Enterprising Investor

In Episode #350, we continue our talk on with the Pension Fund Association of Japan, which manages over US$ 110 billion in assets for pension clients.

In Episode #349, Martin S. Fridson, CFA, chief investment officer at Lehmann Livian Fridson Advisors LLC, is regarded as one of Wall Street's most thoughtful and perceptive analysts and has been dubbed "the dean of the high yield bond market". In a wide-ranging interview, he discusses a number of issues, including the investment grade and the high yield credit markets, how to correctly forecast the default rate, and how the leveraged buyout market has evolved since the 1980s.

In Episode #348, we talk pension funds and how they tend to have regular outflows and are often underfunded, as a result the tools the industry has developed tend to be based on these assumptions.

In Episode #347, Richard Howitt, CEO of the International Integrated Reporting Council, discusses the power of Integrated Reports for investors. For example, their additional detail on multiple sources of capital and return; their prospective, not retroactive nature; and their insistence on executive management narrative to help make sense of data.

In Episode #346, Roger Urwin, lead author of the CFA Institute report Investment Firm of the Future, and Willis Towers Watson's global head of content, along with Richard Howitt, CEO of the International Integrated Reporting Council, discuss the report, as well as pertinent details with which all investment pros should familiarize themselves.

In Episode #345, Matt Gertken, geopolitical strategist at BCA Research, shares his thoughts on some of the current largest geopolitical topics that we should all be thinking about. From China to Russia, via the United States, there is a lot to consider in terms of the big picture. Mr. Gertken talks about the likely shift in power from west to east—both politically (global influence) and economically (trade wars). With China facing domestic demands as well as global ones, the topic of the country's growth outlook makes for fascinating listening.

In Episode #344, recorded at the 71st CFA Institute Annual Conference in Hong Kong, Mary C. Gentile, creator and director of Giving Voice to Values (GVV) at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, explains the values-driven leadership that is at the center of GVV, an innovative approach to values-driven leadership development in business education and the workplace.

In Episode #343, Jane Hyun, founder and president of Hyun & Associates and former recruiting executive at multiple investment banks, discusses the nuances and importance of understanding cross culturalism for advancing your career.

In Episode #342, Anil Gaba, professor of decision sciences and the Orpar Chaired Professor of Risk Management at INSEAD, explains how risk and uncertainty are not the same and how control can be gained by paradoxically giving up control. Professor Gaba offers a fascinating insight into luck, chance, control, the illusion of control, and decision making. For example, behaviorally we have cognitive biases—such as overconfidence—and emotional biases, which make it hard to learn from experience. This gives an illusion of control that, if we could learn to overcome, could lead to better investment decisions. Can we make our own luck, or do we just have to deal with the cruel vicissitudes of life? At the end of the day, Professor Gaba says that we have to make the best decisions that we can in the moment but that we are all exposed to the uncertainty of life.

In Episode #341, Bruce Tomlinson, CFA, draws upon his extensive experience as an alternative assets manager to provide an overview of qualitative and quantitative techniques asset owners can use to screen for superior performance.