Ben Reeves: From Bridgewater to Wealthsimple: Institutional investing Through a Robo Advisor

Jul 19, 2024

Ben Reeves, a seasoned financial professional, discusses his journey from Bridgewater to Wealthsimple, emphasizing the essence of long-term investing and the challenges of portfolio design. Topics include diversification strategies, behavioral advantages of private assets, the supercycle concept, challenges in active management, and solutions in investment management such as leveraging portfolios and including alternatives like gold and commodities.

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ANECDOTE

Ben Reeves's Career Path

Ben Reeves's career journey included working at a dot-com startup, McKinsey, and Bridgewater.
After a health crisis, he joined Wealthsimple, focusing on investment strategies and portfolio construction.

INSIGHT

Wealthsimple's Diversification Approach

Wealthsimple prioritizes diversification and offers private investments like private credit and equity.
This approach helps clients become comfortable with alternative investments and potentially achieve better returns.

ADVICE

Managing Tracking Error

Tracking error tolerance varies among individuals, making personalized advice important.
Prioritize saving and investing reasonably, then focus on improving the Sharpe ratio.

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In this episode, the ReSolve team chats with Ben Reeves, a seasoned financial professional with a wealth of experience in portfolio construction and investment strategies. Ben shares his journey from working at Bridgewater to facing a health crisis, and eventually joining Wealthsimple. The conversation delves into the intricacies of allocation research, portfolio design, and the challenges and opportunities in the private investment space.

Topics Discussed

• Ben's transition from institutional investors to portfolio construction and his learnings from Bridgewater

• The impact of a health crisis on Ben's career and his shift to Wealthsimple

• The essence of long-term investing and the importance of putting money at risk in a reasonable way

• The exploration of privates as a first step in diversifying investment portfolios

• The challenge of tracking error constraints in portfolio design and how Wealthsimple navigates this

• The behavioral advantage of privates and the fear of giving up liquidity

• The difficulty for active managers to reliably outperform without overweighting certain sectors

• The role of gold and commodities in diversifying portfolios and mitigating risk

• The importance of putting money at risk in a reasonable way and avoiding performance chasing

• The potential of leverage as a diversifying tool or a risk-reducing tool

• The constraints and considerations in adding leverage to portfolios

• The personalization of portfolio construction and the shift towards risk parity

This episode provides a deep dive into the world of portfolio construction, the role of privates in diversifying portfolios, and the challenges of tracking error constraints. Ben Reeves offers valuable insights from his experience at Wealthsimple and Bridgewater, making this a must-listen for anyone interested in investment strategies and portfolio design.

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – published on YouTube Friday afternoons to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.

*ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.