Learning from Historical Figures: Building a Unique Path

My guest today is Will England, the CEO and Co-CIO of Walleye Capital. Walleye is a multi-strategy hedge fund headquartered in Minnesota that manages around $5 billion. Our conversation is a primer on multi-strategy hedge funds, which have become a force in markets through the success of firms like Millenium, Citadel, Point72, and Balyasny. We discuss the operational complexity behind the model, which managers best fit this type of investment style, and what happens in stress events like the Gamestop short squeeze in early 2021. We also talk about performance culture, the All Blacks, and Will’s experience as a US National Team rower. Please enjoy my conversation with Will England.

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Show Notes

(00:03:22) - (First question) - His fascination with Robber Barons

(00:04:49) - He explains the style of investing he has built at Walleye Capital   

(00:08:51) - The importance of scale and what it means for firms like this 

(00:13:01) - A breakdown of the component parts of a 15% return structure

(00:16:56) - His advice to new portfolio managers trying to succeed with long/short investments

(00:21:23) - His reaction to an efficient market hypothesis   

(00:27:33) - He tells us what happens above the individual manager level

(00:29:42) - The universe of talented people behind the business

(00:35:26) - The backstory of Walleye Capital and why he chose Minnesota    

(00:42:37) - He discusses the felt experience of being at Walleye versus other firms 

(00:47:25) - Whether he identifies more as an entrepreneur systems builder or as an investor

(00:50:04) - What he says about the half life of successful quantitative strategies  

(00:54:03) - A breakdown of style allocations and the percentage of managers within each 

(00:56:30) - How he determines how much leverage to use and how to be great at applying it 

(00:59:59) - How the firm handles tough investment periods

(01:02:34) - How he knew Citadel wasn’t taking down gross during the GameStop short

(01:03:51) - What he looks for when hiring a portfolio manager

(01:06:37) - His philosophy on performance and how he blends that into his firms culture 

(01:09:21) - Inspiration he’s taken from the All Blacks team

(01:11:25) - Addition aspects of the firm he believes are important

(01:13:46) - Historical finance pioneers that inspire him 

(01:16:07) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him