About Michael and His Firm
Michael Zhuang is founder and principal of MZ Capital, a fee-only registered investment advisor firm located in the Greater Washington D.C. metropolitan area.
Education
Michael earned dual Master’s Degrees in Mathematics and Quantitative Finance from Carnegie Mellon University. Over 20 years ago, he was a Ph.D. candidate in Financial Economics. However, after completing all training and exams, he realized academia wasn’t his true calling. The Ph.D. training equipped him with rigorous thinking and thorough research skills. Three years ago, he returned to school and earned an Executive MBA degree from Oxford University.
Civic involvements
Michael is active in the community. He twice sponsored Melodic Impact, a musical fundraiser for kids with cancer. He has served as Treasurer on the board of Montgomery Hospice. He has produced improv shows to enrich the cultural life in Bethesda.
Investment philosophy
Michael’s investment approach is based on the Nobel Prize winning research of Eugene Fama and Robert Shiller. He is also deeply influenced by three people: Warren Buffet on value-orientation and patience, David Swensen on multi-asset-class investing and decision framework, and John Bogle on minimization of costs for clients and stewardship of clients’ money.
Work experience
From 1999 to 2000, Michael worked as a financial engineer for Societe Generale, the biggest French banking group.
From 2000 to 2003, Michael was hired by PG&E National Energy Group to launch their weather derivatives trading business. Within 2 years, he became one of the top 3 traders in the field. Nevertheless, he saw first hand the crooked ways of the financial industry where everything goes to make a buck. That experience motivated him to launch MZ Capital.
Writings
Michael is the author of two Amazon Best Sellers and is a regular contributor to Investopedia, Morningstar and Physicians Practice. He also blogs at The Investment Scientist.
Personal life
Michael’s favorite pastime is improvised theater, musical improv and storytelling. He was nominated as Top Ten Storytellers in Virginia. He won Top Shelf in DC and Best Storyteller in Philadelphia’s Story Slam. He can perform in corporate, charity and association events.
Speaking engagements
Michael has spoken at medical societies, chambers of commerce, Rotary clubs and business clubs on the following subjects:
- Physician’s common financial mistakes
- Investment insights from Nobel Prize winners
- Recession and investing
- How to become one of the Top %5 financially successful doctors
Feel free to call him at 301-452-4220 or email him at mzhuang@mzcap.com if you are looking for a speaker.
To find out more about Michael and his services, schedule a 2nd opinion review with him.
Share this:
3 Responses to "About Michael and His Firm"
March 31, 2009 at 7:46 pm
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
June 9, 2011 at 4:26 am
Dear Michael,
I am impressed with your work over here. I am currently building (not complete yet) a website regarding investment management mainly influence by Warren Buffett as well. I hope you can have a look at investment management and link to me?
Give me some opinion and advice?
Thanks Michael
Cheers,
Joe Kok
The Investment Scientist 
March 31, 2009 at 3:03 pm
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