Episode 80: Mine Super’s Sean Anthonisz

Academia, Quants and Loose Graphs

Sean Anthonisz is the Head of Investment Strategy of Mine Super, a pension fund for the mining industry. In this episode, we talk to Sean about his background in academia and the intersection with investment implementation, the use of ‘fairly loose graphs’ in the industry, P-hacking and decarbonisation in a mining fund. Please enjoy the show.

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Overview of Podcast with Sean Anthonisz, Mine Super

01:00 Does your background in academia give you a different perspective on investing?
02:00 P-hacking in academia
05:00 Getting started in investing
07:00 How good are asset owners in picking managers?
09:00 New research coming up on costs of switching managers
11:00 Don’t fire a manager too early, because the costs involved are very large
15:00 On folklore in the investment industry
17:00 Sometimes conclusions are drawn from fairly loose graphs, even by regulators
19:00 Where quant analysis is most useful is in staying away from problems
24:00 The Black Scholes option pricing model
25:00 Is investing an art or science?
26:30 For me it is about using science to avoid problems, not using science to predict the future
29:00 Looking at tactical tilting
31:30 How do you address climate change and decarbonisation in a super fund for the mining industry?
36:00 Addressing ESG driven tilts in portfolio?
38:00 Are you planning more papers?
39:00 Machine learning: we actually can now see what some of these models are doing

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[i3] Insights is the official educational bulletin of the Investment Innovation Institute [i3]. It covers major trends and innovations in institutional investing, providing independent and thought-provoking content about pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds across the globe. The [i3] podcast is available on iTunesGoogle PodcastSpotifyAmazon MusicStitcher or your favourite podcast platform.