WSJ's Take On the Week21 Sep 2025

Billionaire Investor Cliff Asness on Managing Market Risk and 'Buffer' ETFs

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Gunjan Banerji and Telis Demos talk to billionaire investor Cliff Asness, the co-founder and chief investment officer of AQR Capital Management. AQR is a global investment management firm known for quantitative investing, an approach that builds strategies based on data and research. Asness discusses one of the market's biggest trends: the explosion in popular ETFs designed to protect investors from downturns. But do they actually work?

Later, Asness shares why he thinks trading on Robinhood can feel more like betting on FanDuel, why the stock market has become less rational due to social media, and whether Palantir and Tesla are on the meme stock spectrum. Then, he weighs in on companies reporting earnings every six months, market froth and the bind facing the Federal Reserve.

This is WSJ’s Take On the Week where co-hosts Gunjan Banerji, lead writer for Live Markets, and Telis Demos, Heard on the Street’s banking and money columnist, cut through the noise and dive into markets, the economy and finance—the big trades, key players and business news ahead.

Have an idea for a future guest or episode? How can we better help you take on the week? We’d love to hear from you. Email the show at takeontheweek@wsj.com.

To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com

Episoder(129)

How AI Spending Is Fueling the Economy Overall

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos dig into the shifting sentiment away from AI stocks and the pivot into consumer sectors. Are we heading into...

9 Aug 35min

Why Oil Prices Could Hit a Breaking Point by Year End

In this episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-host Telis Demos is joined by guest co-host and Wall Street Journal reporter David Uberti to break down the Federal Reserve’s latest moves, and what oil’s...

2 Aug 34min

The Buried $150B Bet Inside the Top 20 U.S. Stocks

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, host Telis Demos and guest host Spencer Jakab, the Wall Street Journal’s investing columnist and writer of the Markets A.M. newsletter, are joined by ...

26 Jul 32min

How This $150B+ Wall Street Strategy Could Lower Your Taxes

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos are joined by Brent Sullivan, founder of Tax Alpha Insider, to dive into a hot, over $150 billion investing ...

19 Jul 34min

Are Corporate Earnings in a Bubble? This Quarter Is a Test

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos preview earnings from Taiwan’s flagship chip maker, TSMC. They also break down why this coming week’s earnin...

12 Jul 37min

Can Hot Consumer Companies Like Oura and Whoop Make Good IPOs?

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos dig into this past week’s tech selloff and how the market’s volatility reflected serious questions about spe...

28 Jun 39min

How Big Tech’s Financials Obscure the True Cost of the AI Buildout

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, host Telis Demos and Heard on the Street columnist Jonathan Weil sit down with Kevin Koharki, principal at CAE Consulting and professor at Purdue Univ...

21 Jun 28min

The Hidden Risks of Buying Into Mega-IPOs Like SpaceX

In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos break down the historic launch of SpaceX, the biggest initial public offering ever, which priced at $135 a s...

14 Jun 33min