Modern Portfolio Construction (Crypto+Stocks) with Chris Hutchins

About the episode

Wealthfront Head of New Product Strategy and All the Hacks podcast host Chris Hutchins rejoins Kevin to discuss portfolio construction in the current world of crypto and NFTs, Bitcoin-backed credit cards, and a hack to hold crypto in tax-efficient retirement accounts.

About our guest

Chris Hutchins

Chris Hutchins (@hutchins) is the Head of New Product Strategy at Wealthfront and host of the All the Hacks podcast. Previously he was co-founder and CEO of Grove (acquired by Wealthfront), co-founder of Milk (acquired by Google), and a Partner at GV, where he focused on seed and early-stage investments.

Topics covered

Links from the episode

Show notes

Chris’ NFT FOMO and lost CryptoPunk blues.[02:10]

How does Chris think about portfolio construction now that crypto is added into the mix with more traditional assets? When comparing the crypto market to the stock market roller coaster, which offers the wilder ride?[03:45]

How does one find the right balance between investment and speculation in a portfolio (and what’s the difference)?[07:32]

When deciding how much of your portfolio should be dedicated to crypto, you need to understand your tolerance — and capacity — for risk.[10:57]

What does Chris think of dollar cost averaging, and how does it differ in crypto compared to traditional financing?[16:02]

Not all of today’s top 20 cryptocurrencies are going to be worth much down the pike. So how do you pick the good without bringing along the bad and the ugly?[19:29]

Why Kevin doesn’t ever want to get “laser-eyed” on any one coin. [24:12]

Missing in a measured way.[26:08]

How Kevin invests in high-risk coins by small chunks.[28:15]

Chris points out that it’s hard to know yet how other tokens fit into the big picture since heavy crypto research has been focused on Bitcoin.[30:36]

Some of the ways to invest in crypto that go beyond just buying tokens.[31:06]

Love crypto? Hate taxes? IRAs are cool.[32:09]

Why trusts are now trading at a discount.[33:41]

Why would someone hold cryptocurrency in a standard brokerage account versus just buying it on Coinbase?[36:22]

Thoughts on what we’ll see happen when regulators allow the conversion of Bitcoin Trusts into ETFs.[38:39]

An alternative to using trusts to invest crypto through a retirement account: the self-directed Roth IRA.[39:10]

What are the benefits of a backdoor Roth IRA?[42:33]

Thoughts on the current state of crypto-backed credit cards.[44:28]

Crypto credit card features Chris and Kevin would love to see in the future.[49:41]

What crypto products would Kevin love to see Wealthfront build? [53:52]

Chris explains how tax loss harvesting works, and the propietary technology that gives Wealthfront an edge on this front.[56:25]

Now 20-something episodes deep, what does Chris’ All the Hacks podcast cover?[01:01:21]

The one free travel hack everyone should know (and why it works).[01:02:34]

Parting thoughts.[01:05:18]

People mentioned