In this episode, Rusty and Robyn talk with Justin Christofel, Portfolio Manager at BlackRock. 

For more than a decade, Justin has been overseeing and managing income-oriented multi-asset portfolios. His focus is to generate a consistent level of cash flow for clients, particularly for those who are living through retirement.

Justin talks with Rusty and Robyn about active management strategies, the challenge of measuring volatility for the investing population, and the need for a disciplined and methodical investing approach during highly inflationary periods.

Key Takeaways

• [01:19] - COVID, tech stocks, and the Fed’s actions toward inflation.
• [02:10] - The state of the labor economy. 
• [05:37] - The difference between CFA and CA designations.
• [07:05] - What's the best way to build a portfolio?
• [11:10] - How can investors adjust their portfolios according to how inflation will move?
• [14:53] - Learning from active management strategies at BlackRock.
• [17:39] - Domestic vs global exposure of investment portfolios.
• [19:11] - Is targeting an absolute yield viable?
• [20:56] - Justin's outlook on the economy.
• [23:49] - What makes a good investment manager?
• [26:05] - The importance of psychology in finance.
• [27:34] - Why boring return generators are better most of the time.

Quotes

[15:45] - “We're trying to hit singles and doubles consistently for clients. We're not trying to hit triples and home runs. And we're certainly trying hard not to strike out. We want to get on base all the time.” - Justin Christofel

[22:19] - “A little bit of volatility in the short run begets a much healthier backdrop for taking risk over time. I think continuing to run pretty high allocations to equities focused more so on value and dividend orientations, as opposed to the sexier growth stuff that's worked over the last three to five years makes a lot of sense.” - Justin Christofel

[26:51] - “As much as we all like to think that there's a science to investing, that having a great process or focusing on the fundamentals and valuations will lead to success, I think perhaps equally important is managing emotions, and kind of combating the falsehoods and the biases and the tricks that our minds can play on us.” - Justin Christofel

Links 

• Justin Christofel on LinkedIn
• BlackRock
• Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N’ Roses
• Rain Is A Good Thing by Luke Bryan
• S&P 500
• Big Money Thinks Small: Biases, Blind Spots, and Smarter Investing by Joel Tillinghast
• Bloomberg 
• Iowa Hawkeyes
• Iowa State Cyclones

Connect with our hosts

• Rusty Vanneman
• Robyn Murray

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0260-OPS-2/9/2022