Bloomberg’s Market Pulse gauge hit an official manic condition at the end of January, where defensive sectors tend to outperform cyclicals and small caps often lag large caps. In this episode of the Inside Active podcast, host David Cohne, mutual fund and active management analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, and co-host Michael Casper, BI’s senior US equity strategist, speak with Christopher Tessin, a founder and managing partner of Acuitas Investments and lead portfolio manager for the Acuitas US Microcap Fund (AFMCX), about the firm’s multimanager approach to micro-cap investing. They discuss why the most critical factor in evaluating managers is idea-generation skill, not historical returns alone and why the greatest inefficiencies and alpha opportunities exist at the smallest end of the market-cap spectrum. The conversation also explores why quality matters more in micro caps and why Tessin is bullish on small and micro caps after a long period of underperformance. The podcast was recorded on Feb. 5.

Simplify’s Michael Green on Passive Distortions
42:55

Rockefeller’s Petrone on Active Muni Advantages
24:57

JPMorgan’s Reiner, McNerny on Active ETF Income
46:53