Will England - A Primer on Multi-Strategy Hedge Funds

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (0:00)
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Hello and welcome everyone. I'm Patrick O'Shaughnessy, and this is Invest Like the Best. This show is an open-ended exploration of markets, ideas, stories, and strategies that will help you better invest both your time and your money.
Invest Like the Best is part of the Colossus family of podcasts, and you can access all our podcasts, including edited transcripts, show notes, and other resources to keep learning at joincolossus.com.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:57)
Patrick O'Shaughnessy is the CEO and founding partner of PositiveSum and the CEO of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of PositiveSum or O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.
Clients of PositiveSum or O'Shaughnessy Asset Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (2:29)
My guest today is Will England, the CEO and co-CIO of Walleye Capital. Walleye is a multi-strategy hedge fund quartered in Minnesota that manages around $5 billion today. Our conversation is a primer on multi-strategy hedge funds which have become a force in markets through the success of firms like Millenium, Citadel, Point72, and Balyasny.
We discuss the operational complexity behind the model, which managers best fit this type of investment style, and what happens in stressful events like the Gamestop short squeeze in early 2021 We also talk about performance culture, the All Blacks, and Will's experience as a US National Team rower. Please enjoy my great conversation with Will England. So Will, maybe we can begin by you telling me why you are so interested in robber barons.

**Will England** (3:16)
I love learning about that time of history, and many things are different, but many things are the same.
And the scope of what some of these individuals accomplished was incredible. So I lived in Minnesota in a town called Wysetta, and in Wysetta, there's still a train station there built by James J. Hill. It was one of the lesser known robber barons, but was still at the time one of the top five or ten. I'm running a railroad, I'm building this entire network.
And what they're able to accomplish is just the force of personality of saying, I'm literally going to change the landscape of the US. I'm literally going to bring people, physically move them across.
That is so inspiring. And so much of that was because of who they were as individuals. And yeah, obviously the robber baron term is because they're pushing the boundaries in certain areas. James J. Hill, relatively speaking, was one of the better robber barons, but really inspiring. And so when we talk today about people building great companies, changing the world, it doesn't even fucking pay a comparison to what these people were able to accomplish. And it's really inspiring and very applicable to today. World was different than in all sorts of ways, both positive and negative. But the core concept of someone who decides, I'm literally going to go and have an impact, still very applicable today.