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We are launching Friday Only Club!

Oscar de la Renta chose not to show at New York Fashion Week and instead streamed on Amazon. Is Amazon a suitable forum for a luxury brand? CEO Alex Bolen said, "I'm not sure. But we have to experiment with new ways to get our story out." https://lnkd.in/g4rZMxyb We launched our funds when Covid started and with the halt in travel and tough fund raising environment for emerging managers, we focused on performance and experimented with new ways to reach out to allocators, namely Linkedin posts and YouTube videos which can now be binge-watched on  www.quantflix.com . True, some people say that with the positive fund returns last year for both our long-only equity and multi-strategy funds, and the China fund outperforming its benchmark by its annualized double-digit aim, it was expected that we would pass the $100m mark. But when times are bad, most new investment monies went to well-known funds that are much bigger with a marketing budget that we cannot afford. So every lit...

ML and AI in a Hedge Fund

I have a limited edition inflatable float which I brought to the pool exactly once. It's not easy to fit a human-size 3D object in a small apartment, unlike a painting which can be hung on a wall. You don't want to use strong adhesive in case you damage the surface of the bear. But with 'gentle' tape, the bear keeps falling off the wall. It becomes annoying to 'rescue' the bear every couple of days and stick it back upright.


This is what Machine Learning and AI tools are like in a hedge fund when not properly integrated. Sounds good as a concept so you spend time and money on development, but the portfolio managers don't integrate the tools in their research and risk management processes. Over time, the shiny AI toys end up sitting in the corner gathering dust perhaps only used for marketing purposes.

Today my bear float has been 'integrated' with my high chair to become a head & shoulders rest. I sit on the chair more often because it is now more comfortable. The chair supports the bear so I don't have to spend time sticking the bear to the wall.

I will be speaking at the Singapore Fintech Festival on November 3rd on, not surprisingly, the integration of finance and technology at our firm. New techniques such as NLP (Natural Language Processing) and GNN (Graph Neural Network) cannot be useful when not actually used.

For those not in Singapore, you have the chance to listen to my awful jokes on stage when I speak at these conferences:

Dubai, World Litigation Forum, Jan 17-18 2023

Hong Kong, HFM Asian Operational Leaders Summit, Feb 15-16 2023

I'm wondering if the organizers of these professional (and pretty serious) conferences are inviting me because they have not watched my QuantflixTV videos. I'm also thinking of expanding my media empire by doing a podcast series 'Yak with Yak' where I invite more famous friends to talk about non-boring stuff. This will be a test of courage and true friendship.

#fintech #machinelearning #litigationsupport #hedgefund #limitededition #integration #artcollector



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We are launching Friday Only Club!

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The First Edition of Friday Only Club!

  I got a latte art portrait of me today. It's not a "big deal" but shows the barista cares (at 9am in the morning). (No comments on how I look, especially my Bombastic Hair*, unless you look better with no Photoshop in your mid-40s with no makeup). Maybe some would say this is just business, the cafe is trying to get you to buy more coffee. But this is what differentiates a human barista from the Nespresso machine. Recently with year-end celebrations, New Year and Chinese New Year parties, I have been going to fancy wine dinners. I do appreciate the effort, and savings, but after talking to fellow investor friends I realized that sometimes we just need a cool place to chillax and share ideas (aka complain about investments that didn't work out). We can even bring our own wine. This coming Friday Only Club at Gao Cap Bar we'll have an expert talk (while drinking) about how to start an art collection, because a client asked me about displaying art in humid Singapor...