On November 4, 2025, I chatted with Yuval Taylor of Fieldsong Investments, an $18 million hedge fund founded in 2024. Yuval is a self-taught quant investor whose journey, as you’ll see, didn’t follow the usual Wall Street path. If you want to understand how Yuval has logged an estimated 40% CAGR, over roughly a decade, then you’re going to love this Skull Session episode. Make sure to follow Yuval on “X” at yuvaltaylor and his website here.
A special thanks to quant investor, Kurtis Hemmerling, for recommending that I “must” invite Yuval be a guest on our Skull Sessions. You can follow Kurtis on “X” at Quant_Kurtis, his website at yorktechpartners and at Portfolio 123.
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Over the last few years, I’ve really become interested in talking to quantitative investors about how they extract alpha by not having to even “care” about the manual labor that a qualitative strategy requires. As an investor who thrives on trying to find alpha in the qualitative pieces of a company’s story, I guess I’m both jealous and envious that the quants are showing us that mouthwatering investment returns can be achieved through a systematic approach that’s purely based on the “numbers.”
Yuval didn’t come out of finance or Wall Street. He spent decades in publishing, only turning serious attention to financial markets later in life. Like many investors, he learned the hard way👉 Mistakes, drawdowns, and frustration forced him to rethink how decisions actually get made when real money is on the line.
His experience helped shape his quantitative framework designed to reduce behavioral errors.
“So it really clicked for me back in 2015 and it worked. I just.. I made so much money those first few years I was, you know, making, I think I made 60% one year and 50% the next… 2019 was a bit of a tough time for me… But 2020 I did really well again. So I... altogether. Over these 10 years, I had, I have a compound annual growth rate of 40% so I made, I made a lot of money. I was able to retired.” - Yuval Taylor
A Quant Who Understands The Limitations of Data
Yuval’s process relies on ranking systems with more than 200 factors, spanning quality, value, growth, stability, accrual behavior, and fraud risk. But he’s also very clear about the limitations of data.
He openly acknowledges that some turnaround situations simply can’t be captured cleanly by numbers, especially early on. That humility might not be shared in some quant circles and was refreshing to hear, since my team relies heavily on gaining edges through qualitative analysis and information arbitrage.
As Yuval put it, he has a deep respect for skilled discretionary investors. Not everything they do can be duplicated in a model, and pretending otherwise is a mistake.
Why “Middling” Metrics Matter More Than Perfect Ones
One area where Yuval’s thinking really stood out was his focus on moderation rather than extremes. Instead of chasing the highest growth or most explosive margin expansion, his system often rewards companies sitting in the 70th or 80th percentile. These businesses tend to be more sustainable and less prone to mean reversion. Interestingly, this is exactly what I did in my early days of investing if I was referencing The Investor’s Business Rankings.
He pays close attention to operating income growth, cash flow return on assets, and something that doesn’t get enough attention in most quant frameworks: the stability of a company’s cash conversion cycle. That focus helps reveal high-quality names that might otherwise fly under traditional screens.
When Numbers and Narrative Intersect
Our conversation naturally drifted toward turnarounds, an area where quant and qualitative investing often overlap. Yuval looks for improving sales trends and operating income as early signals, but he also understands that numbers don’t tell the whole story. This idea resonated with me, since I’m a big fan of gaining a first move advantage.
We discussed how this reminded me of ACFN, which was added to GeoInvesting’s Focus Model Portfolio in September 2024 at $9.40, peaking at a return of 251%. Throughout that run, GEO consistently warned that the stock faced a potential air pocket if a major telecom contract wasn’t renewed or replaced. When that risk materialized and quarterly EPS came in far below expectations, the stock dropped sharply.
Investors who understood the business had options. Those who relied purely on extrapolated numbers didn’t. That’s the line Yuval draws as well: data is powerful, but context is important.
“I’m not like this quant who says, oh, all you discretionary investors, you’ve got your heads up your asses, you know, I’m not like that. I have a great admiration for what good qualitative investors do… I don’t think it can be duplicated.” - Yuval Taylor
Shared Ground in Underfollowed Names
The discussion touched on several names familiar to the GeoInvesting and Microcap Investing Cliff Notes communities. Yuval mentioned holding or previously owning stocks like Power Solutions International (PSIX), a turnaround we both flagged early, Conrad Industries (CNRD), one of his larger positions, D-Box Technologies (DBOXF), and Hammond Power Solutions (HMDPF), which he rode from roughly $10 to over $40.
There was clear alignment in how we think about these types of companies. Long operating histories. Limited coverage. Businesses that look boring until something starts to change.
Risk And Hedging
Yuval was candid about mistakes earlier in his career, particularly around options and currency exposure in Europe. Those experiences reshaped how he thinks about risk today.
Instead of shorting, he now uses put options as asymmetric hedges, along with a newer custom hedge designed for environments where factor behavior breaks down. He’s realistic about the trade-offs. Hedges cost money in calm markets, but they matter when volatility returns.
That realism stood out. Many investors probably treat risk management as an afterthought, not a core part of the process.
Fraud Awareness Forged by Experience
Another moment that resonated was Yuval’s discussion of fraud detection. He shared how getting burned in $TIOG, eventually exposed by Hindenburg Research, pushed him to rethink how manipulation shows up in financial statements.
That experience led him to adapt the Beneish M-Score, looking not just for traditional red flags but also for suspicious “too good” signals. Given our own background uncovering fraudulent microcaps, this part of the conversation hit close to home.
Why Boring Still Works
We ended the conversation where my conversations often end: with an appreciation for boring, under-followed companies that have been around for decades. Businesses where margins, earnings, or cash flow might finally be turning after years of neglect.
Yuval believes there’s real value in being early to those stories, before attention shows up. I tend to agree.
For investors interested in the intersection of data-driven discipline and deep small-cap hunting, the full conversation is well worth your time.
