The Path Dependency of VANA and Charm Flows

My guest this episode is Cem Karsan, Founder and Senior Managing Partner of Aegea Capital Management.

Cem began his career in the pits, and so we begin our conversation with a discussion by comparing and contrasting today’s market versus days gone by. And, perhaps more importantly, the wisdom gained from that era.

It was in the pits that Cem began to understand and develop his intuition for markets and what would become the colorful cast of characters he uses to describe what’s driving flow: Gary the Gorilla, Vanna, and Charm the Sloth. How these characters cooperate or fight amongst themselves provides Cem with a forecast as to how markets should behave.

It seems like these are new and growing forces, but Cem argues they’re as old as time. And, more importantly, increased awareness does not mean they can just be arbed away: they are, potentially, fundamental forces of markets.

We end our conversation with a discussion of how these flows can have profound impacts for equity factor performance and what this all means for stock pickers.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Cem Karsan.