Index Investing: Not Such a Passive Decision – Northern Trust – 10.21.24

Summary:

With the frequent and extreme volatility over the past decade, investors have witnessed a profound transformation in the investment landscape, challenging the resilience of popular indices. These dynamic shifts are having far-reaching implications on asset allocation and diversification strategies, bringing new risks into question around index investing.

We may be at a tipping point where a nonchalant approach to indexing might have worked in the past, but now we believe there is a greater need for more intention and precision to achieve desired outcomes.

This session will uncover hidden risk exposures in indexing, and how investors can effectively monitor their passive allocations.

Accepted for 1 CFP^® / IWI / CFA CE Credit

Speakers:

Michael Hunstad is Deputy Chief Investment Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Global Equities for Northern Trust Asset Management. Michael is a member of the Asset Management Executive Group and has oversight of all equity portfolio management, research and trading activities including quantitative, index and tax-advantaged strategies. Additionally, he assists with the development of investment vision, strategy portfolio construction and risk management framework for the firm’s broad investment platform.

Previously, Michael was Head of Quantitative Strategies where he was responsible for leading Northern Trust Asset Management’s factor based research, portfolio management and product development programs. Before joining Northern Trust, he was head of research at Breakwater Capital, an algorithmic trading firm and hedge fund. Prior to that role, he was head of quantitative asset allocation at Allstate Investments, LLC and a quantitative analyst with a long-short equity hedge fund.

Michael has also served as an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Michael holds a Ph.D. in mathematics, an MBA in finance, an M.A. in econometrics and a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Austin Guy is a Vice President and Senior Investment Specialist within Institutional Asset Management at Northern Trust. He is responsible for developing global solutions and insights for institutional investors. Austin has comprehensive experience of passive indexing as well as quantitative active and factor-based investing and research.

Prior to his current role, Austin was a Quantitative Equity and Fixed Income Strategist, where he was responsible for developing and delivering comprehensive investment solutions and insights across the spectrum of index, engineered, and active equity strategies. Prior to that role, Austin was a member of the Index Services team, where he focused on developing and managing quantitative index solutions. Prior to Northern Trust, Austin held previous roles including Team Leader of the US Mutual Fund Database at Morningstar and risk and operations analyst roles at The PrivateBank in Chicago.

Austin received a B.S. in Finance from the Marquette University and an M.S. in Finance, with honors, from Depaul University. Austin has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a member of the CFA Institute.