Flirting with Models
Flirting with Models is the show that aims to pull back the curtain and meet the investors who research, design, develop, and manage quantitative investment strategies. Join Corey Hoffstein, Chief Investment Officer of Newfound Research, on a journey to explore systematic investment strategies, ranging from value to momentum and merger arbitrage to managed futures. For more on Newfound Research, visit www.thinknewfound.com.
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Ruslan Fakhrutdinov – Extended Exchange and Vault Tokenization (S7E27)
<p>Today, I’m speaking with Ruslan Fakhrutdinov, the founder of Extended, a decentralized perpetual futures exchange.</p><p>Ruslan is the fifth perpetual futures exchange founder I’ve had on the podcast, and that’s very intentional. Flow continues to move toward these platforms, and while trading perps can feel familiar to anyone coming from centralized or traditional exchanges, the way risk is absorbed and resolved under the hood for decentralized exchanges can be very different. </p><p>In this episode, we go deep on the design of perp DEX vaults and the role they play as a liquidity and ri...
Angana Jacob - Data as the True Competitive Moat (S7E26)
<p>Today, I am speaking with Angana Jacob, Head of the Research Data group within the Enterprise Data business at Bloomberg.</p><p>We talk about Angana’s career path through quantitative research and data platforms, and how the industry has evolved from a world dominated by bespoke models and backtests to one where many models have become increasingly commoditized. A central theme of our conversation is the idea that while models are easier than ever to replicate, data — how it’s sourced, cleaned, standardized, linked, and delivered — has become the true competitive moat.</p><p>We discuss what it means to...
Moritz Heiden & Moritz Seibert – Trend-Following Spreads (S7E25)
<p>A few years ago, I sat down with Moritz Seibert and Moritz Heiden of Takahe Capital to talk about trend following at the edges of the futures markets: places where liquidity is thin, contracts are obscure, and capacity constraint is a feature, not a bug.</p><p>Since then, despite strong performance, asset growth, and even winning industry awards, they made a very un-industry decision: they shut down their original fund.</p><p>In its place, they launched a new Global Markets Fund built to stay small, so they can trade calendar and product spreads, niche agricultural markets, and...
Annanay Kapila – Perpetual Futures Everywhere and All the Time (S7E24)
<p>In this episode I speak with Annanay Kapila, founder and CEO of QFEX, a 24/7 centralized perpetual-futures exchange for traditional financial markets.</p><p>Before founding QFEX, Annanay worked at Flow Traders and Tower Research, where he was introduced to high frequency trading and market microstructure in both crypto and traditional markets. Insights gleaned during these experiences lead him to the conclusion that the perpetual futures model applied to traditional, so-called “real world asset” markets, like equities, was an inevitable future and one he wanted to build.</p><p>In this episode, we discuss the ramifications of what that world look...
Jay Rajamony – Beyond Factors: Reimagining Quant Equity for the Modern Era (S7E23)
<p>In this episode, I speak with Jay Rajamony, Director of Alternatives at Man Numeric.</p><p>Jay has been with the firm since 2004, giving him a front-row seat to the evolution of quant equity: from simple factor models and broad signals to today’s world of alternative data, model ensembles, and human-machine collaboration.</p><p>We start with the history: what’s changed in quant over the last two decades, why the 2007 quant quake still matters, and how the definition of “alpha” has shifted alongside new tools and data.</p><p>From there, we explore the interplay between factors and macr...
Vladimir Novakovski – Lighter: The Orderbook for all of Ethereum (S7E22)
<p>In this episode I’m joined by Vladimir Novakovski, founder and CEO of Lighter, a decentralized crypto exchange.</p><p>To kick off the conversation, we explore Lighter's three big design choices: it’s built as a custom Layer-2 on Ethereum, it relies on zero-knowledge circuits for proving transactions, and it runs with a private sequencer. Don't worry – if that sounds like gibberish, Vlad explains it all. Each of those decisions comes with trade-offs — but also big potential advantages.</p><p>We discuss why Ethereum remains the natural home for new rollups, from inheriting its security to tapping into DeFi’s gr...
Antti Ilmanen - Understanding Return Expectations (S7E21)
<p>In this episode, I speak with Antti Ilmanen, Principal and Global Co-head of the Portfolio Solutions Group at AQR Capital Management.</p><p>Antti has long been one of the most thoughtful voices in the world of expected returns, having written not one, but two landmark books on the subject. But in his latest paper series, he returns to the topic with fresh urgency—probing the difference between objective and subjective expectations, and asking why even rational models can go so wrong in real time.</p><p>We explore everything from CAPE ratios and market timing accusations, to why eq...
Chris Carrano – Designing Practical Factor Models (S7E20)
<p>In this episode, I speak with Chris Carrano, Vice President of Strategic Research at Venn by Two Sigma.</p><p>Chris has had a rare vantage point in the world of factors — spanning smart beta, long/short hedge funds, and risk modeling — and that experience has shaped a thoughtful view of what factors really are and how they can be practically used.</p><p>We dive into the philosophy and design behind Venn: why it uses just 18 orthogonalized factors, how it blends Lasso and OLS to reduce overfitting, and why it prioritizes interpretability over complexity.</p><p>We also tack...
Jeff Rosenberg – The Past, Present, and Future of Systematic Fixed Income (S7E19)
<p>In this episode I speak with Jeffrey Rosenberg, Managing Director at BlackRock where he leads active and factor investments for mutual funds, ETFs, and institutional portfolios for the Systematic Fixed Income team.</p><p>In the first half of the conversation we discuss the history of quant fixed income. Specifically, its evolution within the halls of sell-side institutions and how solutions were shaped by demand for underwriting, securitization, and derivatives.</p><p>We then make the leap to the buyside, where Jeff outlines the topology of systematic fixed income solutions at BlackRock. We quickly dive into the details, discussing to...
Edward Yu – Bringing OTC On-Chain and the VariationalOMNI Perp Dex (S7E18)
<p>In this episode I speak with Edward Yu, co-founder of Variational. </p><p>We begin the conversation with Edward’s background in crypto OTC markets. He explains how the space evolved away from Telegram chats, the complexities of pricing derivative structures on the long-tail of alternative crypto currencies, and the sources of natural flow in the space.</p><p>This experience led Edward to co-found Variational, which seeks to bring the trillion dollar OTC derivatives market on-chain by disaggregating settlement, margining, and derivative payoff logic into programmable primitives.</p><p>Built on top of Variational is the OMNI perp dex...
