Other People's Money with Max Wiethe

Noel Smith, founder of Convex Asset Management has spent most of his career outside of the world of managing other people’s money. Instead, he traded his own capital as a proprietary trader. Prop traders are famed for generating staggering rates of return, but because they have no interest in raising money, their secrets and strategies generally remain behind closed doors. However, he has decided to bring these strategies to the hedge fund world at Convex Asset Management and while they don’t scale to produce the same level of returns their lack of availability outside the prop world gives him differentiation in the product marketplace. In this interview, Smith explains why props can make so much more money, how much harder capital raising is than he anticipated, and why he ranks relationships and likability higher than performance when it comes to hedge fund success.Follow Other People’s Money on:Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1MSpotify https://bit.ly/3YhaaziYouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXRFollow Noel Smith on Twitter: https://x.com/NoelConvexFollow Max Wiethe on Twitter: https://x.com/maxwietheTimestamps:00:00 Intro01:16 What is Prop Trading?10:51 Moving to the Hedge Fund World16:36 The Hedge Fund Popularity Contest23:04 Volatility Trading Strategies27:27 Extracting Information From The Options Market32:09 Scaling Prop Strategies34:44 Alpha Degradation39:31 Being Good Is Not Enough48:03 Dealing With Extreme Performance53:28 Long-term Vision For Convex Asset Management

Jamie Carter, Partner and Managing Director at Variis Partners has spent much of his career focused on the world of long-only emerging-market investment boutiques. In this interview with Max Wiethe, Carter discusses the huge differences between building a long only business and a hedge fund business, why launching fund vehicles out of the UK has become more difficult, the differences in raising capital in the US, UK, and Europe, and why he thinks emerging markets are the last hold outs for fundamental active managers. He also explains why EM investors and allocators are holding their collective breath waiting to see how the Trump administration’s policies will impact global markets.Follow Other People’s Money on:Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1MSpotify https://bit.ly/3YhaaziYouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXRYou can learn more about Variis Partners on their website: https://www.variispartners.co.ukFollow Max Wiethe on Twitter: https://x.com/maxwiethe

Since Aristides Capital’s inception in August 2008, Chris Brown has returned over 1,000% for their investors with a stunning 16-year track record of no losing years. In this interview with Max Wiethe, Brown explains how they’ve been able to sustain these results and grow their business to over $300m in AUM all while operating far from the typical financial centers where hedge funds cluster. They discuss how accumulating a plethora of lower capacity strategies, hiring and working with “well intentioned nerds,” and maintaining rigorous processes for post-hoc analysis and feedback have been some of the keys to their investment success. They also touch on asset gathering from both HNW and institutional investors, attracting talent, and the reality that for small funds being in the top quartile or even decile of performance is a near necessity for reaching critical mass.Follow Other People’s Money on:Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1MSpotify https://bit.ly/3YhaaziYouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXRFollow Chris Brown on Twitter: https://x.com/MidwestHedgieFollow Max Wiethe on Twitter: https://x.com/maxwiethe

Ask anyone and they will tell you it has never been harder to start a hedge fund. That’s why so many of the most successful launches of late have been funds emerging from a prior firm with the backing of the big boss, otherwise known as spinouts. Julian Robertson’s Tiger Cubs are the perhaps most famous spinouts, but it is still an extremely popular trend today. Farid Guindo, CIO and founder of Drill Capital Management is taking advantage of these dynamics to launch his new fund with the backing of his mentor and former boss at Bornite Capital, Dan Dreyfus. In this interview with Max Wiethe, Guindo discusses the ins and outs of fund spinouts, the importance of transparency and relationship building with bosses and mentors, and how his experience working at Tiger Cubs and other spinouts solidified his belief that this was the right path for Drill Capital after deciding it was best to be a separate vehicle outside of the Bornite umbrella.Follow Other People’s Money on:Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1MSpotify https://bit.ly/3YhaaziYouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXRFollow Farid Guindo on Twitter: https://x.com/FaridGuindoFollow Max Wiethe on Twitter: https://x.com/maxwiethe

Dan Rasmussen has built his firm Verdad Capital into a billion-dollar asset manager on the back of one core activity, producing high quality research. Since Verdad’s inception in 2014, they have produced almost 500 pieces of research that they publish on their website weekly and distribute both on Twitter and to their large email list of readers. This research serves two functions. It’s both the backbone of the strategies employed at this highly quantitative firm, and a point of connection with existing and potential investors. In this interview with Max Wiethe, Rasmussen discusses how he’s used research to showcase his authentic self and build an audience that provides enumerable benefits. They also discuss the compliance process for publishing research, how he has built out his team and Verdad’s internship program, and why he takes a more SaaS approach to product market fit.Follow Other People’s Money on:Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1MSpotify https://bit.ly/3YhaaziYouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXRFollow Dan Rasmussen on Twitter: https://x.com/verdadcapFollow Max Wiethe on Twitter: https://x.com/maxwietheTimestamps:00:00 Intro03:43 The Value of Research and Verdad’s First Big Thesis10:27 The SaaS Approach Product Market Fit20:26 Investing in Human Capital24:21 The Research and Publishing Process28:41 Research as Brand Building33:06 Compliance and Misconceptions About Public Statements41:35 Authenticity and Investor Archetypes46:07 Making Mistakes49:45 Being Early on PE

Hedge fund strategies like distressed, long short equities, relative value, etc. are well defined and understood by allocators. As a result, funds that fit neatly into these style boxes can easily answer the question, “what type of fund are you?” But what if you don’t fit neatly into one of these boxes? Be too exact and no one will search for your niche strategy. Push the envelope to fit into one of these boxes and suddenly investors feel like they’ve been tricked into a meeting. This is a problem that Louis Camhi, founder and CIO of RLH Capital, has had to deal with since launching his SPAC focused strategy in 2021. In this interview with Max Wiethe, Camhi discusses why educating investors about SPACs and defining his fund for style box focused investors has been harder than finding interesting SPAC trades. They also touch on outsourcing back and middle office, the little things you don’t think about when you are working for a larger fund, and the tradeoffs between SMAs and pooled vehicles.Follow Other People’s Money on:Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1MSpotify https://bit.ly/3YhaaziYouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXRFollow Louis Camhi on Twitter: https://x.com/valwithcatalystFollow Max Wiethe on Twitter: https://x.com/maxwietheFollow OPM on Twitter: https://x.com/OPMpodFollow Jack Farley on Twitter https://x.com/JackFarley96

Harris Kupperman, CIO and Founder of Praetorian Capital joins Max Wiethe to share how he’s grown his firm to over $300 million in AUM, largely by breaking the institutional mold. They discuss Kupperman’s choice to build a strategy with UHNW investors and family offices in mind rather than traditional institutional investors and the benefits of a diversified base of LPs. They also discuss the firm’s blog Kuppy’s Korner, the importance of authenticity in brand building, and his choice to register the fund as a 506(c).Clarification: At 50:48 Harris mentions that almost half the capital in the fund is from gains. As of September 30th, 2024 44% of the capital is from gains.Sign up for Kuppy’s Korner at: https://pracap.comFollow Other People’s Money on:Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1MSpotify https://bit.ly/3YhaaziYouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXRFollow Harris Kupperman on Twitter: https://x.com/hkuppyFollow Max Wiethe on Twitter: https://x.com/maxwietheFollow OPM on Twitter: https://x.com/OPMpodFollow Jack Farley on Twitter https://x.com/JackFarley96

Building a successful hedge fund is hard. It’s even harder when you’re fighting the perpetual upward momentum of the market. Despite this headwind, Carson Block, CIO and Founder of Muddy Waters Capital, has made his firm into a successful fund management business and taken down billion-dollar frauds in the process. In this interview with Max Wiethe, Block explains why starting a fund became necessary to pursue activist short selling in a serious capacity, the pitfalls of capital raising and the different types of investors who are interested in specialized strategies like theirs, and how he is expanding his business with new strategies beyond activist short selling. Recorded on October 21st, 2024.Follow Other People’s Money on:Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1MSpotify https://bit.ly/3YhaaziYouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXRFollow Muddy Waters on Twitter: https://x.com/muddywatersreFollow Max Wiethe on Twitter: https://x.com/maxwietheFollow OPM on Twitter: https://x.com/OPMpod

Max Wiethe interviews the very best investment fund managers about the business of Other People's Money. Max is in partnership with Jack Farley and Other People's Money is part of the Monetary Matters podcast network.Stay tuned for the first episode of Other People's Money with activist short seller Carson Block, airing in late October 2024.Follow Max Wiethe on Twitter https://x.com/maxwietheFollow Other People's Money on Twitter https://x.com/OPMpodFollow Jack Farley on Twitter https://x.com/JackFarley96