“The Catalyst” Publication is Back in Action!
A late introduction to what “The Catalyst” will bring, and an even later preface to who I am
Hello everyone, my name is Ian Hartana and I am the editor-in-chief of the publication, The Catalyst, by Alumnus Capital.
What Is Alumnus Capital?
Alumnus Capital was started by a group of motivated finance enthusiasts who wanted to help others gain hands-on investing opportunities. Slowly, we’ve worked toward becoming a global student-managed fund with collaborators all across the world. While Alumnus is currently shifting away from long/short equity investments, we are continuing to recruit students to join teams like HR, quantitative research, and equity analysis to continue spreading pre-professional experience “for teenagers, by teenagers. ”
Learn more here: https://www.alumnuscap.com/
What is The Catalyst?
The Catalyst is a branch of Alumnus Capital that works to publish finance/economics-related articles on Medium. Our writers also write under publications like Brass for Brain, AI Mind, and Insider Finance Wire. The Catalyst is where our writers can go to publish anything they are interested in that has implications in finance or economics. From analyzing decision-making in investments, financial news headlines, or more in-depth product or industry analyst, The Catalyst is a page “catalyzing” the future of ideas and writers.
How Can I Join as a Writer
Feel free to email me at ihartana@gmail.com or leave a comment under this post so we can start contacting each other!
We currently have around 7 writers and will continue posting at least once a day. In the future, we plan to work with other organizations to spread our image and perhaps find event locations to give conferences or speeches.
Our Most Recent Posts:
The South China Sea’s Geopolitical Tension and Economic Implications
by Aryan Garg
The Role of ESG Criteria in Investment Decisions: A Beginner’s Guide
by Rushil Singh
All Time Highlights
The Consequences of Generative AI by Abhi Badia
Will “Sustainable Energy” Finally be Sustainable? by Ian Hartana
“Funflation”: A Double-Edged Sword by Aryan Garg
The Financial Implications Of Computational Biology: An Emerging Gold Rush by Rohith Jeganathan
Airline Mergers & the DOJ by Krish Kawle
Donuts, an Unlikely Economic Treat? by Leonardo Ndreu
Each week, I’ll be posting a weekly summary of each article, for those who want just 1 article and get a taste of what we have to offer.
Context About Myself
I started as a writer under The Catalyst a while back. While I was a co-founder of Alumnus Capital and mainly was helping teams create equity reports, I slowly drifted away from the lead role there to become a writer, and eventually the lead editor and manager of the publications.
At first, my publications were just a way to share my trading journey. In our first pilot into Medium, I uploaded around 10 articles sharing tidbits of my trading journey. When we eventually revamped our UI and website, I scrapped my old work and produced my first article which you can find now on my profile.
While I did love writing about my trading journey, I learned that the audience here on Medium catered toward more self-improvement, and general tidbits of information, especially those related to psychology, wellness, and overall improvement. Thus, as I slowly began my own independent behavioral economics research with a mentor from Capital Group and professors from ASU and UT Austin, I slowly integrated more bite-sized pieces of information into my Medium articles. Now, most of my articles focus on behavioral economics or finance, and more overarching topics that can apply to daily life. While I admit that some of my articles were more dense (these were taken from my actual research papers), I’m glad to have garnered a decent following for my content.
In addition to my writing here, I also enjoy writing a deeper financial analysis on Seeking Alpha. I am an editor for an account called Alma Street Capital and you can check out our content here if that piques your interest.
For more beginner-friendly advice, you can check out my Finance Club’s InvestorPlace account called Chandler Capital. Our goal here is to empower students to help us write simple bite-sized equity reports that are carefully edited and quality checked for professional websites.
Looking into a longer-term horizon, I plan to shift my content toward behavioral finance in the context of more recent developments. Whether that is analyzing companies and their trends from the lens of a behavioral economist, or seeing how news releases have inherent irrational biases, I intend to share ideas from another perspective that many readers often glaze over. While I will be continuing my more in-depth topic research, I have been scouted and will be working with The Decision Lab for that. They also focus on democratizing education to a wider audience, and I should be posting there every other month or so.
My articles here on Medium will mostly be published every other week, so be sure to keep watch for the post. See you then!
