We’ve been talking a lot about quants and algos recently – like this whitepaper, this blog, and this blog – which only strengthens the thought that, though necessary, quants and algos can be confusing. Even for us, who happen to share coffee and donuts with a whole in-house team of quants dedicated to working on […]
Category: Alternative Investments
13
Jun
2019
Remember Bitcoin?
We’ll forgive you if you’ve deleted those files from your brain, but Bitcoin is slowly creeping back into the collective investing consciousness of late. Why? Well, more than doubling from $3,500 to $7,000 in starts to put you back in the conversation. 2019 Returns… Bitcoin $BTC: +111% REITs $VNQ: +20% Nasdaq 100 $QQQ: +18% Oil […]
03
Jun
2019
Asset Class Scoreboard: May
And there we have it folks, the reversal we’ve all been waiting for. After 4 straight months of positive returns, every class aside from Bonds and Cash took some big hits. Managed futures came in in the middle of the pack seeing a -2.33% and Commodities are down almost 9% (no surprise there since we’ve […]
21
May
2019
The Chinese trade war is affecting American soybeans
Sure is tough to be an American farmer these days, with headlines like this popping up around President Trump’s ongoing trade war with the Chinese: Nowhere is this pain being felt more than in the Soybean market, which is the second largest financially important crop in the U.S., with $41 Billion with soybeans grown in […]
16
May
2019
Meb Faber’s Killer Podcast List
We list Meb Faber and his blog at www.mebfaber.com amongst our ‘required reading’ list of books and blogs, and had the opportunity to sit with him and a few members of his unofficial fan club in Chicago last week during the Morningstar Investment Conference. The unofficial Chicago @MebFaber fan club – vol, asset allocation, dividends […]
01
May
2019
Opening the door to China Trading
If you’re anything like us, posts like this explaining just how different China is than things here in the U.S. never cease to amaze: This is the Shanghai-Beijing train going at 350 km/h As @yfreemark said: “The distance between NYC and Chicago is almost exactly that between Beijing and Shanghai. NYC-CHI is served by 1 […]
18
Apr
2019
Don’t throw out Managed Futures with the Risk Premia bathwater
We half-jokingly asked in our Managed Futures/Global Macro 2019 Outlook, “Is this asset class working for you?” following a year in which managed futures didn’t deliver the crisis period performance they’ve become known for. But a recent piece in the hedge fund journal shows it wasn’t just trend following type CTAs that under performed in […]
01
Apr
2019
Q1 Asset Class Scoreboard
Bounce. Bounce. 2019 continued to be the year of the bounce – with everyone now in on the act once managed futures finally decided to get in the game with its largest gains since January of 2018. Add it all up and you have everyone solidly in the black in what has become quite the […]
27
Mar
2019
Semi-Annual Managed Futures Rankings (Updated March 2019)
Now that the 1st two rounds of March Madness are out of the way, we’re ready to share our Semi-Annual Managed Futures Rankings. We’ve been analyzing and testing a rankings system that would best reflect what we believe to be the important metrics for measuring skill in this investment space for the better part of […]
20
Mar
2019
March Madness Shows Just How Little We Understand Probabilities
March madness is baaaaacccckkk. And so is FiveThiryEight and others like them running boatloads of statistical analysis to arrive at probabilities for each team advancing through each round. Duke with a 91% chance to reach the Sweet 16 and 52% chance to reach the Final Four. Sign me up, those are some pretty good […]
