Expected Returns: An Investor's Guide to Harvesting Market Rewards

Foreword

The first time I met Antti Ilmanen I thought he was insane. I was right. But, I was to discover quickly he was insane in a good way. The incident in question was at a new Ph.D. student mixer, about as exciting as it sounds, where seconds after being introduced to Antti he asked me “who do you rate in the top-five academics in finance and why?” He had his own answers on a set of Post-it notes. By the way, Antti has become famous for these Post-it notes. Suffice it to say if he consults the Post-its, and says you said something 17 years ago that turned out to be disproved in the latest Journal of Finance paper, just assume he’s right and move on.

Getting back to my story, he couldn’t understand how I couldn’t name five. Truth be told I probably could have named maybe three academics in total, and as to justifying my choices with “why?”, I was stuck at zero. I had not chosen finance because, like Antti, I was already obsessed with it. I chose it as my dad, a lawyer, forbade me to go to law school, I had some mild ability at mathematics, I recognized that finance might be both intellectually interesting and provide a good living, and finally I chose a Ph.D. as being a professor seemed like a nice life (little did I know the Sirens of Wall Street would soon call me away . . .) Antti looked at me with a “what the heck are you doing in the Ph.D. program” confused stare, and I politely ran away from the very intense, very finance-obsessed young Finn. Now, 20+ years later, and ...