44,640 Speaker 4: bond to day is four seventy, but you look at 792 00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:47,840 Speaker 4: the thirty year interest rate swap, it's straighting at believe 793 00:38:47,880 --> 00:38:51,080 Speaker 4: it or not, three eighty nine, right, so it's almost 794 00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:54,480 Speaker 4: eighty five basis points under the US Treasury. Now you 795 00:38:54,600 --> 00:38:58,840 Speaker 4: ask why would somebody take the swap market at a 796 00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:01,640 Speaker 4: lower yield, And I've been eating swaps its inception back 797 00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:04,560 Speaker 4: in the nineteen nineties. Swap spreads are negative eighty five 798 00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:08,239 Speaker 4: and that goes back to the receiving of interest rate 799 00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:11,840 Speaker 4: swaps to hedge liabilities by a lot of large institutions. 800 00:39:12,080 --> 00:39:17,000 Speaker 4: So they have certainly not priced in inflationary effects into 801 00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:19,480 Speaker 4: the swap market. But at some point this has to 802 00:39:19,520 --> 00:39:21,839 Speaker 4: also equilibrate, So in my view, it has not been 803 00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:24,360 Speaker 4: priced in. Maybe it's too early to price in, because 804 00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:28,239 Speaker 4: maybe the FED does not lose its independence and you know, 805 00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:31,319 Speaker 4: rises its phoenix from the ashes. But I'm a little 806 00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:32,440 Speaker 4: bit pessimistic about it. 807 00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:35,320 Speaker 2: Just going back to your storied career on Wall Street 808 00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:38,400 Speaker 2: for a second, how good were you at playing Liar's Poker? 809 00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:41,279 Speaker 4: I was actually pretty good, I think. I mean I 810 00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:43,359 Speaker 4: learned it after I joined Salomon Brothers as a good 811 00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:46,040 Speaker 4: group of people, and I think the first year maybe 812 00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:48,040 Speaker 4: I lost a bit, but I think in the third 813 00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:51,080 Speaker 4: year that I was there, I won it. And I 814 00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:54,399 Speaker 4: was actually, I think the one who took the biggest part. 815 00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:56,080 Speaker 4: And I also my boss gave. 816 00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:56,200 Speaker 1: Me his. 817 00:39:57,680 --> 00:39:59,960 Speaker 4: Eighteen foot fishing boat. He was buying a new one 818 00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:02,600 Speaker 4: as part of the settlement in. 819 00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:04,359 Speaker 2: Lieu of cash. He was like, here to take my. 820 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:05,520 Speaker 4: Cash plus the boat again. 821 00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:07,879 Speaker 3: Wow, So yeah, it's a really big pot. 822 00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:10,160 Speaker 4: That was a big pot. Yeah, at that point you 823 00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:12,160 Speaker 4: used to spend after the trading day was over. Every 824 00:40:12,239 --> 00:40:16,040 Speaker 4: day we would print out randomized liars poker sheets, usually 825 00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:18,839 Speaker 4: about twenty four or thirty of them, and we'd play 826 00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:20,839 Speaker 4: about thirty thirty rounds every day. 827 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,880 Speaker 2: Wait, liar's poker sheets. I thought you played with actual cash. 828 00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:26,319 Speaker 4: Yeah, so actual cash. Yet you play with dollar bills. Yeah, 829 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:28,600 Speaker 4: but you know, if you're playing twenty four rounds, they're 830 00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:29,400 Speaker 4: not enough. 831 00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:31,319 Speaker 2: Dollar bills drawing around. I never thought of that. 832 00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:33,640 Speaker 4: Yeah, so you randomize based on how the dollar bill 833 00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:35,520 Speaker 4: numbers are generated. 834 00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:38,759 Speaker 3: Is there going to be a future in finance for 835 00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:42,399 Speaker 3: a young physics student or a math nerd in high 836 00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:44,880 Speaker 3: school today? You know people worry about this with AI 837 00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:49,320 Speaker 3: and so forth, But a young person who's quantitatively minded, 838 00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:51,000 Speaker 3: do you feel confident that there will be a role 839 00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:52,720 Speaker 3: for them? And finance in the future. 840 00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:55,560 Speaker 4: Absolutely. I think finance has existed from the very very 841 00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:58,719 Speaker 4: beginning because it's based on the two fundamental emotions, right, 842 00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:01,799 Speaker 4: greer and fear. Right, So as long as there's greed 843 00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:05,399 Speaker 4: and fear and they're smart people around. And again going 844 00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:08,080 Speaker 4: back to math and physics, it's not so much that 845 00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:10,799 Speaker 4: the DOUN kit itself is teaching you anything special. It's 846 00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:13,400 Speaker 4: just that teaches you think in a discipline logical fashion. 847 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,040 Speaker 4: And I think with tools like what we're seeing with 848 00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:19,600 Speaker 4: AI and so on, encoding becoming completely democratized, I think 849 00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:24,280 Speaker 4: the ability to ask important questions rigorously becomes even more important. 850 00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:26,040 Speaker 4: I think it's going to be even better than it's been. 851 00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:29,759 Speaker 2: Vanir, that was absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much for 852 00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:32,280 Speaker 2: spending time with us at Huntington Beach at the future 853 00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:34,160 Speaker 2: Proof conference and that was great. 854 00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:36,000 Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you so much. That was fantastic. 855 00:41:36,239 --> 00:41:50,600 Speaker 4: Thanks for having me, Joe. 856 00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:52,560 Speaker 2: That was really fun. We should have a near back 857 00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:55,080 Speaker 2: and just do like stories from Wall Street in the 858 00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:57,160 Speaker 2: nineteen nineties episode, we just do that. 859 00:41:57,239 --> 00:41:59,200 Speaker 3: I love the stories. We could do a lot more 860 00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:03,160 Speaker 3: on the story. And I'm also interested in basically, you know, 861 00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:07,480 Speaker 3: the philosophy of portfolio construction. I mean, obviously there's the 862 00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:10,320 Speaker 3: math of portfolio construction. But I do have a certain 863 00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:14,360 Speaker 3: dissatisfaction with many conversations about portfolio construction, including this, what 864 00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:17,520 Speaker 3: sense well diverse? If I have stocks have almost always 865 00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:19,719 Speaker 3: gone up his every insurance I mean, I guess another 866 00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:22,600 Speaker 3: question that I could have asked is, has every insurance 867 00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:25,319 Speaker 3: contract on the stock market essentially so far been a 868 00:42:25,320 --> 00:42:27,880 Speaker 3: waste in human history? Because the stock market is at 869 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:30,080 Speaker 3: all time high, I have questions about that. 870 00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:32,840 Speaker 2: But the counterpoint to that is, and I've come to 871 00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:35,279 Speaker 2: realize this as I get older in my life and 872 00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:38,200 Speaker 2: in my portfolio, is there is something nice about like 873 00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:41,720 Speaker 2: waking up during a cell off and going like, oh shoot, 874 00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:44,560 Speaker 2: my four oh one K has been absolutely decimated today. 875 00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:47,800 Speaker 2: But if I look at, you know, some other position, 876 00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:50,359 Speaker 2: some other tail risk hedge that I have, like that's 877 00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:52,319 Speaker 2: actually up a little bit, and it's offset some of 878 00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:55,640 Speaker 2: the pain. And if I actually had to cash out 879 00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:58,279 Speaker 2: of my portfolio on that day because of whatever I 880 00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:00,880 Speaker 2: had to make a mortgage payment or whatever, then I 881 00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:03,600 Speaker 2: would have some extra cash to spare, and you could 882 00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:06,560 Speaker 2: get an extra return by having that extra cash available 883 00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:08,279 Speaker 2: to you to then go into the market and buy 884 00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:09,080 Speaker 2: stuff on the cheap. 885 00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:11,759 Speaker 3: I think that we really should have an odd lot's 886 00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:15,919 Speaker 3: ETF that just advertises its illiquidity, that you can't sell 887 00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:18,200 Speaker 3: this if you need cash now, this is not the 888 00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:20,360 Speaker 3: instrument for you. If you are putting your money in this, 889 00:43:20,840 --> 00:43:23,279 Speaker 3: don't expect to see it again for thirty years. But 890 00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:25,280 Speaker 3: the plus side is it will keep you from making 891 00:43:25,320 --> 00:43:28,200 Speaker 3: baddi rational decisions on a day when everything is read. 892 00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:30,800 Speaker 2: I mean there's a value in that. There's a value 893 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:32,720 Speaker 2: in that, and there's also a value in being able 894 00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:35,799 Speaker 2: to sleep at night a little easier because you have 895 00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:38,560 Speaker 2: different positions. But anyway, shall we leave it there. 896 00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:39,719 Speaker 3: Let's leave it there, all right. 897 00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:42,439 Speaker 2: This has been another episode of the Authoughts podcast. I'm 898 00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:45,360 Speaker 2: Tracy Alloway. You can follow me at Tracy Alloway and. 899 00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:47,480 Speaker 3: I'm Jill wisent Though. You can follow me at the Stalwart. 900 00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:51,480 Speaker 3: Follow our guest Vanier bon Sally He's at long Tail Alpha. 901 00:43:51,760 --> 00:43:55,480 Speaker 3: Follow our producers Kerman Rodriguez at Kerman armand Dashel Bennett 902 00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:58,400 Speaker 3: at Dashbot and kel Brooks at Keil Brooks. For more 903 00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:00,760 Speaker 3: odd Lots content to go to bloomber dot com, slash 904 00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:02,880 Speaker 3: od Lots. We have a daily newsletter and all of 905 00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:05,759 Speaker 3: our episodes. You can chat about these topics twenty four 906 00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:10,400 Speaker 3: to seven in our discord discord dot gg slash od Lots. 907 00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:12,080 Speaker 2: And if you enjoy odd Lots, if you like it 908 00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:14,920 Speaker 2: when we talk about portfolio construction, then please leave us 909 00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:18,520 Speaker 2: a positive review on your favorite podcast platform. And remember, 910 00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:21,120 Speaker 2: if you are a Bloomberg subscriber, you can listen to 911 00:44:21,239 --> 00:44:24,200 Speaker 2: all of our episodes absolutely ad free. All you need 912 00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:26,760 Speaker 2: to do is find the Bloomberg channel on Apple Podcasts 913 00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:29,440 Speaker 2: and follow the instructions there. Thanks for listening.