INVESTOLOGY

Can you outperform the world’s smartest hedge funds by simplifying their strategies?George sits down with Andrew Beer, Co-Portfolio Manager at DBi, to discuss why you can beat hedge funds through simplicity. We deconstruct how managed futures investing strategy can disrupt the industry by delivering institutional-grade alpha within the efficient framework of an ETF.The Narrative Shift: We explore the marketing "theatre" of complexity—the rooms full of PhDs and black-box models—and contrast it with the reality of harvesting macro trends. Andrew explains how moving these strategies from private funds to the ETF wrapper isn't just about lower fees; it's about a fundamental shift in how professionals access Managed Futures (CTAs).Key topics:Replication vs. Selection: Why "copying" the big macro moves of the industry often beats picking individual winners.The Alpha-Fee Gap: How stripping out 400-500 BPS of fees directly translates to investor returns.ETFs as the Great Equalizer: Why the sub-advised ETF model is the future for institutional allocators and wealth managers.Portfolio Construction: The role of CTAs (officially Commodity Trading Advisory but Andrew prefers Contrarian Tactical Alpha) in the traditional 60/40 portfolio.LINKSAndrew Beer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdbeer/https://dbi.co/About Investology:A podcast dedicated to investment management intelligence and uncovering new ways to deliver better outcomes for investors. About the Host:George Aliferis, CAIA is the founder of Orama, where he has produced content for many financial brands and multinationals like Amazon, Expedia, Louis Vuitton, and Unilever. Before that, he spent over a decade structuring, marketing and selling complex financial products to institutional clients in Europe and Asia.https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-aliferis/An episode produced by Orama: https://orama.tv/Sales-driven video strategies. Accelerate sales to the financial industry with content that builds trust and drives pipeline. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit investorama.substack.com

Welcome to the Skeptic’s Guide to Investment Management. In each episode, we examine one industry publication through a skeptical, logical, evidence-based lens, with the help of Tim McGlinn, ex-investment consultant, portfolio manager and professor of finance, and founder of TheAltView .Link to the documenthttps://am.gs.com/cms-assets/gsam-app/documents/insights/en/2025/am-retirement-survey-102025.pdfTim’s Altview on Substackhttps://thealtview.substack.com/MUSICBrandenburg Concerto No4-1 BWV1049 - Classical Whimsical by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100303Artist:http://incompetech.com/A series from the Investology podcast produced by https://orama.tv/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit investorama.substack.com

As banks retreated after the financial crisis of 2007-2008, Private Credit filled in the gap. What started as a niche within private equity now operates like a global lending system. And it extends beyond corporate balance sheets, asset-based finance, the ability to lend against real, cash-generating assets is growing fast and offers countless opportunities. The real unlock isn’t just capital — it’s the data and technology allowing to manage these assets at scale.Granular, asset-level data enables better underwriting, continuous monitoring, and access to previously illiquid markets. In my conversation with Cesar Estrada, we explored:* How private credit replaced traditional bank lending* Why asset-backed finance is now being unleashed* How to understand the fall of Tricolor and First Brands* And how data and technology could be defining the winners in this marketA few highlights from our conversationAsset-based finance - an ever-expanding universe Asset-based finance means that instead of lending against the future cash flows of a company, you’re lending against an asset and the contractual cash flows associated with that asset. That’s a very broad definition, and it can include anything within, the consumer, finance world, buy now, pay later, credit cards, auto loans, student loans, any personal term loans, residential mortgages, home, equity lines of credit, the list, keeps on going on as you move outside of a consumer world into, other types of things.Any type of account receivable, supply chain financing, litigation finance, and then more esoteric stuff like, synthetic risk transfers and other things. And it’s becoming very specialized by verticals: aviation finance, medical equipment finance…It has possibly a larger addressable market than direct lending. It offers a lot of runway for growth for private equity, private credit firms, hedge funds, and insurance companies participating directly in this space.The need for data feeds From a risk management perspective, given the rate of change of a consumer world, loans are being paid, new loans are being issued, loans are being not paid. You want to be monitoring this much much more real time than you do in a corporate book, where you’re getting monthly reporting from the borrower and you are comparing their latest actual financials against the original underwriting thesis against prior periods. And you do that activity once a month.This is not a once-a-month thing. This is a daily thing. You want to see how it’s changing because it’s changing very dynamically.I was surprised that this frequency of data was even a possibility, and Cesar also added that it goes beyond risk management; it also feeds into the creation of funds for private investors with daily NAV and daily liquidity. The frequency of reporting increases, the liquidity choices increase, and the volumes and rate of change in the investment strategies increase. That all compounds to necessitate a very robust, modern technology to process all of that data.The First Brands & Tricolor questionCesar mentioned he didn’t have any specifics on the situation, and when I asked about the data issue, his response from a data management provider was to be expected.It is certainly possible that better data with more accuracy and more frequency could have helped offer a view that those assets were being used as collateral with multiple lenders. […]But I wanted to dig a bit further, and at first, the response confirmed that when a crisis happens, all assets that are linked to it fall at the same time, even if in the long term, there’s dispersion (like banks during the Global Financial Crisis)In terms of how it happened so quickly, so abruptly. Again, pure speculation, I think that those things might have been bubbling without the public knowing for a while. But as soon as a big source of financing decides that you’re no longer creditworthy, all of the other sources of financing follow suit, and it’s very abrupt. You can face a liquidity challenge and go bankrupt.It reminded me that Apollo Global Management shorted First Brands’ credit risk before the company’s fall, showing the information asymmetry that still exists in private credit. This requires a few caveats: First Brands was more direct lending; Tricolor was more linked to asset-based finance; nothing says that Apollo had better data. Yet, until the data-based approach that Cesar described becomes table stakes, it could be an important differentiator.Related episode:About Cesar Estrada:Cesar oversees Arcesium’s investment operations, accounting, and data management solutions for private markets fund managers and institutional investors. Previously, he served as Senior Managing Director and Alternatives Segment Head for North America at State Street – a role in which he drove the growth agenda for a business with approximately $1 trillion in Assets Under Administration (AUA) by leading new product launches, expansion into new client segments, strategic partnerships, and acquisitions. Prior to that, as a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan, Cesar led the Private Equity & Real Estate Funds Services business from launch to $350Bn AUA. While at J.P. Morgan, he also held investment banking roles in New York, London, and Hong Kong.Link: https://www.arcesium.com/authors/cesar-estradaAbout the Investlogy podcast:Investology is a podcast dedicated to rethinking investment management and uncovering new ways to deliver better outcomes for investors.Listen on every podcast platform, or watch on YouTube.An episode produced by Orama:Accelerate sales to the financial industry with content that builds trust and drives pipeline with sales-driven video strategies.About the Host:George Aliferis, CAIA is the founder of Orama, where he has produced content for financial brands and multinationals, including Amazon, Expedia, Louis Vuitton, and Unilever. Before that, he spent over a decade structuring, marketing and selling complex financial products to institutional clients in Europe and Asia.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-aliferis-60078312/My Investing & Investment Management YouTube Channels* Investorama - Separating Investment Facts from Financial Fiction (YouTube)* Investology - Re-Think Investment Management (YouTube) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit investorama.substack.com

George Aliferis explores the risks associated with high-yield investment platforms, focusing on YieldStreet, now rebranded as Willow Wealth. Through personal investigation and a detailed case study, he uncovers how Yieldstreet’s business model potentially leads to significant losses for investors, despite attractive marketing claims. Related episodesMy Investing & Investment Management channels* Investorama - Separating Investment Facts from Financial Fiction (YouTube)* Investology - Re-Think Investment Management (YouTube)* Investology in Audio versionFor B2B Brands, Marketers & Podcasters* Orama (my business): Accelerate sales to the financial industry with content that builds trust and drives pipeline.* Newsletter about Selling to Financial Services: on Substack This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit investorama.substack.com

Marco Aboav, CEO of Etna Research, delivers a contrarian take on the current state of AI and automation in financial services. The real challenge now is not technology, but change management, for operational efficiency. But not as a magic bullet for generating alpha. The real edge comes from domain expertise, data selection, and sophisticated modelling—areas where AI can assist but not replace human judgment. Key Takeaways:* The innovation cycle in AI for finance is already peaking—most essential tools and workflows are already available.* The next frontier is not more technology, but how organizations manage change, optimize teams, and handle data in a world of brutal efficiency.* Incumbents can still fight back against pricing pressure through operational efficiency and smart management decisions.* Big tech companies may struggle to succeed in verticals like finance, where high accuracy and deep integration are required.* The “frontier” is in highly specialized, vertical applications, not in generic AI solutions.About Marco Aboav:Marco Aboav is the CEO and Founder of Etna Research, specializing in the intersection of AI, data, and financial services. With deep expertise in operational efficiency and technology integration, Marco brings a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing the industry today.”I fell in love with AI's potential to transform investing back in 2009 while wrestling with my engineering PhD. Since then, I’ve spent my career in financial services—across buy and sell-side roles in London—building businesses, managing money, and applying AI to capital markets.”Connect with Marco Aboav:* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-jean-aboav/* Website: Etna Research About the Show:Investology is a podcast hosted by George Aliferis, CAIA, dedicated to rethinking investment management and uncovering new ways to deliver better outcomes for investors.Listen on every podcast platform, or on YouTube.Resources Mentioned:* Previous episode with Marco: * Perplexity for Finance: https://www.perplexity.ai/finance* Anthropic’s MCP protocol: https://www.anthropic.com/news/model-context-protocol* Finbourne’s MCP announcement: https://www.finbourne.com/finbourne-unlocks-compliant-agentic-ai-for-the-investment-industry-powered-by-mcp/* Anthropic for Financial Services: https://www.anthropic.com/solutions/financial-servicesEtna’s recent publications* Diversification an Ephemeral Illusion: https://etnaresearch.notion.site/Diversification-An-Ephemeral-Illusion-231457fd575a800ead88c99086368e8a?pvs=74* Backtest Roulette: https://etnaresearch.notion.site/Backtest-Roulette-238457fd575a80dc8c27dc8e7574ed40Timestamps & Topics:00:00 – Introduction: Data Challenges04:00 – Introduction to Agent AI for Data Management06:39 – Simplifying Data Processes with AI08:47 – The Role of Data in Gaining Competitive Edge13:06 – Generative AI in Financial Services: Commodity or Edge?19:13 – Operational Efficiency and AI Adoption25:03 – Verticalization and High-Precision Problems40:30 – The Future of AI in Investment Management This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit investorama.substack.com

I love referring to the HBO show Succession, it’s one of the greatest dramas, I would go as far as to compare it with my all-time favourite, “The Sopranos”.And… it truly is a masterclass in how NOT to handle estate planning. Family feuds, intense legal battles, and being reckless with your assets are great for drama, but you don’t want any of that in real life.Estate planning is an(other) area where the advice model is broken; it’s a wealth management issue that lawyers typically handle. So, it doesn’t receive the holistic approach to wealth, tax, and family-specific considerations it deserves.I spoke with Gene Farrell, the CEO and President of Vanilla, a company that has raised $84 million to build the technology that changes that.This episode is from a new Wealthtech series.LINKSVanilla website: https://www.justvanilla.com/Related Wealthtech episode: Wealth Engineered - Quantifeed 📩 Get episodes by email and go even deeper with the Investology Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3AxnyTY🎧Investology on podcast platforms: https://pod.link/1511595070📹Investology on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@investology_podcastThis episode was produced by Orama - a video and podcast studio for B2B brands https://orama.tv/ABOUT VANILLAEstate planning is no longer just a luxury–it’s a necessity when delivering holistic financial advice. Vanilla’s next-generation software makes estate planning easy for every client.ABOUT THE INVESTOLOGY PODCASTA podcast that helps you think about critical topics and principles of investment management. Each episode explores the technology, mythology, psychology, and narratology of investment management through interviews with acclaimed authors, innovative startup founders, and industry pioneers.ABOUT GEORGE ALIFERIS: INVESTOLOGIST & HOSTWith a background in investment management and selling sophisticated products to large institutional investors across Europe and Asia, George is now on a mission to find new ways to deliver better outcomes for investors.Aside from the Investology podcast, George is a content creator for the finance industry and the founder of Orama a podcast and video agency.He’s a CAIA Charterholder (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association); and holds a Master’s from HEC, ParisTIMESTAMPS00:00 Introduction to Estate Planning Drama01:23 The Importance of Having an Estate Plan02:06 Challenges in Estate Planning02:14 Vanilla's Role in Estate Planning03:45 Components of a Good Estate Plan05:09 Legacy and Tax Efficiency07:03 State and Federal Tax Implications09:11 Vanilla's Technology and Services10:22 Vanilla's Founding and Growth14:37 Advisor and Client Engagement33:13 Market Potential and Challenges36:42 CEO's Background and Journey40:51 Conclusion and Contact Information This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit investorama.substack.com

I spoke with Leyla Kunimoto, the writer behind the Accredited Investor Insights Substack, and I finally got what it takes to “democratize private assets”.One approach is to incentivize financial advisors to distribute evergreen funds and enroll them in a 'university' established by one of the dominant firms in the market.Alternatively, you can empower individuals by offering case studies and tools to help them conduct due diligence and select deals to join as Limited Partners (LPs), and it takes a lot of commitment and effort on their side.We mainly used private real estate examples, but we covered a broad range:* The information imbalance in private assets* Who are the retail LPs?* How they can try to achieve some Alpha* The critical advice to get started* How the value of private investing goes beyond returns* Why AI is the biggest unlock for democratization* The power of memes!LINKSAccredited Investor Insights: https://www.accreditedinsight.com/Leyla on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lkunimoto/📩 Get episodes by email and go even deeper with the Investology Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3AxnyTY🎧Investology on podcast platforms: https://pod.link/1511595070📹Investology on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@investology_podcastRelated tweet: https://x.com/NicoGladia/status/1934997429520150573This episode was produced by Orama - a video and podcast studio for B2B brands https://orama.tv/ABOUT ACCREDITED INVESTOR INSIGHTSAccredited Investor Insights is one-of-a-kind: the only voice offering a perspective from the LP seat. We cover both the good and the not so good—and often, useful resources (like articles and reports)—drawing on insights from hundreds of deals and numerous conversations with sponsors, LPs, and service providers.Whether you're new to investing or a seasoned pro, our goal is to provide you with the insights and information you need to succeed. Join us on this journey as we strive to elevate the standards of investment education and due diligence for Accredited Investors everywhere.ABOUT THE INVESTOLOGY PODCASTA podcast that helps you think about critical topics and principles of investment management. Each episode explores the technology, mythology, psychology, and narratology of investment management through interviews with acclaimed authors, innovative startup founders, and industry pioneers.ABOUT GEORGE ALIFERIS: INVESTOLOGIST & HOSTWith a background in investment management and selling sophisticated products to large institutional investors across Europe and Asia, George is now on a mission to find new ways to deliver better outcomes for investors.Aside from the Investology podcast, George is a content creator for the finance industry and the founder of Orama a podcast and video agency.He’s a CAIA Charterholder (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association); and holds a Master’s from HEC, ParisTIMESTAMPS00:00 Introducing the “Private Assets Universities”01:03 The Birth of Accredited Investor Insights02:48 What does the Democratization of Alts really mean?03:58 Who are the retail LP investors?06:17 Paths to private market access10:09 Challenges, nuances and opportunities in Private Assets15:44 Advice for new investors29:57 The role of AI in investment analysis for private real estate32:23 The power of Social Media and content36:20 Final Thoughts This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit investorama.substack.com

I chat with Ross Milward from Quantifeed about moving beyond product sales towards a future where technology empowers investors.Today’s investors need more than a list of products—they need guidance. By integrating software solutions, the wealth management industry can align itself with the long-term goals of clients, build better portfolios and embrace a more holistic approach.TRIVIA: Ross and I were colleagues at Deutsche Bank for a while, although in different locations. As a salesperson, I witnessed the quantitative revolution in equity derivatives that Ross and his team engineered. This allowed greater access to quantitative tools and products within Deutsche Bank, between sales traders and structurers. This movement is now extending across vendors, advisors and end-clients.HIGHLIGHTSOn wealth management:If wealth management can be more accessible, you used the word democratize, that would be wonderful. There’s obviously a lot of stress in the global system around ageing populations, the burden that’s putting on pension funds, the earlier people can invest for the longer term the better. Bringing these tools into the hands of the end-customer, into the hands of the advisor, is the vision for us.That democratization, for all of us, would be wonderful and for an advisor to sit with me, and have a solution, that I then work towards with that person over months and years, rather than being sold a product and then three months later thinking, what the hell did I buy that for? I can’t remember what that product was. That change of conversation is still really an opportunity for the industry.The partnership model:Nobody in this ecosystem can do everything. So I do think that partnership model, where we can work with the experts on the data, or the valuation of structured products, et cetera, fits really nicely for us. And when we work with financial institutions, there will often be one or two of these partnerships around data and product.The AI opportunity for usability:There’s a lot of opportunity for the AI tooling to provide information and bubble up information in a different form of interface than the current user interfaces that a lot of these platforms have. The combination of AI leveraging the underlying algorithms and the data can enable better usability. An advisor logging in at the start of a day, instead of them navigating and looking at what to do, you can be sweeping with agents saying: Well look, there’s been a movement in a set of customers positions or there’s been a change in a particular fund price, or we’ve just had the strategic asset allocation from our CIO group has just been imported and it’s impacting a set of clients.LINKS Quantifeed’s website: https://www.quantifeed.com/ Ross Milward on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-milward-36770b/ George Aliferis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-aliferis-60078312/Investology on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@investology_podcastThis episode was produced by Orama - a video and podcast studio for B2B brands: https://orama.tv/ ABOUT QUANTIFEEDCombining software engineering and quantitative finance, Quantifeed helps transform financial institutions into providers of wealthcare, a customer-centric service focused on meeting everyone's wealth management needs. Quantifeed’s solutions empower CIOs, customers, advisors, and portfolio managers. Quantifeed’s suite of capabilities and services can be assembled and configured to create compelling digital advice propositions.ABOUT THE INVESTOLOGY PODCAST A podcast that helps you think about critical topics and principles of investment management. Available on all podcast platforms https://pod.link/1511595070 or YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@investology_podcastABOUT GEORGE ALIFERIS George is driven by a mission to explore innovative ways to deliver better outcomes for investors. His career began in financial markets sales at institutions such as Natixis, Deutsche Bank, and Invesco (Source), where he specialised in alternative investments, derivatives, and ETFs.George is the founder of Orama, a financial services content agency. He is a CAIA Charterholder and holds a master’s degree from HEC Paris.To be featured on the podcast, you can contact george@orama.tvTIMESTAMPS 00:00 Fixing Wealth Management with Quant & Software02:24 Early Career and Experience at Deutsche Bank04:21 Understanding the Role of Quants and Developers05:27 Scaling and Architecture in Financial Systems06:47 Evolution of Trading Platforms08:31 Founding of Quantifeed11:06 Client Segments and Services13:18 Implementation and Integration of Quantifeed Solutions26:08 Impact of AI and Machine Learning33:51 The Advice System is Broken (Alokik Advani FISV)36:51 Conclusion and Final ThoughtsMy Investing & Investment Management channelsInvestorama - Separating Investment Facts from Financial Fiction (YouTube)Investology - Re-Think Investment Management (YouTube)Investology in Audio versionFor B2B Brands, Marketers & PodcastersOrama (my business): Accelerate sales to the financial industry with content that builds trust and drives pipeline.Newsletter about Selling to Financial Services: on Substack This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit investorama.substack.com