Carrie Thome, former Chief Investment Officer of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), discusses the evolution of their active alpha portfolio.
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“When I left, we were in the process of hedge funds, as you know, really were struggling. We were at the process of ratcheting down that exposure and instead building the cash back up because we just didn't see if there was the opportunity for the risk we were taking and the fees we were paying.”
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“We weren't tactical. We knew how hard it was just to find active managers that could consistently do it. The idea that we were going to be able to pull this off in Madison, Wisconsin didn't seem terribly realistic, and if I did that, then I was betting on team…”
Carrie ThomeOct 19, 2020▶ 23:22Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)
Insight
Thome argues private equity alpha cannot be separated from beta
“Private equity for sure. You can't separate the alpha from the beta. That's just one package.”
Carrie ThomeOct 19, 2020▶ 26:27Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Thome: WARF ran a $6B notional portfolio via 2x leverage
“The rough numbers were shy of three billion dollars in total. And we had some other assets that had come in from the private foundation that we oversaw their assets. And we had about six billion of notional exposure. If you included the derivatives and the lev…”
Carrie ThomeOct 19, 2020▶ 35:37Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)
“The levered bonds were the best performing asset class we had, which I think surprises some people. And we built a really good alpha engine, and it delivered. It was targeting 200 basis points of added return over the market exposure. That's what we targeted. …”
Carrie ThomeOct 19, 2020▶ 37:56Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)
Disclosure
Thome: WARF eliminated beta from hedge funds and hedged traditional managers
“Hedge funds had to have no market exposure, and to the extent that we were still in traditional managers, we hedged out their beta exposure to match what we were targeting.”
Carrie ThomeOct 19, 2020▶ 29:52Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Thome: WARF cut quant managers after observing total correlation in 2007
“There was a, when Tom ran the portfolio, I think we had every quant manager of notes that you could get. Not surprisingly, we found in 2007 that they all correlated together, so we got rid of some of that.”
Carrie ThomeOct 19, 2020▶ 30:17Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)
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