Harin de Silva of Wells Fargo Asset Management - The Role of Big Data in Quantitative Investing

Orion's The Weighing Machine
Orion's The Weighing Machine
Episode • Aug 17, 2021 • 34m

In today’s episode, Rusty and Robyn talk with Harin de Silva, Portfolio Manager for the Analytics Investors Group at Wells Fargo Asset Management.

Harin's focus as a portfolio manager is on equities and factor-based asset allocation strategies. He is also regarded as one of the top quantitative managers in the US and has received the prestigious Graham and Dodd Award of Excellence for his research. Before joining Wells Fargo, Harin also provided economic research services to investors through the Analysis Group, Inc.

Harin talks with Rusty and Robyn about factor-based investing, long/short funds, perspectives on risk analysis, and incorporating big data in investing.

"Our role as quantitative investors is to take what people are doing from a fundamental standpoint and then apply that systematically across a wide range of stocks. And technology is what allows us to do that." ~ Harin de Silva


Main Takeaways 

  • In factor-based investing, investors can easily understand performance and the common themes in structuring portfolios.
  • Quantitative investing is systematic investing. Quantitative investors don’t just acquire the relevant data; they decide and assign the weight of the factors that affect the structure of the portfolio.
  • Coming up with an idea is just the first step. Using technology to transform big data into useful information is also critical, especially in improving investment strategies.
  • In analyzing the performance, volatilities, and drawdowns of funds, consider looking at risk adjustment metrics like the Sortino ratio and the VIX index.
  • Lower volatility stocks tend to outperform higher volatility stocks because of two key things: human behavior and volatility drag.


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