From Lake Tahoe, Zephyr market strategist Ryan Nauman hosts Zephyr’s Adjusted for Risk Podcast with Aapryl's Bill Himpele and Cesar Gonzales to discuss why allocators should move beyond backward-looking performance reporting toward skill-based analytics. They explain that much apparent outperformance is driven by cyclical market and style exposures rather than repeatable manager skill, and describe Aapryl’s peer-relative methodology, including style-adjusted “passive portfolio” clones that separate exposure from skill and break skill into stock selection, timing, and consistency. The episode highlights Aapryl metrics such as the Aapryl Score (rank 1–5) and expected alpha, supported by ongoing quarterly testing and machine learning to form a forward-looking view. They also cover the Zephyr–Aapryl partnership embedding Aapryl analytics in the Zephyr dashboard, including coverage of SMA managers via Zephyr’s PSN database, to improve diligence, communication, transparency, and decision accountability.
Learn more about Zephyr and investment risk management here.
Learn more about Aapryl here.
00:00 Welcome to the Podcast
01:15 Meet Bill and Cesar
03:46 Why Skill Beats Performance
07:30 Advisor and Allocator Impact
09:31 Aapryl Score and Expected Alpha
11:51 Peer Groups and Return Based Analysis
15:09 Zephyr Aapryl Partnership
20:26 Who Benefits and SMA Coverage
24:48 Transparency and Evidence Based Testing
27:57 Wrap Up and Where to Learn More
Connect with Ryan Nauman:
Let's go.
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Ryan: Hello everyone and welcome to
zephyr's adjusted for Risk Podcast
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from the shores of Lake Tahoe.
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I'm Ryan Amman, the market
strategist here at Zephyr.
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Like so many other aspects within the
wealth management space, the different
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ways allocators and wealth managers
can analyze investment strategies.
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managers has evolved.
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One can look at the underlining
holdings or focus on return streams
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to uncover performance behavior.
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Well, I am lucky to have on two
industry experts who can help
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us understand the different
approaches and what they believe.
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Might be the more superior approach.
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But first, today's episode is sponsored
by the award-winning Zephyr, which
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helps investment professionals
make more informed investment
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decisions on behalf flare clients.
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Alright, I've already talked enough.
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Let's go ahead and move on
to the stars of the show.
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I am honored.
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I'm very excited to welcome Bill
Hemley and she Cesar Gonzalez.
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Bill is the Director of Product
and account Management, and Cesar
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is the lead client consultant.
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At April, both of them
from April, and Cesar.
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Thank you so much for coming on.
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Really, it's an honor to have you on.
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I've known you guys for some time, Cesar.
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We've worked together in the past
and some content in the past.
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It's gonna be a great conversation.
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Really excited about it.
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You know, Kim you please tell us a
little bit more about yourself in April.
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Let's go ahead and start with you, bill.
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Bill Himpele: So thank you very
much, Ryan, for having us on today.
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We're, we're certainly excited and
proud to, to, to speak with you here.
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So I am the Director of
Product management in April.
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I've been in the industry for
about 20 years in, in with
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investment management technology.
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And I lead the product strategy for our
April platform and the April platform
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Decomposes manager performance to
try to find repeatable skills like
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stock selection or factor timing.
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Using peer, relative attribution
trying to help allocators see,
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you know, beyond just the raw
returns to try to identify a skill.
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Ryan: Fantastic.
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Cesar Gonzales: I'm Cesar Gonzalez.
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I've been in the industry for 35 years
as an allocator, as a manager researcher.
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So the perspective that I provide as
we talk to Zephyr user is how can you
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use it from a, allocation perspective,
how do you use it to tell your
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prospective clients how to use you?
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So I work closely with clients, our
consultants as a managers who are
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trying to explain their performance in
a way that is credible and actionable.
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You know, what we see consistently is the
traditional tools tells you what happened,
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but not why it happened in a way that
you can really rely on going forward.
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So.
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April fills that gap by helping clients
isolate through skill, communicate it
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clearly, whether that's in a manager
selection, client reporting, or due
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diligence efforts, nice to see you again.
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Ryan.
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Ryan: That's fantastic, Cesar
and Bill, thank you for that.
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And Cesar, real quickly, I am glad you.
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You brought that up about, know,
just the behavior and you know,
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the manager, what the Yeah.
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How they're doing it
and, and the scale too.
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How are they outperforming,
I think it's very important.
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And why do you think it's important
to move from more of the performance?
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reporting to skill-based
analytics when explaining a
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manager's performance behavior.
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What's the difference between the two?
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The, the performance only reporting
or in the skill-based analytics?
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Cesar Gonzales: Ryan,
that's a good question.
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So when we look at performance
only reporting, that only
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tells you the outcome.
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So it's backward looking.
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It doesn't tell you what caused them.
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The problem is that most outperformance
is actually driven by market and
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style exposure, not manager skill.
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And those exposure are cyclical in nature.
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So what looks like a top manager
in one period often doesn't
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persist in the next period.
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So using skill-based analysis
changes that by asking a different
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question, did the manager do beyond
the exposure they were taking?
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So that as an allocator.
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will pay the the alpha fee,
not for a beta exposure.
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Ryan: Bill, do you have
anything to add there too?
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Bill Himpele: Yeah, that's exactly right.
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That's exactly right.
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We found that a lot of the traditional
metrics are not very persistent.
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Um, in, in some cases they're,
you know, they say the, the best
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way to find a five star manager
in 36 months is to look for a.
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Three star manager today.
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Um, and so that's, that's why we're
looking to, to, to sort of move
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towards the skill-based metrics rather
than just that, that raw performance
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or identifying what happened.
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We want to try to find what will happen.
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Ryan: I love that.
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And Cesar, you mentioned it before too,
I always talk about, you know, it's
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easy to ask, you know, like how, but
it's why, you brought it up before too.
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I, I always, I always have questions.
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And it's always around the why.
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Why did something happen?
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Why did you do that?
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Or a lot of people ask me, Ron,
why in the world did you do that?
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I don't know most of the time
why I did something, but like,
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why did the manager outperform?
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Sure they outperformed,
that's great, but why?
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And is that outperformance consistent?
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Are they gonna be able to do it again?
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And I think it's the why part of it.
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You brought it up perfectly and
and that's the most important part.
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In the
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Cesar Gonzales: So.
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. If you, if you think of it, you know,
the challenge really is everyone's used
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to looking at the traditional alpha or
peer ranking, and they don't tend to
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be persistent you know, a, a measure
of whether the manager has success.
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So you end up selecting managers
based on what just work.
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Not what likely to work because all the,
you know, the information ratio, all those
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traditional metrics are backward looking.
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Now when you look at skill-based anana
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it shifts the conversation from
who outperformed to who has
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repeatedly you know, have that
process that lead to outperformance.
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So, for example, you know.
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If you identify a good manager, that
would lead to better manager selection,
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better portfolio construction, and,
and ultimately fewer surprises when
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the market condition changes because
now you are trying to find the best
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manager or the one that has a higher
probability of outperforming for
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a particular role in the portfolio
instead of just hiring a manager.
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And expecting them to perform in all
types of markets, all types of styles.
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The April Analytics allows you to go
more refined in evaluating whether
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that meander has skill or not.
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Ryan: Bill, so let's, turn the page here.
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Why does the shift to skills-based
analytics matter to, like you guys said,
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like to advisors and allocators, the
people that are making the decisions
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on what managers to use, and said,
we're so used to looking all of our
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analytics for the most part that we're
accustomed to, whether it's information
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ratio alpha, it's backwards looking.
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Why is this shift important
to advisors and allocators?
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Bill Himpele: I think it's important
because we need to, to sort of find
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out, like Cesar just said, you know,
who has the best process, who, you
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know, when the market conditions
change, uh, and, and a manager who
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was in favor is no longer in favor.
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You still need that, that exposure
for, for that type of style.
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So you still want to have a manager
that may not be in favor, but you need
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the manager who's gonna outperform
the other managers of that style.
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So we need to find managers.
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Who are going to outperform their peers.
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And so the skill is, or the, the,
the task is to find the managers
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with the best skill, regardless
of the market conditions.
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So I think that's sort of the reason
why we, why we are, are shifting
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the look to the skill as opposed
to just those, you know, who's
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outperforms their, their benchmark.
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Ryan: Yeah.
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Cesar Gonzales: and we start that
really by fixing the benchmark problem.
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Instead of comparing a manager
to a generic index, we build
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that style adjusted clone,
which we call passive portfolio.
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That reflects the manager actual.
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Investments that leads us to isolate
what portion of the return came from
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exposure versus what came from skill.
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And from there we can break
skill into three components.
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You know, stock selection, their
timing, their consistency, and and
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that would allow us to really test
which of those persist over time.
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And in the end, we derive a forward
looking view on the manager skill, not
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just a description of past performance.
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Ryan: Perfect.
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And that's a perfect segue.
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Cesar is, you know, how does April address
this shift to skill-based analytics?
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You talked or you mentioned, like I said.
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You know, information ratio, it's a
great statistic, measures consistency
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and are you outperforming, are you you
know, offsetting that fee the manager's
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charging, but also there's other
statistics that are backwards looking.
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there certain statistics that you use
that might be more forward looking or
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are they more, like you said, based
on skill and other just analytics that
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you look and the returns that might
help you forward looking analytics?
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Cesar Gonzales: Yeah.
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So one of the key metrics we have is
the April score, which is rank one to
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five, one being the best, meaning that
three years forward, we're predicting
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that this particular manager relative to
their peer group, has a higher likelihood
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of outperforming, is a aggregation of
different skill metrics where we look at
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each individual category, and depending on
the category, it'll favor as a indicator.
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Either it's a consistency metrics,
which is a, a modified batting average,
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or it could be the edge, which is you
know, the magnitude of outperformance.
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And depending on what.
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It's showing us what's triggering
managers, know, three years
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forward is what that measure
will try to em to emphasize.
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And there's machine learning behind it.
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So what will happen now as an alligator
is you, at the at the manager, you
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look at their April score and then
you say, okay, I made a beta bet and
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I wanna be in this particular segment.
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Should I waste my time in
evaluating, interviewing meanders
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that are below three, or should
I focus my energy on those that
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have a score of 1, 2, 1, or two?
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So it becomes an efficiency tool as at
same time it allows you to more refine
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and compare the managers relative to
the o other options that you have.
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Ryan: Bill, do you have
anything to add there?
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I think it's very important to do, like,
you know, that peer comparison, right?
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Because a standalone.
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or four or five, yes, it means
something, but it means so much more
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when you're comparing it to its peers.
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Bill Himpele: Yeah, and that's
foundational to the April methodology.
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Everything is, is
essentially peer relative.
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Because you know, we, you know,
you typically have already made a
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decision on the type of manager that
you're looking to allocate towards.
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So what matters now is, okay, which
manager does better than their peers?
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Um, and so everything, all of our
metrics, all of our skill rankings.
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And ratings are all very much
relative to a peer group.
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And we have a, a much more
objective peer group too.
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You know, we don't just take,
you know, our data feed and say,
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okay, this manager has assigned
themselves into peer group A or B.
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Um, we actually objectively we'll reassign
managers to a peer group if we feel that
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their actual performance dictates that.
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So it's a little bit more objective than
just the standard peer group as well.
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Ryan: And you.
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Cesar Gonzales: And.
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Ryan: Yeah, go ahead, Cesar.
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Cesar Gonzales: The other
data that's unique to April
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is the April expected alpha.
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So using kind of all the backward
looking, you're just stating what's the
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excess return analyst, excess return
of this manager from a, you know, a
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period of time we're projecting what
we believe this manager can produce.
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As an alpha going forward.
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So that's kind of connected
to the April score.
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There's a a given April expected
alpha, and this is helpful for managers
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or, or allocators because if the
expected alpha from a manager or for
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the entire group is very minimal.
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Maybe that's, when you say, for this
particular category, I index them.
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But if there's a lot of alpha
opportunities, when you say, okay,
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let me find the best active manager
that would fit what we're looking
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for from a risk return profile.
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Ryan: Yeah, that's great.
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And to go back to Bill, your
universe that you guys create,
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it's return based on return.
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Zephyr does the same thing.
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It's all, you know, it's built on
returns based style analysis to look at
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a manager's behavior versus the holdings.
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I think, especially right now in the
industry where, you know, there's
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a lot of large growth managers
that also produce a dividend sure.
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Valuation metrics.
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They might be on the growth side, but they
sometimes act like a value manager too,
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because of the dividends they produce too.
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So.
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I prefer the returns base
more so than holdings.
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And Holdings is, sorry, how many
mutual funds give you all the holdings?
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Right, right.
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So,
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Bill Himpele: That's exactly right.
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And the, and the data's very,
because the data's very hard to
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get and it's very time consuming.
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Um, what's great about April and what's
great about returns based is that you can
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very quickly you know, pull up a manager
and almost immediately get some insights,
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Ryan: Yeah, versus trying to figure
out exactly what the hold, you know,
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Bill Himpele: right.
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Ryan: are and that's what's great about
separately managed accounts even ETFs
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or is that more, more transparency.
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So maybe holdings space is a little bit
more efficient there, but in terms of
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mutual funds, returns based is, so much
more efficient, like you said, timely.
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So speaking of that, and Zephyr and
April the two firms recently made
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news about a strategic partnership.
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Bill, can you please tell us a little
bit more about that partnership?
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Bill Himpele: We're
really excited about this.
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Um, so I guess it was early January,
um, we began to embed some of our
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analytics into the Zephyr dashboard.
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And that's an overall strategy
that we have is to take April.
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Obviously we have our standalone
April platform you know, which is
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a, a subscription-based, web-based
platform, but, uh, our strategy
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as of late has really been to
meet the users where they are.
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Right?
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Where is the research being done?
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It's being done in Zephyr, right?
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So let's, let's take
our analytics and, um.
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And embed them where the
advisors and allocators are doing
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their, their manager analysis.
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And so what we've done is we've taken
our skill metrics some of the ones
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that Cesar had mentioned, and uh,
you can go into the Zephyr dashboard
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now and pull up a manager and see
what type of skill ratings they have.
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And it helps to compliment with the,
the, the research that's already being
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done, the performance analytics that
that users are already seeing in Zephyr.
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Now this is sort of another layer
that they can put on top of that.
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Um, you know, and, and our
goal is not to necessarily
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replace tools out there, right?
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I mean, I.
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As we all know, the, the world of FinTech
is very deep rooted and it's very hard
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to, to, you know, it's very hard to get
into the game of saying, Hey, stop using
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this product and start using this one.
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And so our goal is to, like I said,
meet users where they are embed our, our
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analysis and other tools where they are,
they're in Bloomberg, they're using fin
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searches, they're obviously in Zephyr.
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And so that's why these partnerships
for us make a lot of sense to, uh, to
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help add that layer on top of just, you
know, the traditional metrics as well.
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So yeah, we're really, really excited
about the partnership with Zephyr.
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And we've had a lot of interest and,
and a lot of, you know, users really,
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really benefiting from this as well.
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Ryan: Cesar, did you have
anything to add there?
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Cesar Gonzales: Nope.
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I think he explained it
well, and, and, and we.
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You know, we've worked with a lot
of managers and you know, many of
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them are long-term users of Zephyr.
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I am one of them too.
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Early user.
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It's, it's a good compliment to what
you already have clients wants to
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go deeper and do a more precise due
diligence on a product or a manager.
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Ryan: Yeah, that's exactly right.
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And I was gonna bring that up.
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Caesar, you, you stole the words from me.
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It, it's a great compliment and I
often tell people in the research
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and content that you want a full
story of that investment manager,
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that strategy, that product, and.
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Yes, looking at the back we're, you
know, doing a back test, looking
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at Alpha, how it's performed during
different time periods, rolling returns.
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Yes.
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That gives you a good, good story
around that performance and you
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know, the behavior of a manager.
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But now with April, we
are also very excited.
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Well, because it just adds
another layer to that story.
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help you understand, the performance and
the behavior of a manager and forward
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looking, because at the end of the
day, guys, what's most important is the
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fin, the end client, the end investor
meeting, their investment objectives.
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And we often say we help
investment professionals make more
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informed investment decisions.
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Well, this just helps them.
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Make more informed investment
decisions and we're excited about it.
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I know, I'm really excited.
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I use it all the time to just kind of
get a better understanding of, of a
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manager moving forward in the forward
looking because we're always trying to
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figure out that forward looking piece.
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So good stuff.
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Bill Himpele: and on top of that, you
know, we, we've really been focusing a lot
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on the allocators and doing the research
on managers for manager selection, but
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managers themselves are also finding
this to be pretty helpful as well.
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Um, whether it be for a marketing,
you know, as a marketing tool.
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But also as a check on themselves
from a style perspective to see are
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they doing what they're, what they
say that they're doing, and how do
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they compare versus their peers.
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Ryan: Yeah.
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00:19:17,758 --> 00:19:21,568
I think that's very important is
you said it Bill, are they doing
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what they're supposed to be doing?
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They've got
333
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Bill Himpele: Exactly.
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Ryan: out there.
335
00:19:24,778 --> 00:19:28,438
The investment objectives, are they
really following that investment
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objective or is that behavior.
337
00:19:32,503 --> 00:19:34,903
More like a growth fund
instead of a value fund.
338
00:19:35,042 --> 00:19:35,392
Bill Himpele: Right.
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00:19:35,773 --> 00:19:36,673
Ryan: Very important.
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Cesar Gonzales: it really allows for
a more transparent and more credible
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conversation on both sides and in,
in our own personal experience.
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It reduces the amount of time
you have to to a client what
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happened to your performance.
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00:19:53,768 --> 00:20:00,068
So that's where April is helpful,
whereas, you know, the traditional
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00:20:00,068 --> 00:20:06,758
measure to say what happened here,
you're actually guiding them on how to
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evaluate and how to set up expectations,
you know, using the April insights.
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00:20:13,828 --> 00:20:16,558
Ryan: Yeah, expectations are
very important right now.
348
00:20:17,848 --> 00:20:19,768
So, and you talked about transparency.
349
00:20:19,768 --> 00:20:23,788
We're gonna talk about transparency
shortly, Cesar, but real quickly, let's
350
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go back to the allocators and managers.
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How does this partnership with Zephyr
and April help allocators and managers?
352
00:20:32,518 --> 00:20:36,178
You guys kind of touched on it, let's
go a little bit deeper and, you know,
353
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how does it, how does it help them?
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00:20:39,598 --> 00:20:42,658
Cesar Gonzales: So for allocators,
it really makes their D diligence
355
00:20:42,658 --> 00:20:44,758
more precise and more efficient.
356
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can quickly identify which managers are
benefiting from pure exposure versus
357
00:20:51,718 --> 00:20:53,548
really demonstrating real skills.
358
00:20:53,938 --> 00:20:57,838
And then for the managers, it helps
them change the communication of
359
00:20:57,838 --> 00:21:01,858
their performance in instead of,
you know, relying on relative
360
00:21:01,858 --> 00:21:04,828
performance, they can now exactly say.
361
00:21:05,068 --> 00:21:08,188
Where their value is coming
from or not coming from.
362
00:21:08,578 --> 00:21:13,918
And then whether it's stock selection,
timing, or consistency it provides
363
00:21:13,918 --> 00:21:20,908
a more refined answer to what
happened and what the client should
364
00:21:20,908 --> 00:21:22,888
expect from this particular manager.
365
00:21:22,888 --> 00:21:28,018
And as I said earlier, it allows for that
transparency and then it gives the manager
366
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credibility instead of being viewed as.
367
00:21:31,188 --> 00:21:34,218
You know, you're making excuse
again because you're a value
368
00:21:34,218 --> 00:21:35,718
manager and it's a growth market.
369
00:21:35,718 --> 00:21:37,068
That's why you underperform.
370
00:21:37,398 --> 00:21:43,338
The insight from April allows you to
communicate what really is happening with
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00:21:43,338 --> 00:21:47,178
your portfolio, and at the same time,
what's happening in your peer group,
372
00:21:47,178 --> 00:21:51,148
because it could be the entire peer
group is having a, a challenging market.
373
00:21:51,148 --> 00:21:53,008
Like what happened last year.
374
00:21:53,723 --> 00:21:55,253
Quality growth managers.
375
00:21:55,463 --> 00:22:01,673
So that insight allows allocators
not to make a knee-jerk reaction of
376
00:22:01,793 --> 00:22:07,193
terminating that manager, but then pause
and, and understand is there something
377
00:22:07,193 --> 00:22:12,713
changing within the environment, the
market environment, that just be pulling
378
00:22:12,713 --> 00:22:17,038
the trigger and terminate a manager
without doing additional research.
379
00:22:18,828 --> 00:22:21,988
Ryan: Yeah, and, and it goes back
to, you know what Bill was saying,
380
00:22:22,348 --> 00:22:23,823
the universe as the peer groups.
381
00:22:24,888 --> 00:22:30,018
How important that is because you
don't want it a, you know, apples to
382
00:22:30,442 --> 00:22:30,792
Bill Himpele: Right.
383
00:22:31,068 --> 00:22:32,418
Ryan: comparison, right?
384
00:22:32,418 --> 00:22:35,418
You wanna make sure you're
comparing the same manager to like
385
00:22:35,418 --> 00:22:39,918
managers, otherwise your analysis
will get all thrown outta whack.
386
00:22:40,938 --> 00:22:46,263
Bill, you know, a lot of times, and it's
evolved now, changed a little bit, but.
387
00:22:47,238 --> 00:22:52,038
When people think of, you know,
investment performance and managers,
388
00:22:52,038 --> 00:22:56,658
we often, we use managers here at
Zephyr, kind of as a generic term.
389
00:22:56,658 --> 00:22:57,168
It covers
390
00:22:57,462 --> 00:22:57,672
Bill Himpele: Yeah.
391
00:22:57,828 --> 00:23:00,768
Ryan: ETFs, hedge funds,
any type of manager.
392
00:23:00,768 --> 00:23:04,308
A lot of times we just
think of mutual funds.
393
00:23:04,518 --> 00:23:08,088
But does April also cover SMA managers?
394
00:23:08,088 --> 00:23:12,078
You know, Zeffer has a PSN separately
managed account database, which
395
00:23:12,078 --> 00:23:14,088
is, you know, 40 years old and.
396
00:23:14,928 --> 00:23:18,678
And one of the best data SMA
databases in the industry in
397
00:23:18,678 --> 00:23:21,438
terms of data, quality of data.
398
00:23:21,528 --> 00:23:24,888
Does April analysis
cover SMA managers too?
399
00:23:25,917 --> 00:23:26,397
Bill Himpele: Absolutely.
400
00:23:26,397 --> 00:23:29,457
And that's, that's probably one of the
strengths of, of the partnership of this
401
00:23:29,457 --> 00:23:33,997
integration is that we're actually using
the PSN database for our separately
402
00:23:33,997 --> 00:23:36,547
managed account in, for, you know,
we, and we've had that partnership.
403
00:23:36,847 --> 00:23:37,417
Um.
404
00:23:37,782 --> 00:23:40,932
As a, as a data provider, probably for
about eight, eight or nine years now.
405
00:23:41,292 --> 00:23:44,142
Um, and so that, as I said, that
is, that is one of the great parts
406
00:23:44,142 --> 00:23:47,862
about this relationship is that
we're layering our our analytics
407
00:23:47,862 --> 00:23:51,132
right on top of the SMA database
that already exists within Zephyr.
408
00:23:51,822 --> 00:23:54,642
So in addition to the ETFs and Mutual.
409
00:23:55,423 --> 00:23:59,773
Ryan: Yeah, and you know, like I
said, separately managed accounts.
410
00:23:59,773 --> 00:24:02,143
What's great about 'em,
we're gonna talk about Cesar.
411
00:24:02,143 --> 00:24:03,973
I'm gonna ask about transparency.
412
00:24:03,973 --> 00:24:08,863
Brought it up a few times, but the
industry now, especially younger
413
00:24:08,863 --> 00:24:12,583
generation of investors, they want
transparency in their investments.
414
00:24:12,583 --> 00:24:14,773
They want to know exactly
what they're holding.
415
00:24:14,983 --> 00:24:16,303
Mutual funds are hard.
416
00:24:16,333 --> 00:24:20,803
ETFs are making it easier and
are more transparent, but really
417
00:24:20,863 --> 00:24:23,234
nothing more transparent than A SMA.
418
00:24:23,698 --> 00:24:26,368
You know, you're holding
each individual name.
419
00:24:26,368 --> 00:24:31,468
So we're seeing a lot of popularity
or growth in because of the
420
00:24:31,468 --> 00:24:33,478
transparency that it offers.
421
00:24:33,808 --> 00:24:37,708
It's one things that we're talking about
with returns based style analysis is
422
00:24:38,518 --> 00:24:42,448
maybe you don't need the transparency,
but you have the transparency of holdings.
423
00:24:42,753 --> 00:24:47,598
The UpToDate returns makes that
analysis much more comprehensive.
424
00:24:47,868 --> 00:24:48,258
So.
425
00:24:48,663 --> 00:24:52,743
Cesar, the increased transparency
investment management in the
426
00:24:52,833 --> 00:24:55,803
evidence-based evaluation
of active management.
427
00:24:55,803 --> 00:25:02,763
How is April addressing this shift to
transparency and evidence-based evolution
428
00:25:02,763 --> 00:25:05,183
of or evaluation of active management?
429
00:25:06,303 --> 00:25:06,693
Cesar Gonzales: Sure.
430
00:25:06,693 --> 00:25:10,773
So the industry is moving towards
more evidence-based decision making.
431
00:25:11,163 --> 00:25:16,473
As you know, given the changes in, in
the staffing, the type of skills they
432
00:25:16,473 --> 00:25:21,563
have, you're seeing more and more quant
managing and leading pension plans.
433
00:25:21,828 --> 00:25:26,693
But most of those tool that are currently
being used still relies on metrics.
434
00:25:27,488 --> 00:25:29,348
Metrics that are not predictive.
435
00:25:29,908 --> 00:25:35,008
So now they're are more open to look
at different ways, like an April
436
00:25:35,008 --> 00:25:41,218
methodology and really understanding,
you know, is this a good forward
437
00:25:41,218 --> 00:25:49,708
looking and, and is this that we can
rely on from an efficacy standpoint?
438
00:25:50,008 --> 00:25:53,428
So what we do is we test
our skill metrics, you know.
439
00:25:54,468 --> 00:26:00,298
On a quarterly basis, making sure
that we include the entire universe
440
00:26:00,538 --> 00:26:04,438
of meanders that have reported and
show that manders with stronger
441
00:26:04,498 --> 00:26:09,298
skill signals are more likely to
outperform over the next three years.
442
00:26:09,928 --> 00:26:14,938
It's easy to say that, but if you
provide the proof that this is
443
00:26:14,938 --> 00:26:19,678
something that's getting tested every
quarter, not just based on a back
444
00:26:19,678 --> 00:26:27,128
test, the confidence level of the,
the new type of investors increases.
445
00:26:27,428 --> 00:26:32,768
And, and we, we, we start seeing this,
you know, public plans are incorporating
446
00:26:32,798 --> 00:26:35,288
April as part of their investment process.
447
00:26:35,618 --> 00:26:40,508
So they're relying on the
insights that April is providing
448
00:26:40,748 --> 00:26:42,398
to construct their portfolio.
449
00:26:42,718 --> 00:26:47,698
And this allows them to really look
at being transparent with the manager,
450
00:26:47,698 --> 00:26:51,378
improving the quality of their decisions.
451
00:26:51,528 --> 00:26:53,098
And at the same time you know.
452
00:26:54,513 --> 00:26:58,083
Getting themselves accountable
for the decisions that they made.
453
00:26:58,533 --> 00:27:02,553
'cause with April, if you rely
on the April score, you can
454
00:27:02,553 --> 00:27:03,963
test it three years later.
455
00:27:04,413 --> 00:27:06,843
Did I, did I make the right decision?
456
00:27:06,903 --> 00:27:09,573
And is the system really predictable?
457
00:27:11,688 --> 00:27:12,528
Ryan: Predictable.
458
00:27:12,948 --> 00:27:15,078
It's very, very important there.
459
00:27:15,078 --> 00:27:16,938
Sees our inconsistency, right?
460
00:27:16,938 --> 00:27:20,778
We often talk about that and talk
a lot about this on the podcast.
461
00:27:21,348 --> 00:27:27,258
You know, being able to sleep at night and
you know, I feel as if this combination,
462
00:27:27,258 --> 00:27:29,208
this partnership between Zephyr.
463
00:27:30,453 --> 00:27:32,463
like we said, they compliment each other.
464
00:27:32,883 --> 00:27:39,003
Get you that full story regarding
a portfolio manager, a strategy,
465
00:27:39,123 --> 00:27:43,143
so you can sleep better at night
because it might be more show, more
466
00:27:43,143 --> 00:27:47,133
consistent performance, out performance
and exactly what they're doing.
467
00:27:47,133 --> 00:27:49,228
Bill, anything that to add at the end?
468
00:27:50,622 --> 00:27:52,662
Bill Himpele: I think that, I
think Cesar really nailed that.
469
00:27:52,662 --> 00:27:55,842
And that's, that's very much our
strategy and our, our perspective.
470
00:27:57,648 --> 00:28:00,288
Ryan: Awesome gentlemen,
great conversation.
471
00:28:00,288 --> 00:28:00,408
I
472
00:28:00,672 --> 00:28:00,912
Bill Himpele: Yeah.
473
00:28:01,098 --> 00:28:05,598
Ryan: about the analytics and you
know, the, the analytics behind the
474
00:28:05,598 --> 00:28:10,543
performance and telling that story of
a, of a portfolio manager of a strategy.
475
00:28:10,788 --> 00:28:14,718
I think it's really important and
trying to understand that story.
476
00:28:14,748 --> 00:28:18,078
It's not just about
returns over a five year.
477
00:28:18,453 --> 00:28:22,863
10 year time period that just
tells you one piece of the pie.
478
00:28:23,133 --> 00:28:26,553
Gotta dissect that performance and
understanding that that's what we're
479
00:28:26,553 --> 00:28:28,623
doing here at Zephyr and April.
480
00:28:28,893 --> 00:28:32,673
Thank you so much, bill and
Cesar for coming on the show.
481
00:28:32,673 --> 00:28:33,723
It's an honor.
482
00:28:33,783 --> 00:28:35,253
Very fun conversation.
483
00:28:35,643 --> 00:28:38,733
Bill, where can our audience get
more information about April?
484
00:28:39,592 --> 00:28:42,382
Bill Himpele: You can, you can
either go to our website april.com
485
00:28:42,382 --> 00:28:44,422
and it's spelled A-A-P-R-Y-L.
486
00:28:44,422 --> 00:28:45,412
A little, little different.
487
00:28:45,602 --> 00:28:48,092
You can reach out to [email protected]
488
00:28:48,302 --> 00:28:51,242
or you can come and visit us at
the AMZ conference down in Naples.
489
00:28:51,242 --> 00:28:52,412
We'll be there sponsoring.
490
00:28:52,412 --> 00:28:53,432
So come say hi.
491
00:28:53,802 --> 00:28:56,712
But yeah, we'd love, or obviously
you can go to the Zephyr dashboard
492
00:28:56,712 --> 00:28:57,822
as well and find us there.
493
00:28:59,108 --> 00:28:59,948
Ryan: Fantastic.
494
00:29:00,428 --> 00:29:03,548
All right gentlemen, thank you
so much and thank you everyone
495
00:29:03,548 --> 00:29:07,808
for listening to this episode is
Zephyr's adjusted for Risk podcast.
496
00:29:07,838 --> 00:29:12,788
You can watch all of our other episodes
on the Zephyr YouTube channel and Spotify.
497
00:29:12,788 --> 00:29:15,488
Please be sure to like and
subscribe to those channels
498
00:29:15,488 --> 00:29:16,958
and give us follow on LinkedIn.
499
00:29:17,198 --> 00:29:19,658
Thank you very much and have
a great rest of your week.
500
00:29:20,388 --> 00:29:21,588
Cesar Gonzales: Okay, you take care.