The Alpha Exchange is a podcast series launched by Dean Curnutt to explore topics in financial markets, risk management and capital allocation in the alternatives industry. Our in depth discussions with highly established industry professionals seek to uncover the nuanced and complex interactions between economic, monetary, financial, regulatory and geopolitical sources of risk. We aim to learn from the perspective our guests can bring with respect to the history of financial and business cycles, promoting a better understanding among listeners as to how prior periods provide important context to present day dynamics. The “price of risk” is an important topic. Here we engage experts in their assessment of risk premium levels in the context of uncertainty. Is the level of compensation attractive? Because Central Banks have played so important a role in markets post crisis, our discussions sometimes aim to better understand the evolution of monetary policy and the degree to which the real and financial economy will be impacted. An especially important area of focus is on derivative products and how they interact with risk taking and carry dynamics. Our conversations seek to enlighten listeners, for example, as to the factors that promoted the February melt-down of the VIX complex. We do NOT ask our guests for their political opinions. We seek a better understanding of the market impact of regulatory change, election outcomes and events of geopolitical consequence. Our discussions cover markets from a macro perspective with an assessment of risk and opportunity across asset classes. Within equity markets, we may explore the relative attractiveness of sectors but will NOT discuss single stocks.
In today’s world of markets, few relationships are better studied than the yield spread of risk free bonds with different maturities. The Funds rate v...
Graduating from the London School of Economics in the mid 80’s, Victor Haghani set sail on a career in the fixed income markets. Joining Salomon Broth...
For the landscape of elevated asset prices that defines today, nothing may be more consequential than changes in the inflation outlook. And for Barry ...
With a position in rate strategy at Salomon Brothers in the late 1990’s, Subadra Rajappa developed an early appreciation for how market risk can be tr...
If you asked yourself, “what are the odds?”, Denise Chisholm can probably tell you insofar as market outcomes are concerned. A Sector Strategist at Fi...
For Jeff deGraaf, financial markets have always been about figuring out who moved the pieces in a chess match and why. Early exposure to the disciplin...
Initially trained as a lawyer and consultant, Peter Cecchini's career spans a few decades across the buy side and sell side, focused on both bottoms u...
Few professionals have the depth of perspective on the many market risk events that were missed by the models as Rick Bookstaber. Trained at MIT where...
With many years experience trading and risk managing derivative exposures, Simon Ho is now the founder and CEO of T3 Index, a financial research and t...
Now the Global Head of Macro at Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, Colin Lancaster has always found top-down investing a fascinating discipline. Trained a...