CFA Society Chicago

With Europe on Easter Monday holiday, and many in the US starting their Spring Break this week, the markets are starting on a weak, but quiet note. Rich Excell CFA is joined again by Tony Zhang CFA and Blaine Reed CFA for a discussion of tariffs, inflation expectations, credit market liquidity and dislocations in FX. We covered the gamut, so you don't have to. Have a listen!

Rich Excell CFA, CMT is joined by the CEO of the CFA Society Chicago Chris Vincent CFA to recap the 2025 Investment Themese series that just completed. Chris then tells us what to expect in the upcoming CFA Institute Live event from May 4-7 in Chicago

Any volatility in the market these days?   We couldn't have gone through investment themes for 2025 without discussing volatility and the options markets   Very lucky to have Zed Francis CIO of Convexitas join our host Rich Excell, CFA on this last installment of the CFA Society Chicago Investment Exchange Forum - Investment Themes for 2025 series

In this episode, hosts Tony Zhang and Rich Excell are joined by fellow CFA Society Chicago member Blaine Reed to discuss the market reaction to the tariff news and how investors should try to think through the scenarios going forward

We continue to explore the themes that are driving markets in 2025. The impact of changing policies in the US and elsewhere is clearly causing investors to reconsider how they will forecast the economy and markets going forward. We are lucky to be joined by Brian Wesbury of First Trust, consistently one of the top forecasters on Wall Street, to discuss the important issues facing investors today

If anything has characterized 2025 it has been the influence of geopolitics on the markets. In this episode, Rich Excell, CFA, CMT is joined by Reva Goujon, a geopolitical strategist and the Director of Corporate Advisory at Rhodium Group. Reva has two decades of experience working with C-suites and government agencies on how to deconstruct risks, assess future scenarios, and make informed decisions.

In the CFASC Investment Exchange Forum podcast, we continue on with our unpacking of the investment themes for 2025. This week, we speak with Dave Sekera, the US market Strategist for Morningstar Research Services. Dave and Rich start with a discussion of economic and interest rate forecasts and lead into what impact these views have on the different sectors, styles and factors in the US equity market. 

Continuing on our with our 2025 investment themes, Rich Excell CFA, CMT digs into the fixed income market with two excellent guests: Elizabeth Henderson, CFA the Head of Fixed Income for AAM and Anthony Woodside, CFA, FRM, the Head of Investment Strategy & Head of Multisector Fixed Income at LGIM America

But we do cover a range of other interesting topics! Tony Zhang, PhD and CFA joins me to discuss falling US Treasury yields, money rotating overseas (particularly China and Europe), money rotating within the US market, the overvalued Dollar and crypto. We will get to NVDA next time!

The first of a multiple part series, we are exploring the investment themes of 2025. With so much concern on inflation, we thought the best place to start is in commodities. We were lucky to be joined by Bloomberg Intelligence Commodity Strategist Mike McGlone, a fellow CFA charterholder and friend of the program. We covered the gamut from soybeans to Solana, gold to gas. 

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT are back for the first Macro Matters of 2025.  The story of the early part of the year is 10 year Treasury yields but that means we are talking yield curves, FOMC expectations, large cap vs. small cap and growth vs. value. We even got into the $7 trillion of Treasury issuance and Chinese 10 year yields at all-time lows!  A  full episode because we haven't spoken in a while.  Enjoy!

RIch Excell,CFA, CMT is joined by Institutional Investor's #1 Strategist Michael Kantrowitz, CFA from Piper Sandler to discuss the US equity market backdrop. What does the factor performance of the market tell us? Are expensive valuations a problem? What about tight credit spreads? Can small caps finally outperform?  All of this and more

Rich Excell CFA, CMT is joined by Barry Knapp, Managing Partner of Ironsides Macro to discuss what is being priced into the bond market and the stock market, where they agree and where the discuss agree. Barry covered TGA, RRP, Active Treasury Issuance, Negative Swaps Spreads, Inverted Yield Curves and QT. Most importantly, he made all of those terms understandable for those that don't follow the inner-workings of the bond market as closely as he does. 

Tony Zhang Phd, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT get together to recap the events of the week. We hardly discussed the CFASC Annual Dinner because there was so much else going on!

Fred Goodwin aka Mr. Risk, a senior macro strategist at State Street, is a guest of Rich Excell CFA, CMT.  They have a wide-ranging discussion from leptokurtotic distributions to Chinese stimulus policy to the Rule of 100. When it is all said and done, does it all come down to TINA (There Is No Alternative) again?  Have a listen to find out

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT are back to discuss a range of issues.  Is China stimulus enough? Will it lead to China finally outperforming the US?  What about the US? How is the housing market doing? What does this mean for the US economy? Have a listen to find out

Maybe you noticed, or maybe you didn't, but a month ago, the PJM auction results were announced and the cost for energy capacity in the largest region in the US saw prices up 800% yoy!  This was enough of a shock that we reached out to the Energy Supply Association to ask them to explain what is going on.  Rich Excell CFA, CMT was joined by Todd Snitchler, the CEO of Energy Supply Association, to walk us through the supply and demand dynamics in the energy market now

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT go live right after the FOMC news comes out to discuss what the Fed might be seeing, the reaction we are seeing in markets and what we might expect going forward

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT are back to discuss the data-filled week post Labor Day and what this might mean for markets going forward. What should we expect? How will the market react? What do investors need to focus on? Have a listen to find out

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA is back with Rich Excell CFA, CMT to recap the crazy August we have seen in the markets. What are the important takeaways? Are we all clear? What should investors think about going forward?

Rich Excell CFA, CMT is joined by renowned economic Lyric Hughes Hale of EconVue who is an expert on Asia economies and geopolitics. Lyric last joined Rich to talk about China after the last National Party Congress. Now she is on to discuss the seminal elections in India, what we need to know as investors, and what we might expect from the politicians.    Lyric mentions an article written by her team. This is a link to that article: https://plus.econvue.com/p/indias-dynamic-growth-story

It's been a few week since Tony Zhang PhD, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT have sat down to discuss the markets. Since then, we have not only seen some historic events in politics but we have moved into the middle of an important earnings season, where the bar is very high. Throw in weakening economic data, and it is tough for investors to navigate. Don't worry - we've got you covered. 

Rich Excell CFA, CMT is joined by Lotta Moberg PhD, CFA, a partner at ViviFi Ventures and Paul Chesek, the Chief Growth Officer at GreenCheck to discuss the recent trends in cannabis & how the rescheduling of cannabis may change the landscape for investors going forward. 

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA joins Rich Excell CFA, CMT to discuss the recent events in the market. Last week was a major week for news, for the Fed and for markets. What does the team think of what happened?

Tony Zhang Phd, CFA joins Rich Excell CFA, CMT for another episode of Macro Matters. In this episode they cover the abundant liquidity in the market, leading to rising investor sentiment that can be seen from crypto to tech stocks. With NVDA earnings this week, what will that mean for markets? Is it time for the emerging markets to catch up?

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA joins Rich Excell CFA, CMT to cover the latest macro that matters for the markets. It is still all about the Fed & inflation for the financial markets. What has changed in the last two weeks? Have a listen to find out

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA joins Rich Excell CFA, CMT to discuss the latest events in the market. We are in earnings season, a time when investors should be focused on the micro issues, the idiosyncratic news. Why is everyone focusing on the macro all of a sudden? Join Tony and Rich to find out why this macro matters

March marked the 25th anniversary for the QQQ ETF, one of the granddaddies of them all. This ETF set the table for thousands more to follow. In this episode, Rich Excell CFA, CMT speaks with Paul Schroeder CMT, the QQQ Equity Product Strategist at Invesco, to talk about the history of QQQ, how the ETF landscape has evolved, and what it might look like going forward

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT are together for another episode of Macro Matters. In this episode before the March FOMC meeting, Tony and Rich discuss the recent moves in commodities, what this means for inflation, how the bond market is reacting to this news on inflation, what we can expect from the FOMC, and finally, how assets are moving around the world based on this information. They cover a ton of ground ahead of important catalysts for the market

In this episode, Rich Excell CFA, CMT sits down with Louay Mikdashi, the Head of Multi-sector Private Credit at Neuberger Berman. They discuss the pros & cons of the private credit market and explore the findings in Louay's recent paper "Private Credit is gaining steam – where do we go from here?"

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT follow up their conversation from two weeks ago. They discuss the continuing changes to market expectations for the FOMC, what this means for the yield curve, the risk appetite present in stocks, crypto and credit, and the fundamental drivers of earnings and factors. It is an action-packed episode you do NOT want to miss

Rich Excell CFA, CMT interviews Mark Higgins CFA, CFP, the author of the book "Investing in US Financial History". Mark writes an extensive account of the events in US financial history, from 1790 to the present, that should help inform policy markets and investors, because the source of many of these events are the same cycle after cycle, decade after decade, century after century.     Part 2 of 2

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT get together on a market holiday to discuss the economic data that has come out over the last 2 weeks and what the implications are for various markets. It is the macro that matters, and the last 2 weeks were FULL of macro

Rich Excell CFA, CMT interviews Mark Higgins CFA, CFP, the author of the book "Investing in US Financial History". Mark writes an extensive account of the events in US financial history, from 1790 to the present, that should help inform policy markets and investors, because the source of many of these events are the same cycle after cycle, decade after decade, century after century.     Part 1 of 2

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT get together to discuss the recent FOMC news and impact, as well as earnings news and events. What does this mean for stocks? What does this mean for bonds?

Monique Thanos PhD, CFA,  Tony Zhang PhD, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT get together again to cover a range of topics. We start by following up from our last discussion on crypto given the news of the Bitcoin ETF. Then we get into the economy, rates and stocks. A full macro podcast

CFA Society Chicago member Dan Grana, CFA, talks with Ana Marshall, CFA, the Chief Investment Officer of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation about her recent book "The Climb to Investment Excellence." Connect with Dan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-grana/ For more episodes go to www.cfachicago.org/podcasts and email info@cfachicago.org This podcast is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. The views are those of the speakers and not those of CFA Society Chicago.

Monique Thanos PhD, CFA, Tony Zhang PhD, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT get together in the latest installment of Macro Matters to disucss the headlines, price moves and catalysts in the cryptocurrency market. Potential Bitcoin ETFs?  Layer 2 protocols? How will AI impact crypto?  Check, check and check, all were covered.  Let us know your thoughts!

Tony Zhang PhD, CFA and Rich Excell CFA, CMT are back for another episode of Macro Matters. This week they look at financial markets from a fundamental and technical perspecitve, discussing what risks investors may need to be watchful of, but also opportunities where investors should potentially look

Rich Excell, CFA is joined by Kyle Lindsay of Maranon Capital to explore middle-market financing including the different levels in the capital structures that are used and why they are preferred. What does the reward to risk look like in these financings? Enjoy

For the next installment in the IEF private credit series, Rich Excell, CFA, speaks with Isaiah Toback, the Deputy Co-Chief Investment Officer for Castlelake. Castlelake's primary business is in asset-based finance and they dig into the similarities and differences between this strategy of private credit and other strategies in the sector. 

It has been two months since our last Macro Matters podcast and a LOT has changed. Back then, we were talking about Bond Vigilantes and risks in the market. Now, we have had one of the best 4-6 week returns across assets in a long, long time. Tony Zhang and Rich Excell get together to talk abot what they see going on in the market

In the third installment of the Private Credit Series, Rich Excell, CFA, speaks with Bill Kindorf, CFA, of Apogem Capital about direct lending and how asset management vehicles are filling the void left by traditional regulated lenders. 

In this podcast, Rich Excell, CFA, speaks with Brook Scardina, a Managing Partner for Capital Markets & Investments at Oak Real Estate Partners. Brook walks us through their private credit strategy which opportunistically invests in real estate deals over a short time horizon before those loans are recapitalized. He speaks about the opportunities and risks in this growing part of the market. 

The CFA Society Chicago is embarking on a multi-part series exploring the private credit market and the different strategies with some of the most influential firms in the business. IN part one, Rich Excell, CFA, speaks to Brad Rogoff, CFA, the Head of FICC Research at Barclays Capital. Brad helps explain why private credit has grown so much post the Great Financial Crisis and how investors should think about the investment landscape

Tony Zhang and Rich Excell are back after a brief hiatus to talk about all things macro. Right now, we are in the middle of a BIG macro event - the move in yields. This has implications for every asset around the world. What is causing this? How will this play out? What is most affected?  How should members be thinking about the move in yields?  Listen in to find out more

In this episode, Tony and Rich recap the latest FOMC meeting, how the short-term interest rate market responded, what we have seen from earnings so far this season, and how the sector performance can give us some clues as to what investors might be positioning for as we exit the summer

Monique Thanos is back and joins Tony Zhang and Rich Excell to talk about AI and what investors need to know. What are the risks? What are the opportunities? How should you approach AI as investors?

Tony Zhang and Rich Excell discuss recent Fed official comments, how the market is re-pricing this hawkishness, whether policy is diverging at the major central banks and where the risks may be in the markets. Sometimes it is a market of stocks, and sometimes it is a stock market

Monique Thanos, Tony Zhang and RIch Excell are back in the latest Macro Matters. This week they discuss the recently concluded debt ceiling discussion. Now that the bill has passed, is the market out of the woods? Or is the hard part only about to begin. Check it out