Meet the Investor - Prime Macaya Capital - Mr. Alix Pasquet

A Deep Dive into the Mind of a Successful Investor: Insights from Alix Pasquet

In our recent session on 10 November 2024, we had the privilege of hearing from Alix Pasquet, a seasoned investor and Managing Partner at Prime Macaya Capital. Alix’s journey from the world of gambling to managing a successful fund has shaped his unique philosophy: the best investors balance cutting-edge technology with sharp personal judgment and continuous introspection. Alix began by spotlighting the seismic shifts in investment brought on by the internet and AI, which have reshaped traditional industry dynamics and ushered in fierce new competition. He urged us to “understand the enemy”—in this case, AI—not just by adopting these powerful tools but by strengthening areas where machines fall short: qualitative analysis, creativity, and strategic intuition. He believes that in an investment world increasingly driven by data and machine learning, human insight remains essential, particularly when it comes to reading situations and navigating complex decisions. One of the most compelling parts of Alix’s philosophy is his belief that successful investing must align with one’s personality. He encouraged us to embrace personality profiling (through Myers-Briggs or other tools) and use it as a guide to tailor investment strategies that resonate with our natural strengths. Alix shared that throughout his career, introspection—especially through journaling—has been a valuable practice, helping him organize and refine his ideas. Through this process, one can best imitate and assimilate from the best, then innovate on their ideas. Alix also highlighted a powerful approach for standing out in an AI-driven landscape: harness human-AI collaboration rather than relying solely on AI. Machines excel at crunching numbers, but they struggle with the more qualitative aspects of investing—judging management’s character, understanding corporate culture and understanding regime changes. According to Alix, this “hybrid advantage” of combining data analysis with human intuition will produce the most formidable investors in the future. Another key theme was networking. Alix sees networking as an essential, lifelong practice and shared his unusual approach: creating “triads,” or connections between people with complementary strengths, to foster collaboration and broaden one’s perspective. He advised reaching out to potential mentors with genuine curiosity and a readiness to offer value in return, emphasizing that the best networks are built on mutual respect and a shared commitment to growth. In a world where data-driven analysis often takes center stage, Alix’s advice was a refreshing reminder that successful investing is more than algorithms and financial models. It’s a journey of self-discovery, strategic adaptation, and relationship-building, with a constant commitment to both learning and sharing knowledge. His insights left us with an inspiring takeaway: that the smartest investors are those who harness both technology and human insight, finding opportunity at the intersection of data and intuition, and continually building connections that amplify their understanding of the world.

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Jo Vial

My takeaways from Alix's session is

1) Put in time to feed your ambition which really resonated with me because I think it is something I don’t do enough and habits go a long way,

2) I also reflected on whether I really do know myself that well because he mentioned we should take those personality tests to invest in line with our personality.

3) With that said, we should just copy people's styles first to get a feel of the different styles so we can learn ( feels like a mosaic art if I were to use an analogy to describe one taking different learning points from each style).

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Blossom Vera JEREMIAH

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Alix’s session was a thought-provoking and insightful one. His introspection and knowledge learned from the years of books he read helped give us a sharing I don’t think anyone would forget.

List of book recommendations from Alix:

1. Mastery by Robert Greene

   1. It’s okay to have your own voice and style (be it investing). Most of us start by imitating, assimilating why something worked or didn’t work, then innovating it to make it better to fit ourselves.

2. The Einstein Factor: A Proven New Method for Increasing Your Intelligence by Richard Poe and Win Wenger

   1. In the army, soldiers are trained with old-school tools and new-school weapons. They start with knives, then move on to missiles.

   2. The big problem with AI is it takes away your visual skills. Our basic and fundamental knowledge helps us to identify mistakes in AI. Hence, we must still develop our old-school tools.

3. Average is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation by Tyler Cowen

   1. The most formidable opponent is the computer + human

   2. Deception is going to be very powerful and it is about to increase. Cause we are going to see the data telling us one thing but we have to identify if it is a deception.

4. Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos by M. Mitchell Waldrop

   1. The vast quantitative numbers of the past has allowed machines to evolve rapidly. However, the flaw is that if the environment changes, machines would need 3 to 6 months to understand what happened.

5. The Art of Speed Reading People: How to Size People Up and Speak Their Language by Barbara Barron and Paul D. Tiger

   1. 99% of the population have no clue about personality

   2. This is going to be a secret knowledge to connect with people

6. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

   1. The writing process is a lot like the investment process, can you put your idea succinctly in a report

7. The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why by Richard Nisbett

   1. Asians tend to look at the environment around them, making it easier for them to see tailwinds

8. The 7 Powers of Questions: Secrets to Successful Communication in Life and at Work by Dorothy Leeds

   1. Are you asking about questions or things that matter?

   2. If you don’t know what questions to ask, ask about the company’s moat. Knowing if a moat is getting more powerful is important

   3. Another question to ask is what’s different now? The most valuable intelligence is to see change when its small and manipulate it to make it big

9. Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Bill Carr and Colin Bryar

   1. Read chapter 2, if you want to get good at hiring talents

10. Are You Ready to Succeed?: Unconventional strategies for achieving personal mastery in business and in life by Srikumar Rao

    1. Write a letter to the people you want to talk to, write something you admire about them.

    2. Make a list of the top 100 CEO all over the world and try to contact them using that method. That was how Alix was able to meet Charlie, who introduced him to Warren Buffet.

    3. Ask them questions about fears and frustrations, hopes and aspirations. Try to connect them with someone who can solve that problem. That is creating a triad, that’s how you get lucky in life. Try to create as many triads as possible.

    4. “The souls within our individual souls love the ones who run and falls rather than the ones with sit and wait”

The biggest takeaway from the session is to be a qualitative analyst, to look beyond just numbers and data and focus on nuances that many might have missed. After all, “Interestingly enough, although I consider myself to be primarily in the quantitative school…the really sensational ideas I have had over the years have been heavily weighted toward the qualitative side where I have a ‘high probability insight.’ This is what causes the cash register to really sing.” - Warren Buffet.

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Yuantian QIAN

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