The Phil Bak Podcast

Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Investments, joins the podcast to explain Decentralized Finance (DeFi), decentralized exchanges, Ethereum, stablecoins, smart contracts, breakthrough protocols, Tether's risk and contagion, and how it all ties back to his potato peeler thesis.

In this third part of a breathtaking conversation with Ben Hunt we discuss narratives: how they are formed, how they spread, how to identify them, and the impact they have on the world around us.

This is the second part of a breathtaking conversation between Ben and Phil about how the financial markets are being turned into political utilities right before our eyes. Ben Hunt is Co-Founder at Second Foundation Partners & author at Epsilon Theory. (Replay from The ETF Experience)

This is the first part of a breathtaking conversation between Ben and Phil about how the financial markets are being turned into political utilities right before our eyes. Ben Hunt is Co-Founder at Second Foundation Partners & author at Epsilon Theory. (Replay from The ETF Experience)

Michael Ashton, Founder of Enduring Investments, joins the podcast to discuss all things inflation: how it is measured, how to analyze it, how to protect your portfolio from it, and how to profit off of it.

Catherine Wood and Tom Staudt from Ark Invest join Phil to talk about the early days of Ark Invest and how they built their business. Cathie tells the story of her eureka moment when she had the idea for disrupting the asset management industry. Tom tells us how he met Cathie and ultimately got an offer letter filled with exclamation points!!! Cathie and Tom talk about the early lean years, how the firm pivoted, and how her conviction and confidence in the firm and in her bold calls has never wavered.   [Replay from The ETF Experience]

Darren Schuringa, Founder and CEO of ASYMmetric ETFs, talks about battling his personal demons and persisting through an early career rise-and-fall to re-emerge wiser, healthier, happier, and with a new asset management firm.

Dan McCabe shares his story that began as CEO of a high frequency trading firm to starting product development shop Precidian, including an excruciating twelve year regulatory pause before launching non-transparent ETFs. This episode takes you through decades of innovation in the capital markets.

Adam Butler, CIO of ReSolve Asset Management, tells stories of his career progression and how his investment approach evolved through the years, culminating in a transition to systematic quantitative investing.

Famed quant Aaron Brown, Phil's former professor, joins the show to discuss a wide range of topics, from his teaching style to poker to bitcoin, and more. Highlights include: Professor Brown's unique teaching style How to have an edge at poker Whether factor investing still works Lack of creativity in quant factors The case for bitcoin The disconnect of intrinsic value Pulling the goalie, in hockey, life and business

Vance Barse joins the podcast to tell the story about how he left the hedge fund world to ride a Harley Davidson across the country, and how he found meaning, purpose, and formulated the vision for starting his company Your Dedicated Fiduciary on that journey.

Amanda Agati joins the show to talk about her recent promotion to CIO of PNC Bank and to give a macro overview of the markets. She explains what is going on in the Repo markets and across the macroeconomic landscape. She discusses what alternative data she uses to understand the markets, what the Fed is doing to depress volatility, whether equities are historically expensive, and more.

Stephen Sikes, COO of Public, joins the podcast to talk retail trading and why the segment is growing exponentially. Stephen explains how payment for order flow works and why Public chose to stop accepting PFOF on their platform. The conversation includes insights into social media, investor education, the difference between investing and gambling, and more.

Author, investor and entrepreneur Brian Portnoy joins the podcast to talk financial education, behavioral investing, the concept of funded contentment, and lessons from his new book, How I Invest My Money.

Julia Carreon joins the podcast to talk about her personal journey and how she became a leading voice advocating for financial institutions to better connect to Gen Z. Innovation and technology in financial services Why legacy firms struggle to adapt The coming generational wealth transfer Being self-promotional and out front Lots more

Eric Balchunas joins for a look at how the ETF industry changed over the years, and whether it remains "the Silicon Valley of finance". The conversation includes: Innovation in the ETF industry The Terrordome (fee war) The rise of Cathie Wood's Ark Invest Measuring Jack Bogle's impact And more

Bloomberg's Eric Balchunas and Logica Capital's Mike Green join the podcast to debate whether price discovery and fundamentals have disappeared from the markets, and whether ETFs and index investing is to blame.

Dr. Daniel Crosby joins the show to talk behavioral finance, how he merged the fields of psychology and investing, the science of likeability, overcoming fear, his process for book writing, and whether Phil should write a book.

Mike Alfred joins the podcast to talk to Phil about his entrepreneurial journey as a two-time founder, his investing ideology, the case for bitcoin and what is next for fintech.

Dave Collum joins the podcast for a provocative conversation about markets, wealth creation and contrarianism versus conformity.

  Phil is joined by Greg Martin, founder of Liquid Stock and Archer VC for a conversation about how employees can access liquidity for private company equity and options, private vs public market company valuations, whether late stage VC companies are in a bubble, the future of fintech, and more.  

Alex Matturri, former CEO of S&P Dow Jones, joins the show for a wide ranging conversation about his career and the growth of index investing. Alex debunks some common myths around index investing and then explains how he built a brand at S&P that led to remarkable growth. the conversation delves into smart beta, ESG investing, the role of the index committee, price discovery and more.

Darren Riley joins the show to talk about all areas of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, including his work at Endeavor Detroit, his entrepreneurial journey at Rapids Air Quality and his new VC fund, Commune Angels.

Phil sits down with Vince Vitale, President of the CFA Society of Detroit and Director of Equity and Alternative Strategy Research at Advance Capital Management for a conversation about the markets and about giving back. They discuss selecting active managers, factor based portfolios and US equity valuations, and then talk about giving back to the community and creating a legacy. Vince announces the stock market challenge - sponsored by the CFA Society of Detroit - and about Junior Achievement of SE Michigan, who the challenge is raising money for. Finally, they talk about persistence and grit and how that drives Vince's career. Register for the stock market challenge here: https://www.jamichigan.org/stock-market-challenge

Patrick Kelly, CEO/co-founder of Signal Advisors, joins the show to discuss fintech for financial advisors - including his new launch and how to advisors can seamlessly onboard annuities for their clients. The conversation then goes on to discuss entrepreneurship, early doubters, stoicism and more.

Phil is joined by Doug Drouillard, Co-Founder/CEO of Shrine Development, for a conversation about technology, app development, startups, and how social media and digital distractions impact our energy and focus.

John Bartlett, President of Reaves Asset Management, joins the podcast for a deep dive into investing in infrastructure and utilities. They explore the state of infrastructure in the US, why infrastructure matters, what factors drive the sector's performance and more.

Phil sits down with Melissa Joy, founder of Pearl Planning, to discuss how Melissa launched her firm, gender gaps in the wealth management industry, personal finance tips and more.

Phil talks to Jared Dillian about creating and monetizing content across various mediums. They also discuss asset managers blinded by their anger at the Federal Reserve, Robinhood traders, inflation, and Jared's DJ career.

Ranjan Roy, Founder & CEO of The Edge Group and author of The Margins on Substack, joins Phil to tell the story of how he arbitraged pizza prices on Doordash and to discuss content creation, antitrust issues, Silicon Valley "platform" business economics, Robinhood and the game-ification of trading, and more.

Phil is joined by legendary ETF pioneer Jim Ross to reflect on his career, the state of the asset management industry and a fresh start in M&A as he launches a new SPAC targeting asset managers.

David Nadig joins Phil to explore the rapidly changing landscape in the Asset Management industry. They discuss ETFs, ESG, commoditization of financial products, whether you should trust this market, how to look great on a Zoom call, and more.

Nancy Davis, Founder and CIO of Quadratic Capital Management joins the show to talk about her fund and how it can help investors hedge against interest rate and inflation risks. She also talks about the challenges of entrepreneurship and how it has been difficult to brush off rejection in the financial services industry as she continues to tell the story of the fund and how it is designed to help investors.

Joe Smith, Founder of Parti Pris Investment Partners joins Phil for a conversation about entrepreneurship, direct index and diversity in the asset management industry. Joe discusses his new startup and how they are utilizing technology to deliver customized solutions to financial advisors. Joe and Phil then have a candid discussion about diversity and inclusion in the asset management industry, with Joe recounting his personal experiences and offering ideas for industry improvement in the future.

Liam Vaughan joins the podcast to talk about his recent book Flash Crash: A Trading Savant, a Global Manhunt, and the Most Mysterious Market Crash in History. The conversation includes details on how the flash crash went down, the aftermath and the resulting blame games, Nav Sarao and whether he was scapegoated, the complexity of market structure, and the status of a potential upcoming movie about the events of the flash crash.

April Boyle, Founder and Executive Director of the Build Institute in Detroit, talks about how underestimated entrepreneurs and communities can build lasting wealth and ownership. April discusses Build's mission, why small business is the backbone of communities, and the challenges in getting small business funding. The conversation includes how Detroit companies are surviving the Covid shutdown, the impact of monopolies on small business, and alternative funding sources such as community capital and invisible capital.   Learn more at www.buildinstitute.org

Phil is joined by the "Quant of Asia" Tariq Dennison. Tariq is the Founder of GFM Asset Management based in Hong Kong. Tariq explains what life has been like in Asia since Covid-19 hit, and how Hong Kong in particular has managed to contain the virus. Tariq then shares his outlook on a number of Asian and EM countries and currencies, and explains why he is bearish on gold as an investment.

In this flash episode, Phil talks about ETF classifications, listing rules, and why the Fed's actions will lead to civil unrest.

Tony Greer from TG Macro and the Morning Navigator Newsletter joins the show to talk global macro, what happened to WTI oil futures and the USO ETF, the dominance of big tech, the airline trade and whether markets are disconnected from the fundamentals.

David Abner, President of Dabner Capital Markets and former CEO of WisdomTree Europe joins Phil for a wide ranging conversation about the digitization of the asset and wealth management industries, where the puck is heading, and how the world will be changed post-shutdown.

In this flash episode, Phil explains everything wrong with the Fed's recent actions.