James St. Aubin of Sierra Investment Management and Ocean Park Asset Management - What’s Ahead for the Markets and How Will Artificial Intelligence Impact the Investment Industry?

Jul 23, 2024

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Today, Rusty and Robyn are joined by James St. Aubin, Chief Investment Officer of Sierra Investment Management and Ocean Park Asset Management. James St. Aubin, CFA®, CAIA®, is Chief Investment Officer for Sierra Investment Management. He has oversight of all activities of the Investment Management department, in collaboration with Sierra co-founders David Wright and Kenneth Sleeper.

An accomplished investment management executive, his career of more than 20 years includes leadership roles in asset allocation, manager research and portfolio construction. James earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from DePaul University and is a CFA® and CAIA® Charterholder. He is a Board Member and Treasurer for Children’s Bureau of Southern California, a local non-profit organization focused on primary prevention of child abuse.

Key Takeaways

[03:19] - Learn more about James’ professional background and his current role.
[05:11] - Learn more about Ocean Park’s rules based investment philosophy and how they differ from their peers.
[08:33] - What is James’ current market outlook and how is he looking at, and thinking about, the market right now?
[10:40] - What is James’ outlook for inflation and economic growth, in particular?
[13:06] - Are there any other risks that investors should be aware of right now?
[14:32] - How does his economic outlook impact his current view on the financial markets?
[16:42] - James’ view on the overall US market and some particular opportunities within that.
[18:21] - How are they adjusting Ocean Park portfolios given the current market environment?
[19:21] - What’s new at Ocean Park, particularly in terms of product development?
[22:08] - There has been an explosion in data availability in recent years. How has his firm’s quantitative process evolved accordingly?
[23:53] - Does James’ firm have any plans to incorporate AI into their research process?
[25:44] - What is James’ favorite investment idea for the rest of 2024?
[29:27] - Who are some of the colleagues and mentors that have helped James get to where he is today?

Quotes

[08:35] - “[Recently I’ve]...been comparing the economic data that we’re looking at to a Rorschach test. It certainly doesn’t necessarily tell you a clear picture of what’s happening, it’s a very poorly defined picture, and sometimes I think it tells more about the person that’s evaluating the data than the data itself. ” ~ James St. Aubin

[13:07] - I think that those long and variable lags [may be a risk that’s often unaccounted for]...maybe we are underestimating how long and variable those are. Are we solving one problem, meaning inflation, to create a growth problem? That’s always a concern in these rate hiking cycles.” ~ James St. Aubin

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Disclosure(s) - Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC, an Orion Company, is a registered investment advisor.

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