The Top 10 Alternative Articles in 2015

There’s never enough hours in the day to read all the investment news articles pertinent to your life. Now that we all have a little downtime in between the holidays, we wanted to make sure you didn’t miss the articles our readers found the most interesting.

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Top 10 Alternative Articles 2015

1.How to Play a Bounce in Oil (Hint: Not $USO)

Crude Oil continues to the most captivating story in the commodity markets in 2015. Given that investors have spent $24 Billion trying to find a bottom in the oil market, we aren’t surprised people took to the interest to look at possible ways to play the bounce in crude oil. Our suggestions or semi-serious and semi-humor.

2.7 Technical Indicators to tell when the Crude Sell Off is Done

Despite the talking heads at CNBC and click-bait Bloomberg headlines, it’s more difficult than you think when trying to determine when the crude oil market is done dropping. Which leaves us with the question, how can you tell when these articles are just stirring the crude oil pot, and when is the market actually coming out of its months long downturn? How do professional trend followers tell when a trend is over? Or about to be over?

3. “The Dangers of the Death Cross Indicator”

Back in August, the Dow Jones Index crossed this fear striking indicator for the first time since 2011, sparking (perhaps) false fear in the markets. But it made us think… should you be worried about the most ominous market indicator out there? Are the dark days ahead.

4. “Infographic: 7 Traditional vs 7 Alternative Assets in 5 Bear Markets”

We tried our hardest to find an easy to read article (or graph) of the major asset classes and how they performed over the various crisis periods in the last 20 or so something, and couldn’t… so we decided to do it ourselves.

5. “How did Managed Futures do while the Dow was Down 1000”

If we were to describe the stock market behavior in 2015, we would say choppy. Inside some of those days, the Dow Jones managed rise and fall 1000 points. These volatile moves are just the kind of environment some Managed Futures strategies look for. Here’s how some managers did during those periods.

6. “Fibonacci Numbers & Fibonacci Retracements”

Our friend Dana Lyons over at Yahoo always has the best charts, bringing to mind Jack Nicholson’s Joker in the original Batman movie saying the line: “Where does he get those wonderful toys.” And they usually have something in common: a 61.8% Fibonacci Retracement line. So what are Fibonacci Retracements?

7. “Sharpe Ratio: the Black Sheep of Risk Analysis”

We can’t believe it’s been almost 4 years since we last spent time talking about the most popular, and most controversial risk adjusted ratio out there. The Sharpe Ratio is confusing to some because it’s not actually showing a percentage return or the like. Meaning, we can’t visualize what 0.58 looks like on a chart, or if that means more or less returns.

8. “CTAs: 5 Reasons to Take on AQR”

Is taking on the Apples, the Ubers, the Wintons, or the AQRs worth it? A non-industry article we just read really resonated with us. The gist of the article? Go for it!

9. “Looking Under the MLP Hood

And what wasn’t to like, they were doing it on both ends – paying the yield and appreciating in price.  But four years of pretty 7% dividends and steady growth in price can be wiped out in a few short months – making this more than just about the yield.

10. “The Swiss (Franc) isn’t all that Neutral”

It’s hard to believe that it was almost a year ago the neutral Swiss detonated the biggest bomb the financial markets have seen in quite some time; de-pegging themselves from the Euro. For any traders or managers out there that had Swiss exposure at the time, this will be a morning they’ll remember for the rest of their career. If this doesn’t seem all that crazy to you, imagine it in Dow terms, where the move (in just an hour or so’s time) was the equivalent of the DJIA moving 4,300 points…( in an hour).

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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.

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