Enterprising Investor

In episode #383, world-renowned and best-selling author of the books When, Drive, and a Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink provides insight into how he times key decisions, anticipates possible futures, and simplifies complex subjects. Each subject is also shared by active investment managers.

Episode #382. Named one of the Top 100 Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine for four consecutive years, Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic advisor at Allianz, discusses his top three concerns with respect to the global economy. Touching on unpredictability, divergence among advanced economies, and the interplay of politics and economics, El-Erian also brings in relations between the U.S. and China. Finally, he shares his unique career trajectory and the most important advice he ever received.

In episode #381, Clare Flynn Levy, founder of Essentia Analytics, discusses why solely focusing on performance misses an important point; how top managers are competing for survival of the fittest and why others are missing a trick; and how to mitigate behavioral bias in your own investment process.

In episode #380, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger discusses why he believes that data isn’t just the new oil, but an even more important commodity. He believes that it not only greatly enhances markets, but also reshapes the economy. Last, he discusses data’s new role and how he believes it has profound implications for the financial services sector and for finance capitalism more generally. The biggest challenge for the data economy is structural, and competition rules are ill suited to address this challenge.

In episode #379, Malcolm White, CFA, discusses the benefits and limitations of artificial intelligence (AI) in active investment management. Subjects include whether AI should be feared or embraced by investment professionals; things AI is good and bad at doing; neural networks; and how to avoid programming bias into algorithms.

In episode #378, Peter Zeihan discusses major geopolitics trends occurring currently, as well as the importance of geopolitics for financial professionals. Specifically: 1. The more than two decades breakdown in the world order, including the United States returning to isolationism and indifference about what happens in the rest of the world.   2. What reality that is worse that the Global Financial Crisis that is just around the corner?   3. Why finance pros should pay greater attention to geopolitics.   4. Zeihan's approach to geopolitical analysis.   5. The importance of intuition in his work.

In episode #377, Pete Ronayne offers practical insights on how professionals in demanding environments can optimize performance by focusing on keeping their brain refreshed and renewed.

In episode #376, we cover cover some of the basic terminologies and then chart a map of the AI-driven landscape.  From small data to big data, from desktops to the cloud, and from simplistic programming to machine learning, the world has been moving at a rapid pace. 

In episode #375, Professor Laurie Santos developed and taught Yale University's most popular course ever in which she introduced the science of happiness. Building on that experience, Dr. Santos appeared at the 72nd CFA Institute Annual Conference to help professionals in our demanding, dynamic profession learn what science teaches us about being happier at work—and in all facets of our lives.

In episode #374, we discuss how emerging markets have been the place where the action is and the future will be. How near is the future for emerging markets? Does investing in emerging markets translate into a superior risk-adjusted performance?