In the latest episode of dakota live!, we step into a part of the market that rarely gets explained well — the mechanics of volatility trading.

As equity markets move through higher dispersion, regime shifts, and increasingly systematic flows, some of the most interesting price discovery is happening in derivatives.

Volatility isn’t just a hedge or a headline metric. It’s an asset shaped by positioning, liquidity, and structural supply-demand imbalances.

We discuss how firms like Zero Delta, a hedge fund of funds, allocating to specialists trading single-name and index options — evaluate markets where dealer gamma positioning, liquidity fragmentation, and flow-driven distortions can create temporary pricing inefficiencies.

This is a conversation about process.

How experienced volatility traders:

✓ Interpret skew and term structure
✓ Think about convexity and asymmetric payoffs
✓ Adjust exposure as opportunity sets expand or compress
✓ Trade relative value rather than directional views

The broader takeaway for institutional allocators is structural. As passive flows grow and options volumes reach record levels, derivatives markets increasingly reflect stress and opportunity in real time.

Volatility trading — when executed as disciplined relative value — can become a way to engage dislocations created by crowding and hedging demand, rather than simply reacting to them.

If you allocate to hedge funds — or evaluate them — understanding how volatility traders actually think beneath the surface of the VIX is imperative.

If you’re an individual market participant trading your own account, appreciating how professionals interpret skew, positioning, liquidity, and convexity can sharpen how you think about risk.

This episode is about framework — a closer look at the mechanics that drive derivatives markets and the discipline required to navigate them.

In this special “On the Road” episode of the Dakota Live! Podcast, Robert Morier travels to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville for a live CIO panel discussion on endowment management, private equity, private credit, asset allocation, and manager research & due diligence.
Featuring:

• Rip Mecherle, CIO, University of Tennessee System ($1.8B endowment)
  
  
• Cathy Ulozas, CIO, Drexel University
  
  
• Bridget Sproles, Partner & Co-Head of Healthcare Practice, Cambridge Associates
  
  
• Ryan Farley, Professor and Director, Torch Fund Program, University of Tennessee
  
  

Recorded in front of students from Drexel University and the University of Tennessee, this episode explores how institutional investors think about:

• Endowment portfolio construction (public vs. private markets)
  
  
• Private equity allocation strategy and long-term commitments
  
  
• The risks and realities of private credit in today’s market
  
  
• How CIOs underwrite managers and assess integrity, culture, and risk
  
  
• Teaching students to think like real-world investors
  
  

The panel also shares candid career lessons — including trading mistakes, surviving market crises, and the importance of adaptability in finance.
If you’re interested in institutional investing, asset allocation strategy, manager due diligence, endowment management, OCIO relationships, hedge funds, private markets, or building a career in investment management, this conversation is essential listening.
Learn how top CIOs make capital allocation decisions under uncertainty — and how students can prepare to enter the world of institutional asset management.

Retail and wealth management platforms inside large banks are increasing exposure to private markets—but not through hype, shortcuts, or “democratization” headlines.

They’re doing it through institutional-grade manager research, governance, and due diligence.

In this episode of Dakota Live, host Robert Morier sits down with Scott Lavelle, Managing Director and Head of Investment Advisor Research & Product Management at PNC Bank, to unpack how one of the largest U.S. bank platforms evaluates, selects, and monitors investment managers across public and private markets.

Scott oversees the teams responsible for sourcing, vetting, and monitoring external managers—while also determining how private market strategies are structured, governed, and delivered to retail and wealth clients at scale.

What this episode covers

• Why retail bank platforms are expanding private market allocations—and why most clients are still under-allocated relative to policy targets
• How banks are introducing evergreen private market structures cautiously, selectively, and with fiduciary discipline
• The manager research process behind private equity, private credit, venture, and hedge fund strategies inside a regulated bank environment
• Why due diligence—not product demand—drives platform decisions
• The role of operational due diligence in private markets (and why it’s risk you never get paid to take)
• How banks think about fees, access, and manager skill when evaluating private strategies
• Where fund-of-funds still make sense (and where they no longer do)
• How institutional governance changes the pace—but improves the durability—of private market adoption

Rather than relying on industry buzzwords, Scott explains—step by step—how PNC has selectively added private market strategies, expanded alternatives exposure, and evolved its platform only where investment merit, manager capability, and client outcomes align.

This is a rare look inside how retail banks actually make private market decisions—from the perspective of the people accountable for getting them right.