Other People's Money with Max Wiethe

This episode is brought to you by VanEck. Learn more about the VanEck Rare Earth and Strategic Metals ETF: http://vaneck.com/REMXMax Sam Gaer, CIO of Directional Strategies at Monarq Asset Management, joins Other People’s Money to discuss how he uses quantitative directional strategies to trade crypto assets and produce an institutional quality return stream that has outperformed bitcoin at scale. He explains how his experience as a market maker, executive, and self-taught electronic exchange technologist driving some of the most important technological advances in finance led him to “burn the boats,” leave tradfi, and go all in on building institutional crypto strategies with Monarq. He also discusses how institutional appetite for crypto hedge fund strategies is growing with increased regulatory clarity, greater availability of institutional level funds, and evolving market opportunities in crypto-native and crypto-linked tradfi assets. Follow Sam Gaer on X: https://x.com/samg67 Follow Monarq on X: https://x.com/monarq_mgmt Follow VanEck on X: https://x.com/vaneck_us Follow Max on X: https://x.com/maxwiethe Follow Other People’s Money on: Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1M Spotify https://bit.ly/3Yhaazi YouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXR X https://x.com/opmpod Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:43 Q4 Crypto Volatility 06:21 A Disappointing Year for Crypto Bulls 10:29 Taking Advantage of Extreme Volatility 12:50 Triple Barrier Risk Management 15:43 $REMX 16:26 Responsible Leverage 17:17 Is the 4-Year Cycle Over 21:55 Early Days Pit Trading 24:16 Building Electronic Exchange Technology 26:38 CEO of NYMEX Europe and NYMEX IPO 27:24 Move to FINRA 28:43 Building and Selling a Volatility Hedge Fund 29:15 Burn the Boats 32:14 Joining Monarq 37:14 Differences Between Crypto Fund Managers and TradFi 39:17 Institutional Adoption of Crypto Hedge Funds 44:27 Can Crypto Strategies Scale to Meet the Demand? 47:19 The Crypto TradFi Collision 49:57 The Difference Between Institutional and Non-institutional Quality Crypto Funds 54:13 Hyper Liquid and Other Market Improvements in Crypto 59:26 Will TradFi Take Over Crypto? 01:01:31 Digital Asset Treasuries 01:08:46 The Next Stage for Monarq

This Other People’s Money episode is brought you by Fiscal.ai. Sign up for a 2-week free trial and get 15% off any paid tier at: http://fiscal.ai/mm Fundamental long-short equity investing has been in decline with fewer new fund launches and dwindling assets, but David Stemerman, CEO, CIO and Co-founder of CenterBook Partners believes data clearly shows these investors still have significant investing skill. He argues that single manger hedge fund data collected using alpha capture can be used to construct new portfolios and strategies that will be more attractive for institutional investors. Through a combination of direct payments, data sharing, and partnering with single managers on custom strategies he believes that that alpha capture can revitalize single manager hedge funds. Not all alpha capture strategies are made equal though and one of the biggest problems he is trying to solve is convincing managers and their LPs that alpha capture can be done without harming the returns of the manager. Read the white paper: https://www.centerbook.com/ACPaper Become a CenterBook Partners partner fund: https://www.centerbook.com/contributors Follow Max on X: https://x.com/maxwiethe Follow Other People’s Money on: Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1M Spotify https://bit.ly/3Yhaazi YouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXR X https://x.com/opmpod Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:40 Fiscal.ai 01:34 Single Manager & Tiger Cub Origins 02:45 Fundamental Long Short Equity Under Pressure 07:21 History of Alpha Capture 09:07 Responsible Alpha Capture 16:40 Fiscal.ai 17:58 Why Don’t Managers Adapt to Allocator Demands? 26:48 CenterBook's Current Alpha Capture Strategy 33:14 How Do You Manage External Partners? 35:38 Reactions From LPs at Partner Funds 39:46 Types of Allocators Are Interested in Alpha Capture? 41:53 Types of Managers Partnering with CenterBook 43:04 Is Alpha Theory a Requirement? 46:03 Scale Limits for CenterBook 48:39 Do Most Managers Have Skill? 53:15 Active Extension: The Future of Active Management? 01:03:13 Timeline for Single Manager Active Extensions

This Other People’s Money episode is brought to you by CAIA.nxt. Learn more about their alternatives education courses for investment advisors and get 10% off with code MMTEN: https://caia.org/content/welcome-monetary-matters-and-other-peoples-money-listeners Anatoly Crachilov, CEO and Co-Founder of Nickel Digital Asset Management, joins Other People’s Money to discuss why crypto is the perfect asset class for the multi-manager pod shop model. He also explains how Nickel is taking a “West Berlin” approach to partnering with external traders compared to the “East Berlin” approach of many traditional pod shops where non-competes and strict control of IP is the norm. He also discusses why 2025 has been a difficult year for crypto traders, how their team is managing the choppy markets, and how scaled up pods and incubation stage pods managed the extreme volatility in October. Follow Anatoly Crachilov on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anatoly-crachilov/ Follow Max on X: https://x.com/maxwiethe Follow Other People’s Money on: Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1M Spotify https://bit.ly/3Yhaazi YouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXR X https://x.com/opmpod Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:38 CAIA.nxt 01:24 Multi-Manager Origin Story 03:12 No Central Book or Alpha Capture 04:32 Expanding Number of Pods 06:15 Technology Enabled Growth 10:09 Onboarding a New Pod 14:38 Benefits of Crypto's Infinite Divisibility 15:58 CAIA.nxt 16:54 Determining the Scalability of Strategies 18:03 Minimum & Maximum Pod Sizes at Scale 18:33 Measuring Risk Adjusted Returns 20:34 Pod Compensation and Fund Level Fees 24:43 Winning the War for Talent 29:29 Pods Can Be Independent Prop Shops and Single Managers 35:03 Demand for Crypto Multi-Manager Funds 39:02 Reducing Risk in Crypto with 3rd Party Settlement & Custodians 46:08 Crypto Still Has Low Liquidity 49:41 The Cost of Poor Trade Execution in Crypto 53:16 Current Environment for Crypto 58:22 Risk Management Adjustments in a Choppy Year 01:02:04 Different Testing Environments for New Pods 01:06:30 What Happens When a Scaled Pod Has a Drawdown? 01:09:35 Conclusion

This is a special bonus episode of OPM with David Orr. In my first conversation with David, we only discussed his hedge fund that has crushed the S&P 500 since its inception in 2021. In addition to his hedge fund, he also runs the Militia Long/Short Equity ETF ($ORR) which since its inception in January 2025 has also beaten the S&P 500 running a similar but still distinct long/short strategy from the one he employs at his hedge fund. We discuss his unorthodox decision to launch the ETF when the hedge fund was going so well, how he is managing the different liquidity needs, his dual fiduciary duties, differing compliance realities, and the increased transparency of the ETF wrapper. Follow David Orr on X: https://x.com/orrdavid Follow Max on X: https://x.com/maxwiethe Follow Other People’s Money on: Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1M Spotify https://bit.ly/3Yhaazi YouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXR X https://x.com/opmpod

This Other People’s Money episode is brought to you by VanEck. Learn more about the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH): http://vaneck.com/SMHMax Learn more about the VanEck Fabless Semiconductor ETF (SMHX): http://vaneck.com/SMHXMax Jeremy Boynton and Zach Lindquist, managing partners at Pure Crypto, have built one of the best performing crypto fund of funds since their inception 2018. In this interview they discuss their view that the crypto market structure is being changed by ETFs and crypto treasury companies, how they think about manager selection, the subtle differences between crypto VCs and crypto hedge funds, and why they are eschewing new entrants into the crypto fund space in favor of OGs who have managed capital and survived multiple market cycles. They also explain why they are volatility agnostic and prefer to take on crypto market beta rather than invest in market neutral and multi-manager crypto funds. Follow Zach Lindquist on X: https://x.com/PureCryptoLP Follow Max on X: https://x.com/maxwiethe Follow Other People’s Money on: Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1M Spotify https://bit.ly/3Yhaazi YouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXR X https://x.com/opmpod An investment in the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and VanEck Fabless Semiconductor ETF (SMHX) may be subject to risks which include, among others, risks related to investing in the semiconductor industry, special risk considerations of investing in Taiwanese issuers, equity securities, small-, medium and large-capitalization companies, foreign securities, emerging market issuers, foreign currency, depositary receipts, issuer-specific changes, market, operational, index tracking, authorized participant concentration, new fund, no guarantee of active trading market, trading issues, passive management, fund shares trading, premium/discount and liquidity of fund shares, non-diversified, and index-related concentration risks, all of which may adversely affect the Fund. Small, medium and large-capitalization companies may be subject to elevated risks. Emerging market issuers and foreign securities may be subject to securities markets, political and economic, investment and repatriation restrictions, different rules and regulations, less publicly available financial information, foreign currency and exchange rates, operational and settlement, and corporate and securities laws risks. Investing involves substantial risk and high volatility, including possible loss of principal. An investor should consider the investment objective, risks, charges and expenses of a Fund carefully before investing. To obtain a prospectus and summary prospectus, which contain this and other information, call 800.826.2333 or visit vaneck.com. Please read the prospectus and summary prospectus carefully before investing. © Van Eck Securities Corporation, Distributor, a wholly owned subsidiary of Van Eck Associates Corporation

This episode is brought to you by Fundamental Edge. Learn more about their new AI Academy for buyside professionals: https://www.fundamentedge.com/ai-academy Raj Shah and Cullen Rose of Stoic Point Capital Management join OPM to explore their winding path to scale and how adapting to the opportunities from the SPAC boom of 2021 brought them new investors and strategies. They also discuss how AI has drastically changed their investing process and their cost structure, the importance of negotiating and changing service providers, and why hedge fund marketing is an active endeavor. Follow Stoic Point Capital Management on X: https://x.com/stoic_point Follow Max on X: https://x.com/maxwiethe Follow Other People’s Money on: Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1M Spotify https://bit.ly/3Yhaazi YouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXR X https://x.com/opmpod

This episode is brought to you by Fundamental Edge, the leaders in buyside analyst training. Reserve your spot in their new AI Academy today: https://www.fundamentedge.com/ai-academy In the online community of FinTwit it is extremely common for hedge funders to have anonymous profiles because of strict regulations, but not all these anonymous profiles are made equal. @hfreflection is one of the most insightful anonymous members of the FinTwit community, especially when it comes to the business and industry of hedge funds. In this interview (while maintaining anonymity) HF reveals key aspects of his path to success and shares the insights he picked up on his journey from analyst to eventually launching his own firm after a long stint at a multi-billion dollar long/short equity manager. He touches on the hard decisions people face at different stages, whether you are a young professional trying to break into the industry, a mid-career analyst trying to find the right seat, or a seasoned professional deciding whether staying put or launching your own fund is the right path forward. Follow HF Reflections on X: https://x.com/hfreflection Follow Max on X: https://x.com/maxwiethe Follow Other People’s Money on: Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1M Spotify https://bit.ly/3Yhaazi YouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXR X https://x.com/opmpod