This might be a humble brag, but 2018 was a great year for our Attain Alternatives blog. Content was pushed out covering non-correlation, backwardation, the world cup and the crazy year for managed futures. We put together the top 10 blogs of 2018 — based on the number of reads. If you haven’t already, take a look at your favorite posts of the year.
- None of Us Understand Probability
Algorithms don’t produce absolute certainties. But what really is the difference between a 56% chance and 64% chance that your team is going to win, aside from the obvious +/-8%. We took a look at the 2017 World Cup and tried to use that to explain the probability of understanding probability.
- LJM – The Autopsy
We put our internal RCM-X quants team to work, digging up the numbers on the LJMIX SEC filing and took a look at the risk profile of this thing heading into February. - Real Estate as a Portfolio Diversifier
“Investors say they want non-correlated assets, but what they really want is non-correlated assets that don’t get crushed when stocks fall.” We had our own reservations when reading his work, but we couldn’t deny the facts that Carlson brought to the table on the implied protection of real estate, and that it may not be as reliable as it seems. - Infographic: The Top 100 Managed Futures Programs
We show the top 100 unique managed futures programs by their average monthly assets under management from inception through the end of 2017. The unique part means you won’t see Man AHL’s flagship program and their newer Evolution program – which are both within the top 20. We further grouped this list by strategy type, and again by geographic location to get an idea of what the breakdown of assets looks like among these titans.
- What’s wrong with AQR – Part II
This is the follow up to our first post “What’s wrong with AQR.” But nearly a year later, part II talks about the essential copy and paste movements we saw with the AQR from the year prior and our thoughts on why it’s happening again.
- Three Alternative Funds Walk into a Bar
Let’s talk about what happens when three alternative funds “walk” into your everyday 60/40 portfolio and compare the risks when adding those three different alternatives. We also threw in a killer joke at the end that’s at least worth the effort to read.
- Where’s the Non-Correlation?
Managed futures generally under-perform during the first part of a crisis and outperform during the second part. But back in February, there was no “second part.” Instead, alternatives essentially mirrored the stock market, even though they’re a non-correlated investment. In this post we cleared up our thoughts on why this went down.
- Commodities in Backwardation – Cheers
Backwardation: a period where contracts that are further out are priced lower than the near-term contracts. And in May of 2018, more than half of the commodities in the GSCI Commodity index were in backwardation – which meant potentially good things for CTAs.
- Managed Futures Crazy 2018
We went back into our data to find out how crazy the first plunge of 2018 was compared to that same week in years past. Turns out, the SG CTA Index downturn was an outlier being one of just 3 out of 945 weeks that was below -5%.
- Innovation in Changing Hedge Funds
With it’s history of innovation, the future of hedge funds is always in limbo. But this year the AIMA put out a nine-piece explaining the future of hedge funds from industry experts. We pulled out the important stuff in our post, talking about smart beta and alternative beta, quants and the growth of data, conscience focused investments and hedge fund distribution.
Check out the best of 2019 posts – as they come out! Subscribe to the Attain Alternatives blog to get posts just like the ones above delivered directly to your inbox.
