The annual Pinnacle awards show put on by the CME and BarclayHedge (now Backstop solutions) does as good a job as any in promoting the industry and awarding those who have stood out in the recent past for their good performance. Which is why we have been proud to sponsor the event for many years. […]
Category: Alternative Investments
09
Jul
2019
02
Jul
2019
Asset Class Scoreboard: June 2019
It’s like someone put a mirror between asset classes in May and June – with most asset classes performing nearly the exact opposite side of their percentage from the month before. Low volatility continues to persist (as we had suggested at the beginning of the year) bringing in big positives across the board after the […]
26
Apr
2020
Valuing VIX and Volatility with Joe Tigay on The Derivative
VIX and volatility are buzz words that every trader knows, thinks about, and maybe even utilizes. But VIX and volatility are subjects to not be taken too lightly – experts like Joe Tigay of Equity Armor Investments have spent years and years perfecting an understanding of the VIX curve, skew, and timing to get in […]
20
Jun
2019
Why use automated execution algorithms? Here’s why.
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 […]
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 […]
