OA

Omar Aguilar

Things Omar Says on Podcasts

Where to Find Them

Omar Aguilar has been a guest on Masters in Business .

Recently: “Using Decision Science in Investing: Masters in Business with Omar Aguilar” on Masters in Business (October 2026).

What They Said

“I think there was a wrong idea that you can be faster than the market and that people can really get ahead of many things by just trying to capture information faster. I think that information advantage that people claim to have … it's very hard to actually capitalize.” — Omar Aguilar, Masters in Business

The host's closing question: what do you know today that would have been useful 30 years ago? Aguilar says he underestimated how fast the market would move.

Masters in Business · 2026-10-02 Permalink → Listen →
Masters in Business Around 1:05:01 into the episode
Speaker 1

What do I think today?

Barry Ritholtz

What do you know today would have been useful 30 years ago?

Omar Aguilar

I would probably say that, you know, underestimating the effect of how fast, you know, the market was going to move was there. I mean, I think there was a wrong idea that you can be faster than the market and that people can really get ahead of many things by just trying to capture information faster. I think that information advantage that people claim to have, you know, when after all these years in the investment, you know, it's very hard to actually capitalize.

Barry Ritholtz

Really, really fascinating. Omar, thank you for being so generous with your time. We have been speaking with Omar Aguilar. He's CEO and CIO at Schwab Asset Management. If you enjoy this conversation, well, check out any of the 662 we've done over the past 14 years, 14 years, 12 years. You can find those at iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, Bloomberg, wherever you get your favorite podcasts. I would be remiss if I didn't thank the crack team that helps put these conversations together each week. Anna Luca and Elizabeth Sedrin are my producers. Sam Danziger is my video producer. Sean Russo is my researcher. I'm Barry Ritholtz. You've been listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode
“When you're investing, you become an owner. When you're gambling, you don't have anything. You're just … putting money in the box. The odds are against you, and you don't have any ownership.” — Omar Aguilar, Masters in Business

Aguilar has been talking about how clients should budget risk between a long-term core portfolio and everything else. He raises the temptation of prediction markets and says his team tries to steer away from them.

Masters in Business · 2026-10-02 Permalink → Listen →
Masters in Business Around 51:36 into the episode
Omar Aguilar

I think the main area where clients get distracted the most is they get concerned about geopolitical risks. They get concerned about inflationary pictures, and they have the right to do that. But a lot of the benefit of long-term investing, it's something that gets overlooked all the time. And again, a lot of that is because of the recency bias that exists today and the availability of information. So this concept of setting up your goals, setting up your investment strategy, setting up your strategic asset allocation, and follow that path, is something that, believe it or not, gets overlooked all the time. And it works no matter what part of the cycle is, as long as you feel comfortable understanding risk. At the same time, the risk budget, and we always talk about this, is so critical for people to understand how to allocate risk. Not to allocate assets, but how to allocate risk. And I think that component gets overlooked all the time. And the way I think about it is that when you go to a dinner, you basically have your main entrance. You also have your salad. You also have your side. And you don't necessarily have the same level of weight to each one of those. That's a risk budget allocation. So you need to understand how much is going to be in your core portfolio. It's going to be long term. And how much is going to be in other parts of the market. Specifically nowadays, which there is a temptation to go into these predictive markets. And I think we try to avoid markets that way because the difference between gambling and investing is huge.

Barry Ritholtz

Right, that's just pure speculation.

Omar Aguilar

And it's, you know, the way that our team has explained it is, you know, when you're investing, you become an owner. When you're gambling, you don't have anything. You're just basically, you know, putting money in the box. The odds are against you, and you don't have any ownership.

Barry Ritholtz

The house usually wins.

Speaker 1

Correct.

Barry Ritholtz

All right, so let's jump to our favorite questions that we ask all our guests. Starting with, tell us about your mentors. You mentioned one earlier. Who helped shape your career?

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode