Citywire: Mistakes Were Made

Alex and Frank are joined by Mark Holman, CEO and portfolio manager at TwentyFour Asset Management, a boutique bond shop running some $28bn.   Mark told us about an error he made going into the Covid crash of 2020 and how the lessons learned from that mistake helped the firm position well for the recovery.   One of our most prepared guests yet, Mark also ran us through a list of common mistakes all bond investors make and what can be done to avoid them.  

Alex and Frank are joined by Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Engines, one the largest RIAs in the USA, with some $270bn in assets under management.  Ric tells us about the importance of compounding, why he's so bullish on bitcoin, and has some damning words for the wider financial services industry about the way it treats clients. 

For our latest episode of Mistakes Were Made, we are joined by Shannon Saccocia, CIO at Boston Private.   She tells Alex ad Frank about a time she backed a breakaway boutique manager, but things did not turn out as planned. Spoiler alert: ego plays its part.   Shannon and Frank commiserate with one another about a shared mistake in their respective retirement accounts, and a previous podcast guest gets a kicking (kind of, but not really). Enjoy!  

For our sixth episode of Mistakes Were Made, we are joined by Gene Goldman, CIO and director of research at Cetera.    Gene and his team oversee a recommended list of funds and run a suite of discretionary portfolios for Cetera, which has around $80bn of assets under management.   He tells Alex and Frank why it isn’t always right to drop a fund when the lead manager exits, the best questions to ask PMs, and shares a cautionary tale about a team of missing analysts. Ooh, mysterious!  

For our fifth episode of Mistakes Were Made, we are joined by Chris Ralph, one of the UK’s most influential fund selectors.   Chris spent a decade as CIO of St James’s Place, a UK-listed advice firm with £130bn ($180bn) of assets under management.   He retired from the firm at the end of 2020 but remains a non-executive on its investment committee.   Chris tells Alex and Frank about an early error he made trading options, how success can change a manager, and the best way to break up with PMs. 

For our fourth episode of Mistakes Were Made, we are joined by Simon Gottelier, a portfolio manager at Natixis affiliate Thematics Asset Management, who specializes in water investment. In this episode, he tells Alex and Frank why he regrets being persuaded to invest in ‘the Donald Trump of drainage’ and the importance of backing one’s own process. He also explains the extent of water crisis we all face and, on a much lighter note, why he hates being asked for stocks tips by his friends.

For our third episode of Mistakes Were Made, we are joined by Anthony Scaramucci, who is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge Capital.   Oh, and he was White House director of communications for a (very) hot minute back in 2017.   In this episode, he tells Alex and Frank about an early investment mistake, which taught him both humility and the importance of specialist knowledge.   He also discusses why he went from being a skeptic to a believer in bitcoin, what he learned from his White House firing, and what he looks for in hedge fund managers.   Listener discretion is advised as there are some curse words used in this podcast.  

Welcome to Mistakes Were Made, a new podcast from Citywire that asks investors about their worst mistakes and what they learned from them.    Hosted by Citywire’s US editor Alex Steger and head of research Frank Talbot, each week we hear from an investor about their biggest errors and the lessons that came from them, all in an effort to help us make better investments.   Our guest for this episode is Liz Simmie, the co-founder of Honeytree Investment Management, a boutique ESG manager, headquartered in Toronto, Canada.   In this interview, she tells Alex and Frank about the dangers of being short term and the common mistakes being made by some ‘ESG’ managers.  

Welcome to Mistakes Were Made, a new podcast from Citywire that asks investors about their worst mistakes and what they learned from them. Hosted by Citywire’s US editor Alex Steger and head of research Frank Talbot, each week we’ll hear from an investor about their gravest errors and the lessons that came from them. All in an effort to help us make better investments. Over the coming weeks, our guests will include financial advisers, fund selectors, portfolios managers, and even a celebrity (look out for that one), from the US, UK, and Europe. The jobs and locations may differ, but the lessons learned are universal. Our guest for this first episode is Daniel Crosby, a New York Times bestselling author of books such as The Laws of Wealth and The Behavioral Investor. A trained psychologist, Daniel is chief behavioral officer at Brinker Capital, a wealth and asset management business based in Pennsylvania, USA.