The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
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Drobny: The modern Yale model is effectively a levered S&P 500 position
“The problem with it today, as we discussed, is that most of the investments are equity allocations, and so you're basically getting a levered S&P position.”
Drobny: 14 years in, crypto lacks any use case beyond speculation
“And so right now I hear the word constantly, we're in the early innings, but crypto has been going on since 2008 now, so we're 14 years into it. And there still isn't really a core use case other than speculation and capital raising. There's no businesses that…”
Drobny: Endowments are not smart money; committees just fund obvious investments
“People think endowments are the smart money, and I disagree. I think endowments are often run by committee And of a dozen smart people in the room that are paid a lot of money that give money to the obvious stuff. And committees kind of push people towards tha…”
Drobny: Private markets are effectively long equity; macro provides real diversification
“Venture strategies, private equity, real estate, they're all equity strategies, and so if you look at your portfolio, you're going to be long S&P, basically. So macro provides a diversifier, and if it's not working, great, the rest of your portfolio is working…”
Drobny: Bonds and short sellers no longer provide effective portfolio diversification
“Bonds aren't a diversifier anymore. There's not many short sellers left. You mentioned Jim Chana's, who's a legend and incredible, but there are not many short sellers left. It's very hard to find diversifying strategies anymore.”
Drobny: Post-2016, fiscal policy and geopolitics matter more than monetary policy
“In the zero rates world, I thought we were shifting to a place where really it's fiscal and geopolitics that matter, especially after 2016 when you had Brexit and Trump. I think the world really changed and Marco came on board and has just crushed it for our c…”
Drobny: Post-Brexit, LA has replaced London as the global jet set hub
“I think LA is the new London in the sense that London used to be the place where the global jet set got together because the non-doms were there and it was just a global place. But Brexit has kind of killed that. And LA kind of has taken up the mantle in that …”
Drobny: Public ESG ETFs are filled with non-ESG companies like Amazon
“It's really hard to do in public markets, because when you look at these ESG ETFs, they're full of Amazon and Google and things that aren't really ESG.”
Drobny: Bad philanthropists excel at fundraising; great philanthropists generally struggle
“Generally great philanthropists don't know how to raise money. Bad philanthropists know how to raise money because it just becomes like a fundraising machine that goes towards admin And more fundraising versus the actual philanthropy.”
Drobny: Best investment opportunities lie in cracks outside mainstream asset classes
“We think that the real gems of the investment world are found in the cracks in between what everyone's doing. So you'll never find us doing multifamily housing. You won't find us doing LBO private equity.”
Drobny: Launching hedge funds on $5M from friends and family is dead
“So running around with your hat out, raising fives and tens from your rich uncle doesn't really work anymore, which is how Stan and George and Paul and all these guys started. I mean, some of these funds started with seven million dollars, with twelve million …”
Drobny: Bridgewater became the largest hedge fund by prioritizing client research
“Bridgewater's perfected this. They have the Bridgewater daily, which is for most institutional investors, a required daily reading. They spend a lot of money, a lot of energy, a lot of people. To do that, and as a result, voila, they have the world's largest h…”
Drobny: Russia is smaller than Texas; China is 15-25% of global GDP
“You could ignore Russia because their economy is smaller than the size of Texas. But China is somewhere between 15 to 25% of global GDP, depending on how you count and what numbers you believe.”
Drobny: Financial services represent massive profit pools ripe for fintech disruption
“And by the way, the thesis behind FinTech is that in every country in the world, financial services is generally somewhere between 10 to 20% of market cap and GDP. And so if you can disrupt that, that's a big piece of profits and revenues to go after and build…”