[laughs]

And I think at that stage of the game, uh, it's, you know, you're figuring out what you wanna do with, with the rest of your life, but you're also figuring out what you don't wanna do.

And I was-- I associated that style of brute force sales with being a financial advisor, and I was like, "Well, if this is what it is, I don't really wanna do that.

I don't feel comfortable..." I, I felt like I was bothering these people from our church.

You know, fast-forward to, to now, I don't know how many advisors are taking that sort of approach to sales and prospecting and setting appointments, but that was my first interpretation of this is what a financial advisor does.

So by eliminating that, that really led me in the direction of portfolio construction and strategy, which at that point in time was, "Here, run a Morningstar analysis and help, uh, you know, sit in the background in between, uh, after the advisor and help out with the client, uh, relationship by running the analytics." And that's just, you know, grown over the years to, you know, going to get my CFA and understanding security analysis and building portfolios, but it all started with that one experience of, "I don't really wanna do cold calling to people from our church." [chuckles]

As you think about that across the board, what's been some of the ways that you've thought about that customization while maintaining some of that standardization for, for the advisor books?

So we have, I would say, one of the more, um, broader platforms and more flexible platforms in the industry.

So what does that tell you about the balance of the year? What's your expectation?

Well, if you look at things from a seasonality perspective, all the way back to 1945, the typical path from late August to year end is a modest gain with a mid-single digit drawdown along the way.

And I would expect something similar this year.

We've got September and October in midterm years.

They've historically brought higher volatility and softer returns than a typical year.

So I'd expect the same this year, especially with a Fed meeting in late October and then the midterms less than a week later.

But once the dust settles from all that and that uncertainty subsides, fourth quarters are typically where seasonality tends to turn more friendly.

How much does macro matter, especially with Jackson Hole kicking off?

When you look at those two, both independently and together, what stands out?

Yeah, they're certainly related as it relates to inflation.

Oil is clearly the dominant variable that's impacting the upward pressure on both headline and core inflation.

We're not seeing much pressure from wages.

It's more from this energy pass through and supply chain stress.

So if you look at Goods tied to petrochemicals and transportation, that's where we're seeing that pressure.

Import prices are, I'd say, a growing concern as we see these spillover effects from higher energy costs around the world.

When you look at those two themes and kind of look at the fiscal and the government and politics of everything and tying it all together.

I'd love to get your thoughts on this market action that we've seen, this rotation under the surface, the volatility that we've had of late.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

And I agree with the previous guest.

It's been an interesting earnings season.

And under the hood, we have seen a slight uptick in volatility at the market level.

The VIX is in the high teens, whereas it was in the mid-teens and low-teens last couple months.

Ultimately, we're not really seeing signs of stress.

What indicators are you watching that are telling you this isn't the beginning of a broader risk-off move?

Are there any warning signs that you're keeping an eye on under the surface? And what do you think that the markets are digesting the most right now? Is it earnings? Is it what's going to happen with the Fed?

Yeah, I think it's mainly earnings in the last month.

And I think this market has been characterized by the rising AI tide lifting all boats almost simultaneously.

And I think what's going on under the hood is that's probably going to change going forward as the market gets more discriminating on which companies are going to benefit from how things play out.

So for us, what we're watching are are three different things as we look at companies in the tech space.

One, we look at ROIC, or return on investment in invested capital.

So the massive amounts of spending on these projects in the AI space, are they actually profitable? Are these companies getting a return on their investment? Number two, capital spending.

What do you think is driving that interest in health care? Is it more attractive valuations? Is it defensive positioning?