Prem Chowdhry

Incredible day at Goldman Sachs, gaining insights into valuation methodologies and the ever-evolving landscape of deal-making. Catherine shared how post-GFC government recapitalisation and distressed asset sales created opportunities in illiquid credit. She underscored the importance of mastering risk pricing, highlighting the industry's relentless demand for an insatiable appetite to learn, tenacity, and resilience. Christian explored GE’s strategic sale of its Irish aircraft business, a transaction structured through a blend of debt and equity, demonstrating how financial engineering facilitates large-scale mergers. Tiffany, Jess and Kat stressed the significance of staying ahead of recent deals, macroeconomic shifts, and regulatory changes. Strategic advantages stem from understanding valuation techniques, credit ratios, capital structures, and financing, core competencies essential for navigating transactions effectively. Stephen and Alessia delved into the relationship between banks and businesses. Companies merge to achieve cost and revenue synergies, expand market share, integrate vertically or horizontally, or enhance EPS (e.g., Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard). Conversely, firms sell due to a lack of scale, financial distress, regulatory hurdles, or shareholder pressure (e.g., Facebook acquiring Instagram). At the heart of every deal lies price, showcased by the AmplifyME simulation. The State of M&A: - Market confidence is shaped by uncertainty and fear. In 2021, global M&A volume reached $6.1 trillion, yet activity has since plateaued. - Dry powder remains, but rising interest rates and inflation have pushed up the cost of capital, making leveraged acquisitions more expensive. - Higher risk-free rates drive up equity costs, directly impacting deal structures. Valuation Methods: - Market-based: Market cap & enterprise value (EV = equity + debt - cash). - Absolute valuation: a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. - Multiples & trading comps: Benchmarking industry peers via EV/EBITDA and EV/Revenue multiples. "Banking is an extreme sport, where mind, body, and spirit must be at their peak. The lessons from today help form the building blocks of the future.” Great connecting with Bruck, Cameron, Ty, Daniel, Tanaka, Fareed, George, Adrian, Bailey, Ali, Leonard, Adefemi, Owensugie, Tosh and Harry for an insightful day of discussions. #GoldmanSachs #InvestmentBanking #MergersAndAcquisitions #Valuation #Finance #AmplifyMe #Networking

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30 billion messages a day. 60TB of data. And one UI design flaw that cost $141 million. I’ve written a technical breakdown of Citibank’s FICC trading operations—specifically how their event-driven architecture handles global FX flow, and where the machine broke down during the 2022 "Flash Crash." For the practitioners (Quants, Traders, and Developers), here is what the article deconstructs: 🏗️ The Architecture: How CitiFX Cross utilizes Solace’s event mesh to internalize flow across 12 hubs and 31 hardware brokers, achieving sub-millisecond latency for local flows. ⚙️ The Execution Logic: A look at proprietary algos like 'Ripple' (internalization-focused) and 'Arrival' (implementation shortfall) that drive their $3.6B quarterly FICC revenue. ⚠️ The Control Failure: A precise analysis of the May 2022 Delta One error. We look at how a trader accidentally input $444 billion (instead of $58 million) due to a specific UI layout issue, and why the "soft-block" warnings failed to stop the cascade. This piece isn't just about revenue; it’s a case study on why execution infrastructure and interface design are now as critical to P&L as the alpha model itself. Citi Read the full deep dive here: https://lnkd.in/gmAgieye #QuantitativeFinance #ElectronicTrading #MarketMicrostructure #RiskManagement #AlgorithmicTrading #FinTech #SystematicTrading #HedgeFunds #PortfolioManagement #Finance #Investing

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Point72's 19% 2024 return isn't luck—it's organizational design solving a math problem. Most quants optimize signals. Point72 optimized the portfolio construction layer itself: 190+ independent pods, each running 6-12% gross per name, factor-paired to isolate alpha from systematic risk. The edge? Portfolio Sharpe amplification through low-correlation aggregation. If 10 pods each deliver Sharpe 1.5 with 0.2 avg correlation: Portfolio Sharpe ≈ 1.5 × √(10/(1+9×0.2)) ≈ 2.9 (Illustrative framework—actual portfolio Sharpe depends on additional factors) Apply 2-3x leverage → consistent 15-20% targets at institutional scale ($41.5B AUM). 📊 What actually matters: → Cubist (45% allocation): 500+ employees running discrete PM teams + centralized research infra. Recent hires from Tower, WorldQuant, Pattern Research. → Risk architecture: Dynamic capital reallocation on rolling Sharpe + factor-neutral constraints. Mid-single-digit drawdown = 50% allocation cut. 10% loss = pod termination. → The 2026 play: Dual-brand split (Point72 Equities + Valist) while sharing risk infrastructure. Relationship arbitrage at scale—banks limit insight sharing with dominant players. ⚡ Key insight: They're returning $3-5B to investors despite strong performance. Why? Market impact scales nonlinearly. Even pod architecture hits physical limits at $40B+. This isn't portfolio construction—it's solving capacity constraints through structural innovation. Full breakdown: mathematical frameworks, talent moves, Q3 13F positioning, private credit economics, and why multi-strategy funds are an organizational design problem disguised as trading. Link: https://lnkd.in/gfcSG72U #QuantFinance #HedgeFunds #SystematicTrading #AlphaGeneration #PortfolioManagement #RiskManagement #MultiStrategy #QuantitativeResearch #AlgorithmicTrading #FinancialEngineering #Finance #Investing

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Barclays has long seen itself as the last global investment bank in Europe. Now it's doubling down on the US and preparing to spend more than $1 billion revamping its iconic Times Square skyscraper, following similar moves by US banking giants JPMorgan and Citigroup. The project underscores the UK bank's broader transatlantic ambitions. CEO CS Venkatakrishnan and Americas boss Richard Haworth who have been investing in the firm's Wall Street operations as part of a wider push to boost returns. https://lnkd.in/enZqbVk4

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📊 Bridgewater's Pure Alpha posted 26% returns in 2025 by systematically translating macro views into position sizing. I reverse-engineered their approach using 643 holdings and $21.6B in AUM data. Key finding: Multi-method statistical validation across correlation analysis, quintile testing, regression models (Linear/Ridge/Lasso), and factor scoring revealed the exact mathematical drivers behind their portfolio construction. What quant researchers can learn: ⚡ Cross-sectional factor analysis beats single-method approaches 📈 Consensus validation (requiring significance across 4+ methods) eliminates false positives 🎯 Position sizing follows systematic rules, not discretionary calls 💡 Economic macro views convert to quantifiable portfolio weights through robust statistical frameworks The analysis used Spearman/Pearson correlations, z-score transformations, and cross-validated regression to identify which factors significantly influence hedge fund position sizing decisions. No fluff. No theory. Just the mathematical methodology that connects macroeconomic views to actual portfolio construction at scale. Full methodology breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/g43s3Rgg #QuantitativeFinance #HedgeFunds #AlgorithmicTrading #FactorAnalysis #SystematicTrading #PortfolioManagement #QuantResearch #DataScience

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Top 5 Tech & Fintech Highlights of this week! 1️⃣ Nomura Acquires Macquarie Group’s U.S. and European Asset Management Units for $1.8B!!!! Nomura is making major moves, acquiring Macquarie Group’s U.S. and European public asset management businesses for $1.8 billion. This deal boosts Nomura’s global assets under management to over $770 billion, reinforcing its ambition to grow stable wealth and asset management revenues. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2025 pending regulatory approval. 2️⃣ Stripe Partners with Shopify to Launch Embedded Financial Services Stripe and Shopify are teaming up to roll out Shopify Capital+, offering merchants faster access to loans, cash advances, and payment solutions through embedded finance technology. This move strengthens Stripe’s footprint in SME banking and could trigger a new wave of fintech innovation focused on small businesses. 3️⃣ Tesla Cuts Prices Again as EV Demand Softens Tesla has slashed prices across several models globally as competition heats up and EV demand shows signs of cooling. Industry analysts believe the aggressive price cuts could pressure margins but are crucial to defending Tesla's market share against new players like BYD and Rivian. 4️⃣ Monzo Bank Hits 10 Million Customers and Expands into Wealth Management UK digital bank Monzo Bank has crossed the 10 million customer milestone and announced a bold expansion into wealth management services. Monzo will now offer ISAs, pensions, and personalized investment portfolios, aiming to become a one-stop shop for personal finance. Which story do you think will shake up the industry most? #TechNews #Fintech #Innovation #Nomura #Stripe #Shopify #Tesla #Monzo

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Our latest episode of Quantcast is out! Naomi Cardona Castellanos and I talk to Johannes Muhle-Karbe, the head of mathematical finance at Imperial College London, about trade execution strategies, of which he’s one of the leading experts. He discusses how to assess the quality of trade execution and hence the brokers’ performance, and how minimisation of market impact is not always the aim of execution strategies. https://lnkd.in/dhN3YgKQ

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Addleshaw Goddard Advised J.P. Morgan On £2.9 Billion Acquisition Of Deliveroo By DoorDash Team : Simon Wood, Vinay Rawal, Ewen Scott, and Paul Denham Link to read full News: https://lnkd.in/d7Biw2Pf #AddleshawGoddard #JPMorgan #Legalnews #legalera #legaldeal ( Legal Updates )

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GOLDMAN SACHS: Goldman Sachs is expanding its private equity offering to wealthy individuals across Wall Street and beyond, in the latest sign of investment firms gradually broadening access to the much sought-after private markets. The New York-based investment bank is launching an open-ended private equity fund named G-PE, which will offer access to deals from its buyout, growth, secondary and co-investment strategies, according to a statement Wednesday. It will be offered to individuals with at least $5 million in investments across their portfolios, according to a person familiar with the matter. “As more companies opt to stay private for longer and a greater share of economic growth occurs in private markets, investors will need to look beyond the public markets,” Kristin Olson, global head of alternatives for wealth at Goldman, said in the statement. Goldman’s offering aims to challenge larger private-market rivals like Apollo Global Management, Blackstone Inc. and KKR & Co., who are all seeking to grow their assets by going after cash from both wealthy individual investors and institutions. In his annual newsletter earlier this week, BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink pledged to open up private markets to millions of everyday investors. Full PE story exclusively on Bloomberg News w/Silas Brown ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/gGj3PXRQ

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