Essentia Analytics' Flynn Levy: Solving the active management paradox for good

Getting the best returns by avoiding 'bad habits'

Essentia Analytics' Clare Flynn Levy began her path towards becoming a successful fintech entrepreneur after spending nine years as a hedge fund manager, and leaving the industry after saying to herself: "Well, that was a waste of my life."

"I am very black and white that way - I do not want to waste my time," she told Investment Week. "But, I wanted to maximise my return on the energy I had already expended." Flynn Levy, who founded and managed a European long/short technology fund and invested throughout the dotcom boom and bust, said market dynamics changed significantly in the early 2000s and she found her investment process and philosophy "was not working any more". However, in the absence of information, the way she managed money stayed the same. "You read more, you work more, you stay up later into the night; y...