Raj Mahajan
Showing 1–5 of 5 transcripts.
- Goldman Sachs43 min
Searching for Signals: BlackRock’s Raffaele Savi on the Future of Systematic Investing
Raffaele Savi, Global Head of BlackRock Systematic, leads the firm's 40-year legacy quantitative team overseeing over $317 billion in assets while driving the strategic shift from traditional factor investing to AI-powered models that integrate big data and generative technologies. Addressing recent market volatility with a "dynamism over dogmatism" philosophy, Savi highlights how these advanced tools are expanding systematic capabilities into illiquid private markets and enhancing portfolio resilience against unpredictable shocks. This evolution reflects a decade of growth where hybrid teams blend financial and hard science expertise to navigate complex environments, prioritizing long-term risk management and client outcomes over short-term alpha chasing.
- Goldman Sachs36 min
David Booth on being an index pioneer, working with Nobel laureates, & investing through uncertainty
Founded by David Booth in 1981, Dimensional Fund Advisors has grown to manage $680 billion by applying science-based strategies rooted in theories from Nobel laureates like Eugene Fama and Robert Merton. The firm distinguishes itself as the industry's largest active ETF issuer by prioritizing the management of uncertainty over market forecasting and lowering transaction costs through disciplined trading execution. Beyond its financial operations, Booth's governance integrates rigorous academic oversight, and his historic philanthropy has significantly elevated the University of Chicago Booth School of Business while preserving key historical artifacts like the original rules of basketball.
- Goldman Sachs41 min
A conversation with Renaissance Technologies CEO Peter Brown
Peter Brown pioneered early generative AI and the Deep Blue chess machine at IBM before co-founding Renaissance Technologies' dominant quantitative trading strategy, where he served as sole CEO following a 2009 succession. Under his technical leadership, the firm transformed its operations by replacing manual processes with rigorous engineering and automated systems, allowing it to navigate major financial crises like the 2007 Quant Quake and 2008 collapse while maintaining strict scientific discipline. Brown's career trajectory illustrates a consistent philosophy that complex market dynamics and human intuition can be effectively reduced to computation and data-driven models.
- Goldman Sachs24 min
Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO of Citadel
Kenneth Griffin emphasizes that lifelong learning and adaptive risk management are critical for surviving financial crises that evolve beyond the 2008 subprime model, citing specific structural vulnerabilities like the UK gilt crisis. He outlines Citadel's strategy of integrating quantitative and fundamental approaches while advocating for regulatory tweaks, such as reduced tick sizes, to democratize access without inflating retail costs. Looking toward the future, Griffin warns that generative AI will disrupt white-collar employment, necessitating a culture of continuous education and physical collaboration to maintain a competitive edge in a globalized market.
- Goldman Sachs24 min
Special Episode: The Rise of Retail Investing and Its Impact Across Market Participants
Raj Mahajan, John Marshall, Lizzie Reed, Greg Tuorto, Jake Seward
In early February 2021, a record-breaking surge in retail trading volume reached 24 billion shares as stimulus checks and zero-commission platforms drove participation to 25% of U.S. equity value. This shift toward speculative single-name stocks and options created significant volatility, forcing hedge funds to confront unprecedented short squeezes while compelling institutional investors to adapt risk models to account for coordinated retail activity. Despite these structural challenges, the heightened demand supported a historic $129 billion in global equity issuance, with Goldman Sachs projecting that retail sentiment will remain a critical determinant for future market performance and corporate capital raising.