2016 will not go down as a year to remember in the Managed Futures/Global Macro space. There were moments where managers found returns in bouts of strong market movement (like 12 months ago in January of ‘16), but that’s about it. As a whole, the asset classes finished down -2.89% in 2016, via the SocGen […]
Author: rcm-alternatives
20
Jan
2017
Weekend Reads: Revolutionizing Finance
When the corn, wheat and oats futures contracts debuted in 1877, little did the 12 men who founded the Chicago Board of Trade realize they were creating a vehicle that would result in trillions of dollars traded globally every year. How Grain Futures Contracts Revolutionized Finance – (Open Markets) AQR Capital Management’s flagship managed […]
18
Jan
2017
Alternative Links: The Fiduciary Rule
A “fiduciary duty” is the highest standard of care recognized in American law. Among other things it means that you must act solely in the best interest of the client at all times.” Cliff Asness – Caveat Investor? The “Fiduciary Rule” and Unintended Consequences – (ValueWalk) The well-known “crisis alpha” characteristics of trend-following strategies […]
17
Jan
2017
4 Energy Traders you Won’t See on Bloomberg
It all started at the trail end of 2014. Crude Oil fell significantly below the $100 level and kept heading lower. About that time, a friend of a friend asked where he should turn to find a few interesting ways to play a “bounce” in Crude Oil. We obliged, writing “How to Play A Bounce in Crude […]
13
Jan
2017
Weekend Reads: 45% With No Savings
The firm expects the correlation between equities and bonds to turn positive in coming years, which means it’d be tougher to get foolproof diversification by reallocating between the two asset classes. Now Bernstein is warning about passive *asset allocation* decisions, too – (FT Alphaville) Gundlach thinks that earnings will go up, but “with an […]
11
Jan
2017
Alternative Links: Scapegoats
As AQR sees it, computer-driven funds are just scapegoats in a doomed quest to explain jarring market movements. Topping the enemies list is JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Kolanovic, viewed by many as a gnomic visionary after calling an equity rout in the summer of 2015, blaming forced selling by automated funds. Wall Street’s Most Famous […]
09
Jan
2017
What can Managed Futures expect from ‘The Great Rotation’?
Originally posted on CTA Intelligence When the markets don’t react in the way you think they should, it’s a harsh reminder of the rule that past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. For the last five years, the street has been littered with failed trades trying to correctly pick the exact moment the […]
04
Jan
2017
Alternative Links: Best Diversifying Options
But even amid the gloom, managed futures was the only alternatives category to be in net positive flows, perhaps a sign that advisors have come to recognize managed-futures funds as one of the best diversifying options in a portfolio. The Year in Alternative Funds: A Bumpy Road With Some Bright Spots – (MorningStar) Money […]
03
Jan
2017
Final 2016 Asset Class Results
December proved to be the only month in all of 2016 in which all of the asset classes we track ended the month in the black. Long-Only Commodities and Real Estate both recorded a 4% return in the last month of 2016, ending in the top bracket of the scoreboard. But this 12-month view can […]
30
Dec
2016
The Best and Worst Futures Markets of 2016
Twenty-sixteen is just about in the books, which means it’s our cue to draw some quick conclusions about the performance of the various commodity futures markets. Now that crude oil looks like it’s bottomed off from it’s multi-year decline, people are starting to get bullish on long-only commodity ETFs – with some even suggesting the […]
