Michael Kao (@Urbankaoboy) joins Julia La Roche on episode 119 to discuss his macro outlook, why we haven’t seen a hard landing yet thanks to the “four horsemen of economic resilience,” and why he’s favoring shorter duration assets in this economic environment.
Mike has been in the investment business for 30 years and has experience analyzing and investing in many markets and asset classes, spanning commodities to credit to convertible/capital structure/event arbitrage to distressed debt/equity investing.
Mike began his career in the commodities unit at J. Aron/Goldman Sachs in NYC in the early 90’s and traded over 25 different commodity markets and their derivatives. Mike left Goldman to pursue an MBA in Finance at The Wharton School.
After business school, Mike joined Canyon Partners, a credit-oriented hedge fund in Los Angeles, where he went on to become partner and co-founder of the Canyon Arbitrage Fund, which focused on various strategies including convertible and capital structure arbitrage as well as event-driven/risk arbitrage.
After 5 years at Canyon, Mike decided to leave Canyon and begin his own investment firm, Akanthos Capital Management, LLC. At Akanthos, Mike ran an opportunistic, value-driven investment strategy that looked for “fulcrum securities” up and down the capital structure.
Mike stopped actively managing external capital in 2019 and now invests primarily for his family office and enjoys blogging about the markets and economy on Substack at urbankaoboy.substack.com and Twitter @UrbanKaoboy.
Mike holds a BS in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science from UC, Berkeley and an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Links:
https://www.urbankaoboy.com/
https://twitter.com/UrbanKaoboy
0:00 Welcome Michael Kao
0:51 Macro view / The Four Horsemen of economic resilience
7:43 Recessionary outlook in the “vodka-Red bull” economy
11:00 The dollar wrecking ball
15:30 The rest of the world ‘out-doving’ the Fed
19:23 Oil outlook
26:27 Portfolio construction, favoring shorter duration
33:00 Thinking about stocks and bonds
35:00 Exit strategies
41:16 Parting thoughts
#097 Peter Borish: My Concern Is More Than A Recession
#096 Michael Howell: It's Bonds, Not Banks, That Look Dangerous
#095 Carol Roth: You Will Own Nothing
#094 Todd Gordon: Why We're Not Headed Toward Recession
#093 Neil Howe: The Fourth Turning Is Here — How Will This Crisis End
#092 Milton Berg On Why There’s Strong Evidence The Market Won’t Do Well
#091 Peter Atwater On The Troubling Disconnect Between Main Street & Wall Street
#090 Jens Nordvig On How AI Is Changing Investing Forever
#089 Jim Bianco On Why Inflation Will Be Problematic And There Won't Be A Fed Pivot
#088 Dr. Ed Altman: We’ve Reached An Inflection Point In The Credit Cycle
#087 Jason Trennert: If You're Playing The Odds Expect A Recession In The Next 6-12 Months
#086 The Acid Capitalist Hugh Hendry On The Economy: 'I'm Fearful'
#085 Kyle Bass On China: 'We Sit At A Hinge In History Right Now'
#084 Michael Green On Passive Investing Creating Distortions In The Market Right Now
#083 Nassim Taleb And Scott Patterson On Black Swans And Chaos Kings
#082 David Hunter On Melt Up In Stocks, Global Bust, And Gold $20,000 Forecast
#081 Professor Steve Hanke Sees Decline In Inflation, Recession On The Way
#080 Nick Glinsman: Investors Beware China
#079 Brent Johnson, Creator Of ‘The Dollar Milkshake Theory,’ Explains Why We’re Heading Toward A Sovereign Debt And Currency Crisis
#078 Guy Spier On How Lunch With Warren Buffett Changed His Life
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