Dan Villalon is a true renaissance man, with a deep technical love for, and expertise in, investing, winemaking, and woodworking – specifically surfboards and ukuleles. It’s one thing to understand the basics of a complex and intricate topic, and quite another to be a maker. Not to mention, being able to teach and explain the way Dan does.

During the pandemic, do-it-yourself became almost a cliché. Bread, anyone? Our team was just as guilty of this trend, discovering the liberation that comes from learning how to build on your own. After listening to Dan, we’d argue the source of that liberation comes from deeper understanding and appreciation for how things are made, and for the people who do the making. In this episode, Dan elaborates on how renowned American physicist Richard Feynman changed his life with the quotation “What I cannot create I do not understand.”

More about Dan Villalon

Dan is the Managing Director and Co-Head of Portfolio Solutions Group at AQR Capital Management. In his role, he oversees the team responsible for advising clients on portfolio challenges, developing custom analysis and writing white papers and other research. Dan is also a member of AQR’s Multi-fund Investment Committee, which oversees the design construction and implementation of multi-asset multi-strategy portfolios. Listen below or click here to listen on Apple.

David Kabiller is hugely successful and doesn’t need to do podcast interviews, in fact, he rarely grants requests. In Episode 8 of the Take the Longview podcast, Kabiller sat down with Matt Hall to talk about many topics including: tennis, his path to success, starting at “Goldman Slacks”, and his views on modern investing. Enjoy this special episode with the influential leader who assembled AQR, one of the more important quantitative money management firms in the world.

Listen to Episode 8

Alert – This link is only for those of you who like the backstage, technical stuff.

Cliff Asness recently wrote a piece for Bloomberg called Indexing Is Capitalism at Its Best and we tend to agree. This column is in response to an active manager’s “research” report warning of the dangers of too much money moving to index, passive, and evidence-based strategies. Please make sure to read the footnotes, as they are every bit as relevant as the main content.