S1 #71 Drayton D'Silva on Why Do People Pay Hedge Fund Managers So Much?

**Nicolette J Nierras** (0:00)
Hi Drayton, my name is Nicolette.
Hello, my name is Nicolette. I am based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and I am the creator for the podcast titled You're Worthless. Read that again. Juxtaposition of Your Very Soul.
Thank you very much for saying yes to be interviewed today. I think, I don't know if you've read my profile. So my profile is talking a lot on self-word, but why I wanted to reach out to you, it's because I myself, I qualified as a Chartered Accountant back a few years ago. And I still very much hold that very close into my heart as somebody who wants to know, wants to get the details of what the elite people are doing. When I read your profile, you are definitely the, some kind of a subject matter expert in that field. So it is actually an honor to have you here. So thank you very much for saying yes.

**Drayton D'Silva** (1:02)
Yes. I've heard a couple of your podcasts. So I think you're a great host. Looking forward to our conversation.
Oh, thank you so much.

**Nicolette J Nierras** (1:12)
So as part of my ritual, I would like to read a bit of an introduction, your introduction to our guests today before we get right into the business.
So hi, everyone. We have Drayton D'Silva here, who is the founder and CEO of Tower Hills Capital, a multi-strategy investment firm that he founded in 2023 So the fund's core strategy uses predictive analytics and performance attribution to build optimal portfolios for investors. His fund is backed by senior leaders from Point72, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and Novus.
He coined the term recursive investing which refers to an investor continuously pricing an asset based on both their own fundamental analysis and their forecast of the consensus. He also managed capital markets and credit risks at Civo. I hope I pronounced it correctly. He previously worked at Goldman Sachs, DRW and the Central Bank of India. He's also an alumnus of London Business School. In all his past roles, he learned how to navigate markets, manage risk and take advantage of opportunities in the market and economy. And yes, we will be discussing some of his learnings today. So welcome, Drayton.
Yes. Yes. Well, again, part of my ritual, before we dive straight into business, could you share it as well? What is it like growing up as Drayton D'Silva?

**Drayton D'Silva** (2:49)
So it was kind of boring in the sense of that. So in terms of like the formal education, I honestly was pretty bored by it because I felt like I could do more. But then I was in like a public school. So I was always relatively under stimulated. So while I would have good grades, I was always looking for more things to learn about. So I was always reading things.
And I was like really curious. I would read about all sorts of things. I would read about biology. I would read about finance. I would read about literature, history, biographies. I would read about whatever I could.
And I would read sound fiction as well, because that's sometimes entertaining. And like every kid, you would read about like Hardy Boys, the Goosebumps, those horror.

**Nicolette J Nierras** (3:32)
Oh, yes. I grew up in Goosebumps. Yeah, I feel like there wasn't really one.

**Drayton D'Silva** (3:37)
Yeah, I feel like they're not even that scary. They're more like comedy as well sometimes.

**Nicolette J Nierras** (3:40)
Yes, yes, yes.

**Drayton D'Silva** (3:42)
So when I was a fan, I would do that. So in terms of education, because I thought the formal, what I learned in school was kind of boarding and under-simulating, that sort of just encouraged me to explore more. And that was very useful. I liked that part. And then in terms of other upbringing stuff, it was pretty regular. Thankfully, it was really safe and pretty stable.
So I'm quite grateful that that stability allowed me to explore my intellectual interests and curiosities. And I was actually, I was really into soccer or football, people outside of North America call it. And I watched a lot of soccer on TV.
But then, so I think in high school, I essentially just gave it up like wholesale. I just stopped it immediately, like cold turkey almost to focus on academics because like growing up in Asia for, you know, getting good stuff, you need to do that.

**Nicolette J Nierras** (4:33)
Asian parenting. Exactly, yeah.

**Drayton D'Silva** (4:35)
So my parents were like quite encouraging of playing sports and stuff, but they didn't tell me to stop or anything. I just like realized that I need to get serious about the academics. So I was just like, yeah, okay, fine. I'll do exam, practice mock exams for the next four years.