
Resolve Riffs Investment Podcast
Welcome to ReSolve Riffs Investment Podcast, hosted by the team at ReSolve Global*, where evidence inspires confidence.
These podcasts will dig deep to uncover investment truths and life hacks you won’t find in the mainstream media, covering topics that appeal to left-brained robots, right-brained poets and everyone in between. In this show we interview deep thinkers in the world of quantitative finance such as Larry Swedroe, Meb Faber and many more, all with the goal of helping you reach excellence. Welcome to the journey.
*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.
Latest episodes

Apr 29, 2021 • 1h 28min
Feature Engineering, Strategy Mining, Economic Value and The Profitability Rule with Michael Harris
Michael Harris started trading rates and derivatives 30 years ago. He is the Founder of Price Action Lab and the developer of the first commercial software for identifying parameter-less patterns in price action 20 years ago. In the past 10 years he has worked on the development of DLPAL, which is a software program designed to identify short-term anomalies in market data for use with fixed and machine learning models. In this wide ranging interview we discuss: Back testing and generating trading signals on an Atari Console Loss Compression and Forecasting Data Mining – microfeatures, micropatterns and trend following The hit rate, payoff ratio, profit factor and the Profitability Rule Data Mining Bias and Data Snooping The Seven Weekly Strategies The direction of probability The conversation was interesting and enlightening as Michael provided new insights into emerging financial technologies. We hope you enjoy it. Thank you for listening.

5 snips
Apr 28, 2021 • 23min
Masterclass: Balance (EP.04)
Diversity of investments only produces “diversification” if asset classes are held in proper balance. We discuss: The 60/40 portfolio and why it’s not diversified or risk-balanced The advantages of Global Risk Parity Portfolios How leverage helps to preserve diversification Hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global.

Apr 27, 2021 • 1h 23min
ReSolve Riffs on Lifting and Low Risk Investing with FinTwits Lawrence Hamtil
This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global. This week we were joined by Lawrence Hamtil, founder and principal at Fortune Financial Advisors, author of their popular blog, as well as an active member of the FinTwit community. His power lifting hobby and contrarian nature permeate his writing and investment philosophy, which made for a great conversation that included: Why you can’t fire a cannon from a canoe – the importance of building a solid foundation Discipline, preventing major injuries/drawdowns and proper benchmarking – investment wisdom drawn from weight-lifting “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons” – Jim Rohn Investment approach shaped by the turmoil of the Great Financial Crisis Tobacco, defense contractors, and other “less desirable” sectors– benefiting from narrative-induced externalities Low beta, minimum variance and inflation risks We also delved into his barbell approach for equities, sector allocations and their cyclical natural, ESG, regulatory moats, and how to avoid value traps. Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

Apr 21, 2021 • 16min
Masterclass: Preparation Before Prediction (EP.03)
Investors are often prone to “home-country” equity bias and other heuristics that leave them under-exposed to the world’s many diverse opportunities. We discuss: The importance of global asset class diversity Ray Dalio and the “All Weather Portfolio” Making portfolios resistant to inflation and growth shocks Hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global.

Apr 20, 2021 • 1h 39min
ReSolve Riffs with Rob Carver on Smart Portfolios and the Evolution of Systematic Trading
This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global. Although most of us like to think that we will rise to the occasion when the moment comes, various studies show that the vast majority of people will sink to the level of their training in the heat of battle. A systematic response to dynamic scenarios, removing one’s emotions from the equation, has been the standard approach in the military for millennia. In the world of investing, rules-based methodologies remain a contentious topic, even though a majority of the most successful asset managers are quants. Rob Carver (Independent Systematic Researcher and Author) knew early on that his investment career could only take the ‘systematic path’. He joined us for a great conversation that covered: His early days on a trading floor, which felt like trying to solve Sudoku puzzles with a dozen angry men screaming at him Drawing inspiration from Thomas Bass, author of The Predictors Nuances across different rules-based methodologies Allowing intuition to seep in – when and how to sin The chasm between managing 3rd party capital versus your own money The evolution of his systematic thinking – the humility and beauty of ensembles Model fitting, automation and optimization – going down a quant rabbit hole Rob also detailed some of his experiences during major market selloffs, particularly in the Great Financial Crisis and more recently in the Covid Crash. We also established that systematic investing just isn’t sexy enough for Hollywood, and we’ll likely never see Keanu Reeves starring in “The Covariance Matrix” (h/t Breaking the Market). Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week

Apr 14, 2021 • 26min
Masterclass: Decision Making (EP.02)
Philip Tetlock’s research on the qualities of Super-forecasters explains why forecasting is hard and how diverse models and systematic thinking can help close the gap. We discuss: Improving predictions by regularly updating data The Brier Score and why it really matters Why larger samples permit more accurate short term predictions The difficulties with the “Long Now” narrative Hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global.

Apr 13, 2021 • 1h 32min
ReSolve Riffs with Ted Seides on Capital Allocators
This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global. Our guest this week was none other than Ted Seides, host of the popular Capital Allocators podcast. Ted began his career under the tutelage of endowment legend David Swensen at Yale University Investments, then went on to found Protégé Partners, investing and seeding small hedge funds. This career arc gave him a unique perspective into the decision-making processes of multi-billion-dollar institutions, as well as the portfolio managers on the receiving end of their allocations. After almost 200 podcast episodes and a recently released book – Capital Allocators, How the world’s elite money managers lead and invest – it’s hard to overstate the breadth and depth of Ted’s institutional “inside baseball”. We covered: The range of disciplines that are leveraged by some of the world’s most successful investors Why capital allocators are essentially interviewers (and can make for good podcast hosts) Repetition, pattern recognition, and separating the wheat from the chaff Governance and the constant tussle between CIOs and investment committees Negative screening, triangulation and reference checks – above and beyond due diligence Performance chasing, familiarity and other biases – why institutions often resemble retail investors Leveraging the work of Annie Duke, Gary Klein and Michael Mauboussin We also discussed the difficulties of high information asymmetry, behavioral fortitude, and cognitive diversity. Ted even shared a few interesting anecdotes from his time working with Swensen. Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.

Apr 7, 2021 • 20min
Masterclass: Stewarding Long-Lived Wealth (EP.01)
Anyone who is responsible for stewarding wealth, from a high net worth person, to a family office, to an investment firm, to a pension plan. We discuss: Long term preservation of wealth for 30, 50, 100 years Building an investment “house” to weather all storms The difference between earning wealth and protecting it long term Clearing the “high confidence” bar Hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global.

Apr 1, 2021 • 1h 1min
Raoul Paul: Crypto-Assets, the India Stack, and the Coming Digital Renaissance
Interest in crypto assets continues to accelerate, attracting investors from all walks of life and from all over the world. In this episode, we are joined by Raoul Pal, CEO and Founder of Real Vision Group, and Global Macro Investor, and one of the earliest and most enthusiastic exponents of the crypto-asset space. Raoul has many years of hands-on experience in both global macro and crypto assets, and offers critical insights on where investors should focus to maximize profits in both the near and long term. The top three investment themes for the next five to ten years Globalization, technology, aging demographics and the ‘Attention Economy’ The miracle of the “India Stack” ‘Network Effects’ and behavioral incentives A new parallel financial system Fractional ownership of almost everything Incorporating Crypto into portfolios Raoul shares in detail why he is so confident that crypto-assets and parallel financial systems will revolutionize our ability to conduct commerce safely and efficiently in the near future. In the end, he leaves listeners with a much-needed feeling of optimism about the road ahead. Hosted by Adam Butler and Mike Philbrick of ReSolve Global.

Mar 30, 2021 • 1h 36min
ReSolve Riffs with Breaking The Market on Ergodicity Economics and Geometric Rebalancing
This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day. “Drink once every time someone says "rebalancing", twice for "geometric", thrice for "ergodicity". Leverage these amounts by 2.7x for the full Kelly experience”. This was the opening salvo from our guest, the once anonymous author of the popular Breaking the Market Blog, now revealed as Matt Hollerbach (founder of Pronghorn Analytics). With a background in mechanical engineering, he has applied his analytical and mathematical background to challenge a variety of once-sacred investment beliefs, generating thought-provoking articles that have prompted wide-spread discussion. Our conversation included: Disillusionment after the Great Financial Crisis and delving deeper into the entropy of markets Geometric returns and rebalancing metrics, and why they matter The case for a faster and more frequent update of a portfolio’s underlying assumptions Efficient Frontier versus Geometric Frontier Similarities and Differences between Risk Parity and Matt’s Geometric Rebalancing approach Ole Peters, ergodicity and why stock markets should be “stochastically efficient” Adapting to the vol of vol Stress versus Strain Margin of safety and Kelly-optimal bet-sizing Matt also explained the underlying mechanics of his strategy, and shared some of his favorite return metrics and other insightful concepts borrowed from various disciplines. If you’re planning on grabbing a drink to play along, make sure it’s not too strong. Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.