The Investment Fiduciary

About Michael Zhuang

Michael Zhuang is founder and principal of MZ Capital Management, LLC (“MZ Capital”), a registered investment advisor firm located in Washington, DC. MZ Capital offers financial planning, investment advisory and investment management services on a fee-only basis to professionals and entrepreneurs whose time is precious and who value investment expertise, independence from big Wall Street firm and true fiduciary standard of services.

Education

Michael earned dual master degrees in mathematics and finance from Carnegie Mellon University before embarking on a PhD program in financial economics. After completing the courseworks and all qualification exams, he left the program to pursue a career in quantitative trading.

Work experience

From 2000 to 2003, Michael was a senior trader with PG&E National Energy Group where he was responsible for starting the weather derivatives trading desk. He developed risk management guidelines and a suite of cutting-edge proprietary weather derivatives valuation software.

Prior to year 2000, Michael was a co-founder of Optionvol.com Inc., and a financial engineer with FIMAT of Societe Generale Group.

Civic Involvements

Michael is active in the community. He twice sponsored Melodic Impact, a musical fundraiser for kids with cancer. He is an active member of The Greater Bethesda Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce, and the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rotary Club. He volunteers as an instructor for Toastmasters International’s Youth Leadership Program. He was appointed to the Tenant Review Committee of the Germantown Innovation Center, overseeing the incubation of technology startups. He was recently elected to the board of Special Love, Inc., a Virginia-based non-profit organization providing year-round support to kids with cancer and their families.

Investment and business philosophy

Michael’s investment philosophy is deeply influenced by three people: Warren Buffet on value-orientation and patience, David Swensen on multi-asset-class investing and discipline, and John Bogle on minimization of costs for clients and stewardship of clients’ money. In addition, Charles Green, author of Trusted Advisor, has a deep influence on how he conducts his business. Michael believes building a long-term trusting relationship with his clients is the foundation of his business.

Misc

Michael blogs at The Investment Fiduciary, and can be reached at 301-452-4220. His monthly investment newsletter, also called The Investment Fiduciary, covers issues important to long-term investment success.

2 Responses to "About Michael Zhuang"

Dear Mr Zhuang,

I came across plenty of your articles on the investmentscientist.com and especially articles regarding small cap stocks vs. large cap stocks are of great interest to me. The topic I’m the most interested in is whether investments in small cap value stocks would have been more profitable during a long period of time (especially during the current recession) than investments in large cap value stocks. I’m currently doing my Masters of Science in Corporate Finance and Investment in London and my dissertation is dealing with a very similar topic. My question is whether you could advise me concerning other articles of yours or books, journals etc. which deal with this topic and could be of great value to me.
Thank you in advance for your response and I’m looking forward hearing from you
Best Regards

Aron Balog

Aron,

The most important research is Fama and French’s 92 paper “The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns”. Also study Fama and French’s three-factor model, which is intimately related to the subject of your interest.

Prof. Ken French also maintains a data library you can use for your research.

http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/ken.french/data_library.html

Leave a Reply

Author

Michael Zhuang is principal of MZ Capital, a fee-only RIA and DFA-approved advisor based in Washington, DC. He is also a regular contributor to Morningstar Advisor. Michael can be reached at info1@mzcap.com.

Get his monthly newsletter in your mailbox, or subscribe to instant RSS feed.

Twitter: @mzhuang