S3E23 - Bob Elliott - Earn the returns of a hedge fund without the red tape

Bob Elliott - Earn the returns of a hedge fund without the red tape. My next guest comes from an unorthodox background with an interesting transition. He’s a botanist, which is an expert in plant science and biology but early on in his career, he got into finance. This emphasizes the fact that you most certainly don’t need a degree in finance to be good at investing. He has nearly 20 years of experience in finance including 13 years at Bridgewater, the largest hedge fund in the world where he served as Head of Ray Dalio’s Research Team. Thereafter he went into venture capital and then he started his own ETF which is designed to match the returns of hedge funds. In this episode, we talk about the pros and cons of hedge funds, what kind of assets are within the ETF, the returns an investor can expect, and how retail investors can buy this product. Please welcome Bob Elliott. Payback Time Podcast Payback Time is a podcast for investors. The goal of this podcast is to help make investing approachable and easy to understand. We will interview beginner and experienced investors and ask them to share stories on how they got started, what challenges they faced, what mistakes they made, and what strategy works for them today. The overall objective is to provide you with a roadmap that helps you become a better investor. Key Timecodes (01:08) - Show intro and background history (04:15) - Deeper into her background and career path (06:22) - You don't need a degree to be successful in a finance market (07:42) - His transition and philosophy as a VC investor (12:20) - Understanding his business model today (15:01) - Deeper into his business model and strategies (18:52) - Deeper into his ETF business strategy (18:32) - How many partners and employees did he have (24:33) - Who does he sell his products to? (28:57) - Deeper into his numbers and returns (30:06) - How his fund performed in 2021 (33:45) - His strategy to build bundles of ETFs (35:30) - One key takeaway from the guest (41:28) - What is the worst advice he ever received (42:43) - What is the best advice he ever received (45:09) - Guest contacts