MADDY RAI, CFA, CAIA, FRM

Senior Researcher

People’s United Bank

Member Since:
2019

Society Involvement:
Member, Volunteer, CFA Society New York Investment Research Challenge

Upon his arrival in NYC in 2019, Maddy Rai became a CFA Society New York member. Previously a member of CFA Society Chicago, he recognized the importance of community membership to expand his industry connections and knew that involvement with the CFA Society New York community would be a great place to start. Beyond networking, CFA Society New York has unfolded to be a platform for volunteership and Maddy has been involved in the Private Wealth Management, Quantitative Investing, and Toastmasters groups.

In their words:

2020 was also the second year for me as an Industry Mentor for NY students as part of the CFA Research Challenge. My colleagues have been former panelists, instructors, and graders with the CFA NY Society/CFA Institute and so we strongly promote active membership in our team as a way to contribute back to the community.

Maddy always gravitated towards the financial industry especially under his father’s influence who – as a retail investor – would discuss market updates and stocks with Maddy. As a result, Maddy learned very early on about the intricacies of dividends and taxes and went on to pursue factor investing.

In their words:

I chose factor investing as we all use it even unconsciously in different aspects of our lives for example, when choosing colleges, houses, employers, or even when dating! Stocks are no different. Certain qualities on average carry a long-term premium. Everyone aspires to be financially stable. Our industry offers us a great chance to make this possible for others and helps us easily connect with professionals from various backgrounds. I also enjoy how quantitative investing has evolved and continues to do so as data and technology becomes more accessible and more affordable.

With this passion for quantitative investing, Maddy is now a Senior Researcher at People’s United Bank where he is responsible for managing, implement and researching quantitative strategies. The wealth management department manages over $9 billion of client assets, and the group supports all investments, including asset allocation, equity and fixed-income security using quantitative and fundamental strategies.  Being in the industry for over a decade, coupled with his vibrant career in factor investing and experience at IHS Markit, Maddy has worked with a variety of clients — pension funds, asset managers, hedge funds, banks, and retail investors. Since statistics and programming are crucial parts of this industry Maddy was able to leverage his engineering background. From his expertise in quantitative investment, Maddy has noticed the industry continuously evolving.

In their words:

While vehicles of investments continue to change with the growth of ETFs over Mutual Funds, the need for quantitative models and specialty datasets will remain in place. I do not expect the industry to pivot, but instead it will evolve further with the race to the bottom expanding the investor base than ever before with more accessible investment solutions. This evolution presents great opportunities for the growth of alternative dataset providers that can help predict more timely and accurate company performance. General recruiting in the industry is also changing by favoring programming experience than what was required before.

Beyond a CFA charterholder, Maddy is also a Certified FRM and CAIA charterholder. These three certifications have provided him with unique perspectives from different communities, which often overlap. Alongside with the benefits of these credentials, Maddy has taken his experiences from the society, especially a background in public speaking through Toastmasters leadership positions, into the professional realm and encourages others to do the same.

In their words:

I always recommend the CFA Research Challenge to students among other competitive projects they can be a part. These are great opportunities for them to connect with industry professionals and build networks. I had followed a team few years ago at Chicago which won the Americas Regional final of the CFA Institute Research Challenge, and then reached out to their college professor to check if any of the members were interested in a fulltime position with my team. We ended up hiring one of them! People do notice you when you put yourself out there with hard work.

We thank Maddy for his membership and dedicated engagement at CFA Society New York. Thanks to Maddy – and the other contributors to the CFA Institute Research Challenge – the competition has thrived and grown to the international competition.