Money Stuff: The Podcast Re-run: Gappy Paleologo
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Nov 28, 2025 
Gappy Paleologo, a quantitative researcher and portfolio manager at Balyasny Asset Management, shares insights from his rich career across prop and hedge funds. He discusses the significance of gardening leave, how it fosters creativity in teaching and writing. Gappy explores the role of factor models in investing, contrasts physics and economics backgrounds for quants, and highlights AI's evolving influence on finance. He intriguingly posits about journalists transitioning into investment roles, revealing fresh perspectives in the finance landscape.
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How "Gappy" Got His Name
- Giuseppe "Gappy" Paleologo got his nickname from an email handle when GAP was taken and GAPI turned into Gappy in grad school.
- The nickname stuck and now appears on work systems and even tax forms, much to his amusement.
Use Gardening Leave To Learn And Produce
- Use gardening leave productively: teach, read, and write to stay sharp and generate new ideas.
- Gappy turns notes and course material from leave into books and research that feed future work.
Domain First, Math Second
- Applied mathematicians succeed by starting with domain problems, not by forcing math onto them.
- After a year immersed in a new field, math skills become the easy part of delivering value.
