Invest Well, Be Well

Wes Gray - Discipline, Differentiation and the Path to Wiser Investing

Episode Summary

A podcast for wiser investing and stronger living. Success in the markets and in life requires sound investments — in our portfolios and our personal wellness. A weekly show, Invest Well, Be Well explores the principles of long-term investing, behavioral finance and peak performance with top-performing investment professionals and cross-industry leaders. Hosted by investment executive Rusty Vanneman and seasoned journalist Robyn Murray, each episode offers practical strategies for building wealth and prioritizing well-being, so you can make better decisions, grow your resilience and elevate your life. In this episode, we spoke with Wes Gray, CEO and Co-CIO of Alpha Architect. After serving as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps, Dr. Gray earned an MBA and a PhD in finance from the University of Chicago where he studied under Nobel Prize Winner Eugene Fama. Next, Wes took an academic job in his wife's hometown of Philadelphia and worked as a finance professor at Drexel University. Dr. Gray's interest in bridging the research gap between academia and industry led him to found Alpha Architect, an asset management firm dedicated to an impact mission of empowering investors through education. He is a contributor to multiple industry publications and regularly speaks to professional investor groups across the country. Wes has published multiple academic papers and four books, including Embedded (Naval Institute Press, 2009), Quantitative Value (Wiley, 2012), DIY Financial Advisor (Wiley, 2015), and Quantitative Momentum (Wiley, 2016). Dr. Gray currently resides in Palmas Del Mar Puerto Rico with his wife and three children.

Episode Notes

Tune in to hear:

In this episode, we discuss Wes’s career and company, how his experience in the Marines has shaped his investing philosophy, the importance of transparency in investment strategy and how investors can balance simplicity and sophistication in their portfolios.

Learn about Wes’s career history and what led him to build a firm that really does things differently with Alpha Architect?
How has his experience in the Marine Corp shaped both Wes’s life and his investing philosophy?
What does Wes think the core principles of wise investing are?
What does “affordable alpha” mean in practice for investors?
Why is transparency such an important value for Wes within investment strategy design?
Why does Alpha Architect focus on systemic, evidence-based approaches rather than discretionary decisions?
What does Wes mean about being “robust to chaos” in terms of portfolio construction and financial resilience?
How does Wes coach investors, and himself, to stay disciplined when strategies are underperforming in the short run?
For investors listening today, how should they think about the balance between simplicity and sophistication when building their portfolios?
What has Wes’s experiences hiking and doing ultramarathons taught him about perseverance and mindset?
What are some daily or weekly practices that Wes relies on to keep sharp mentally, physically and emotionally?
How does Wes define discipline and how does he believe one can cultivate it?
What does investing well and living well mean to Wes personally?

Quotes

“I’m going to pull out inner Jack Bogle here, because he seems to be the best for this kind of thing, but wise investing is just…understanding what you are trying to achieve, and then once you have a goal and objective…[you need to ask] how do we achieve that with the lowest fees, the most liquidity, the least complexity and the best tax structure? It’s just that simple.” - [05:00] Wes Gray

“Transparency [within investment strategy design] is great…there’s a lot of reasons for that, but the biggest one is behavioral…If we can be transparent and help the actual end client understand what’s going on, it just makes them more resilient, because if it’s ‘not working’ they will be like ‘oh, well I know it doesn’t work sometimes because of xyz.’” - [07:30] Wes Gray

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