February 16, 2012
Attain Capital
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Managed futures isn’t for everyone, but how do you know if it’s for you? When someone calls us asking about managed futures, we often ask a series of questions to determine whether they’re well-suited for an investment in the asset class, and what type of investment in the asset class should be made. Trying to figure out if it’s a good fit for you? Ask yourself:
- How much risk capital do I have available to invest? If you’re looking through our database of managed futures programs, you might be cringing a little bit at the price tag of investing in the asset class. $5 million and $10 million minimum investment levels have been enough to turn many an investor off to the idea of allocating with a CTA. Now, you don’t necessarily have to put up the full amount due to the use of notional funding (see here for a full explanation), but if you’re looking to do managed accounts, you should probably have a minimum of $250,000 available to invest.
- How strong is my stomach? If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times – drawdowns can and do happen. How much of a loss could you take in your account before you started losing sleep? If your answer is around 5%, then managed futures may not be a good fit. In the long-term, if you’re using the managed futures indices as an imperfect proxy for the asset class’ performance, a 5% loss ten years ago would have been made up for several times over, but if the very idea of a sharp loss makes you queasy, then you probably don’t have the requisite risk tolerance to successfully invest in managed futures. On the other hand, if you can weather through a 5%, 10% or larger drawdown, your tolerance may make you a good investment candidate, and there are a variety of CTAs that may fall within your comfort level.
- How old are you? This may seem largely irrelevant, but if you’re 85 years old, betting your nest egg on an investment, and it suffers a 20% drawdown, it doesn’t matter where you invested – you’re in trouble. Appropriate risk management according to your age and goals is critical in the managed futures space.
- How would you describe your investing style? If the immediate answer here sounds like “buy-and-hold” or “passive”, managed futures is not for you. Successfully investing in managed futures requires perpetual risk management. While working with the right broker can take care of the laborious parts of that, you’ll still need to have open and honest communications with the broker to ensure that the portfolio you build is appropriate for you, where you’re at in life, and what you’re trying to accomplish.
Of course, if you’re trying to invest in a program reserved for QEPs or Accredited Investors, there are a slew of additional questions you’ll need to answer. It surprises people to hear that, based on answers to questions like these, we’re typically more likely to turn a potential investor away than advise them to allocate. While some might think that’s crazy, we think that’s us doing our job. What would we tell you? Your answers to these questions are a good starting point.
Disclaimer
The performance data displayed herein is compiled from various sources, including BarclayHedge, and reports directly from the advisors. These performance figures should not be relied on independent of the individual advisor's disclosure document, which has important information regarding the method of calculation used, whether or not the performance includes proprietary results, and other important footnotes on the advisor's track record.
The programs listed here are a sub-set of the full list of programs able to be accessed by subscribing to the database and reflect programs we currently work with and/or are more familiar with.
Benchmark index performance is for the constituents of that index only, and does not represent the entire universe of possible investments within that asset class. And further, that there can be limitations and biases to indices such as survivorship, self reporting, and instant history. Individuals cannot invest in the index itself, and actual rates of return may be significantly different and more volatile than those of the index.
Managed futures accounts can subject to substantial charges for management and advisory fees. The numbers within this website include all such fees, but it may be necessary for those accounts that are subject to these charges to make substantial trading profits in the future to avoid depletion or exhaustion of their assets.
Investors interested in investing with a managed futures program (excepting those programs which are offered exclusively to qualified eligible persons as that term is defined by CFTC regulation 4.7) will be required to receive and sign off on a disclosure document in compliance with certain CFT rules The disclosure documents contains a complete description of the principal risk factors and each fee to be charged to your account by the CTA, as well as the composite performance of accounts under the CTA's management over at least the most recent five years. Investor interested in investing in any of the programs on this website are urged to carefully read these disclosure documents, including, but not limited to the performance information, before investing in any such programs.
Those investors who are qualified eligible persons as that term is defined by CFTC regulation 4.7 and interested in investing in a program exempt from having to provide a disclosure document and considered by the regulations to be sophisticated enough to understand the risks and be able to interpret the accuracy and completeness of any performance information on their own.
RCM receives a portion of the commodity brokerage commissions you pay in connection with your futures trading and/or a portion of the interest income (if any) earned on an account's assets. The listed manager may also pay RCM a portion of the fees they receive from accounts introduced to them by RCM.
Limitations on RCM Quintile + Star Rankings
The Quintile Rankings and RCM Star Rankings shown here are provided for informational purposes only. RCM does not guarantee the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of this information. The ranking methodology is proprietary and the results have not been audited or verified by an independent third party. Some CTAs may employ trading programs or strategies that are riskier than others. CTAs may manage customer accounts differently than their model results shown or make different trades in actual customer accounts versus their own accounts. Different CTAs are subject to different market conditions and risks that can significantly impact actual results. RCM and its affiliates receive compensation from some of the rated CTAs. Investors should perform their own due diligence before investing with any CTA. This ranking information should not be the sole basis for any investment decision.
See the full terms of use and risk disclaimer here.
Disclaimer
The performance data displayed herein is compiled from various sources, including BarclayHedge, and reports directly from the advisors. These performance figures should not be relied on independent of the individual advisor's disclosure document, which has important information regarding the method of calculation used, whether or not the performance includes proprietary results, and other important footnotes on the advisor's track record.
The programs listed here are a sub-set of the full list of programs able to be accessed by subscribing to the database and reflect programs we currently work with and/or are more familiar with.
Benchmark index performance is for the constituents of that index only, and does not represent the entire universe of possible investments within that asset class. And further, that there can be limitations and biases to indices such as survivorship, self reporting, and instant history. Individuals cannot invest in the index itself, and actual rates of return may be significantly different and more volatile than those of the index.
Managed futures accounts can subject to substantial charges for management and advisory fees. The numbers within this website include all such fees, but it may be necessary for those accounts that are subject to these charges to make substantial trading profits in the future to avoid depletion or exhaustion of their assets.
Investors interested in investing with a managed futures program (excepting those programs which are offered exclusively to qualified eligible persons as that term is defined by CFTC regulation 4.7) will be required to receive and sign off on a disclosure document in compliance with certain CFT rules The disclosure documents contains a complete description of the principal risk factors and each fee to be charged to your account by the CTA, as well as the composite performance of accounts under the CTA's management over at least the most recent five years. Investor interested in investing in any of the programs on this website are urged to carefully read these disclosure documents, including, but not limited to the performance information, before investing in any such programs.
Those investors who are qualified eligible persons as that term is defined by CFTC regulation 4.7 and interested in investing in a program exempt from having to provide a disclosure document and considered by the regulations to be sophisticated enough to understand the risks and be able to interpret the accuracy and completeness of any performance information on their own.
RCM receives a portion of the commodity brokerage commissions you pay in connection with your futures trading and/or a portion of the interest income (if any) earned on an account's assets. The listed manager may also pay RCM a portion of the fees they receive from accounts introduced to them by RCM.
Limitations on RCM Quintile + Star Rankings
The Quintile Rankings and RCM Star Rankings shown here are provided for informational purposes only. RCM does not guarantee the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of this information. The ranking methodology is proprietary and the results have not been audited or verified by an independent third party. Some CTAs may employ trading programs or strategies that are riskier than others. CTAs may manage customer accounts differently than their model results shown or make different trades in actual customer accounts versus their own accounts. Different CTAs are subject to different market conditions and risks that can significantly impact actual results. RCM and its affiliates receive compensation from some of the rated CTAs. Investors should perform their own due diligence before investing with any CTA. This ranking information should not be the sole basis for any investment decision.
See the full terms of use and risk disclaimer here.