April 06, 2026
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Insights from a discussion with Drew Gillanders, Head of International Equities, and Nabeel Bhanji, Head of Strategic Equity Investments at Citadel, on how fundamental investors manage risk, develop judgment, and build long careers.
What allows investors to stay clear-headed when markets move quickly? How do experienced investors approach risk when outcomes are uncertain? And what mindset allows people to build long careers in a profession defined by constant feedback?
These questions shaped a recent conversation with Drew Gillanders, Head of International Equities, and Nabeel Bhanji, Head of Strategic Equity Investments, followed by an open Q&A with investment professionals and broader team members across the London-based Fundamental Equities teams.
The goal was simple: step back from day-to-day market noise and talk candidly about how investors develop judgment over time.
The conversation ranged from career decisions and market structure to the psychological realities of managing capital.
What came through most clearly was not technical, but human. A focus on perspective, humility, and the discipline to stay grounded through both success and setbacks. For investors, those qualities often shape whether insight translates into sustained performance.
Modern markets are shaped by vast amounts of data and increasingly sophisticated analytical tools. But in fundamental investing, insight rarely comes from data alone.
Gillanders described the distinction between what he called digital research and analog research. Digital tools allow investors to process information quickly and identify patterns across large datasets. But many of the most valuable insights still come from direct interaction with people and businesses.
“Every day we are very good at the digital processing of research,” he said. “But there is still a whole world of analog work. Meeting people, understanding incentives, figuring out what someone actually believes.”
This is particularly true in fundamental equities investing, where understanding companies, leadership teams, and industry dynamics often requires judgment that cannot be fully automated.
Markets respond to numbers, but companies are run by people. Understanding those human dynamics remains a core part of the craft.
Most investors remember the moment when risk becomes real.
Early in a career, positions often feel theoretical. The numbers matter, but the consequences can still feel distant.
That changes the first time a meaningful position moves sharply against you.
Those moments force investors to reassess both the thesis and their own thinking.
“You start to question what you might have missed and how others are seeing the same information.” Bhanji said.
Experiences like this are uncomfortable, even visceral, but always formative. They become lessons, revealing how investors respond under pressure and how they approach uncertainty.
“You never really know whether you are good at this job until you have gone through difficult periods,” he said. “That is where a lot of the learning happens.”
One of the most difficult adjustments in investing is learning to separate personal identity from individual outcomes.
Early in his career, Bhanji learned to anchor his approach in process rather than any one result.
Creating distance between the two tends to improve decision-making.
Investors are responsible for doing the best possible work with the information available. Outcomes are influenced by many variables that cannot be perfectly predicted.
As that distinction becomes clearer, the focus shifts.
Instead of anchoring to earlier views, investors are freer to evaluate new information objectively.
The ability to revisit assumptions again and again is a critical part of the job.
Risk-taking may appear individual from the outside, but in practice it is deeply collective.
Drawdowns affect entire teams. Periods of volatility test communication, trust, and leadership.
That reality shaped how Bhanji approaches managing teams.
Early in his career, he most admired portfolio managers who held themselves accountable for outcomes.
His approach is to take responsibility while maintaining open dialogue with the team.
In collaborative environments, debate is central. Ideas are challenged from multiple perspectives and continuously pressure-tested.
The goal is not consensus but clarity, and the strongest ideas often emerge through that process.
Gillanders described a situation earlier in his career where regulatory developments disrupted a major transaction overnight.
The immediate instinct in moments like that is defensive. Reduce exposure, protect capital, and move quickly.
But experience often points to a different discipline.
“The key is keeping a wide aperture,” Gillanders said. “You have to step back and ask what the market is actually telling you.”
Market reactions themselves contain information.
Understanding those signals requires composure and perspective. It requires the ability to step back from immediate pressure and reassess the situation objectively.
Often the most valuable insights appear in precisely the moments when uncertainty is highest.
Modern investment firms rely on sophisticated risk systems to monitor exposures and correlations.
These tools are essential. But experienced investors recognize that models have limits.
Ultimately, the most reliable form of risk management is understanding the investments themselves. Strong research and clear thinking are the foundation of portfolio construction, shaping both what you choose to own and what you choose to short.
Models help measure exposure. They do not replace judgment.
That is particularly true in fundamental investing, where understanding businesses, catalysts, and competitive dynamics remains the foundation of generating differentiated insights.
One of the most important habits in investing is the ability to reassess ideas continually.
Positions evolve. Catalysts change. Information develops in unexpected ways.
The temptation is to maintain the original narrative.
But Bhanji emphasized the importance of returning to first principles.
“If the situation changes, you have to ask yourself how much risk you would actually have in that position today,” he said.
Often the answer is different from the previous week.
Re-underwriting ideas repeatedly requires intellectual honesty and the willingness to adjust when evidence changes.
That discipline is often what separates durable investors from short-term participants.
Developing these habits does not happen in isolation.
Judgment improves through repetition, feedback, and exposure to real decisions.
Environments that encourage open debate, emphasize rigorous research, and give investors responsibility early in their careers tend to accelerate that process.
At Citadel, the fundamental investment model is designed around those principles.
Ideas are debated openly. The person with the strongest understanding of a situation drives the conversation, regardless of title. Analysts and associates are expected to contribute insights, not simply execute instructions.
That structure creates constant feedback loops.
Investors test ideas against both the market and the scrutiny of their colleagues. Over time, those cycles help refine judgment and sharpen conviction.
The result is an environment where learning compounds quickly.
Fundamental investing remains both intellectually demanding and deeply human.
Markets reward insight and discipline, but they also require humility.
For investors drawn to that challenge, the profession offers something unusual. Few careers provide such immediate feedback on your thinking, or the chance to test your ideas against millions of other participants in the market every day, refining judgment through repetition.
Over time, environments that encourage rigorous debate, intellectual honesty, and real ownership of investment decisions tend to accelerate that learning process. The market ultimately decides which ideas are right, but the speed at which investors improve often depends on the people around them and the standards they are held to.
For many investors, that combination of challenge, accountability, and constant learning is what makes the craft so compelling.
