Ep 209: Jessica Farr-Jones - How Regal’s Rising Star Finds Alpha in Chaos

Inside the Rope with David Clark

David Clark sits down with Jessica Farr-Jones, Portfolio Manager at Regal Partners, one of Australia’s most dynamic alternative investment firms now managing over $20 billion across hedge funds, private credit, real assets, and global equities. Jessica’s journey from JP Morgan’s investment-banking floors in Sydney & New York to launching her own $150 million Global Small Companies Fund inside Regal is a story of precision, discipline, and conviction. She reveals how her fascination with both maths and market psychology shaped her investment approach—one that blends the rigour of quantitative analysis with the intuition of great traders. Regal evolved from a billion-dollar boutique to a global powerhouse, and why its founder, Phil King, models the firm on the philosophy of Barcelona FC—attracting the world’s best talent to perpetuate excellence. Jessica unpacks: * The anatomy of a 20 % p.a. strategy and what it takes to consistently generate alpha across private and listed markets. * How Regal’s long-short framework creates “two times the opportunity to make money” without increasing net risk. * Why the rotation into small-caps could be the most powerful trade of the next market cycle. * And the lessons learned from early-stage investments in names like Life360, Zip, and Iris Energy, now a billion-dollar AI and Bitcoin infrastructure play. It’s a masterclass in portfolio construction, behavioural discipline, and staying nimble through cycles. Jessica’s insights offer a rare look inside how elite fund managers think—and why great investors marry data with intuition.