We’ve been through this before. People suggesting that while the traditional 60/40 portfolio surely isn’t the best portfolio, an average investor probably won’t know the difference between it and a better one – in advance – so why try. Here are our thoughts.
Category: Chart of the Week
13
Feb
2015
02
Feb
2015
Move over Crude, There’s a new Oil in Town
Argentina’s Biofuels Chamber, The EPA, The National Biodiesel Board, and the European Union!? Who knew Soybean Oil policies could be so exciting
20
Jan
2015
5 Reasons This Crude Move is Unbelievable
t’s been one amazing sell off in Crude Oil; so amazing we can’t stop writing about it. We’ve covered the long term picture of Crude, The Best Tweets from Crude’s Drop, How to Play a Bounce , and everyone else’s articles on crude. But we can’t stop staring at it… We’re the commodity focused moth to the proverbial flame.
But why is this sell off so amazing? What’s special about it?
09
Dec
2014
The Commodity Super Cycle Ain’t Over – Yet
Great long-form piece by Erik Swartz over at Market Anthropology talking the commodity super-cycle, and how it might not be dead… We’ve talked about it being on the way to the morgue here and here.
Mr. Swarts bases his logic on multiple comparisons to different past market regimes – be it the 1930s – 1940s interest rate regime, the 1970s commodity cycle, or the 1980s stock market breakout; and gets a bit technical both with his charts and the writing:
07
Nov
2014
Beef: Why there’s a Five Guys in your Town
It’s been a little over 10 months since we’ve looked at the Meat markets (Live and Feeder Cattle) hitting all time highs, and if you think that’s because the ascent has slowed down… think again. It’s almost become S&P-like boring to talk about…. Ho hum, another all time high in Cattle today as the market has marched on and on this year. . Feeder Cattle is up 42%, while Live cattle is up 22% YTD. But it’s not just this year. The cattle markets have been in a consistent uptrend the past 4-5 years, more than doubling in price since 2010 {past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results}.
22
Oct
2014
Would’a Could’a Should’a
The time frames over the past couple months where it might have been a good idea to diversify
17
Oct
2014
Under the Hood: Wisdom Tree’s Managed Futures ETF
how much “managed futures” exposure are you really getting with WDTI? We thought it was high time to meet their managed futures marketing blitzkrieg during this stock market correction with some data and information on how well this product does what it purports to do (track managed futures).
13
Oct
2014
Commodities Volatility in One Table
Here’s our monthly look at the various commodity ETFs and how they track a simple strategy of buying December futures and rolling them annually. Plus, a comparison to Ag Traders and an overall commodity index.
02
Oct
2014
Shhh… Managed Futures up 4.93% in Q3
Being in the managed futures biz, you might expect us to be leading a parade complete with marching band and tumbling coppers a’ la the opening scene of Austin Powers following a month like September, where two of the family of Attain Funds posted double digit returns, and the managed futures index was up 1.94% to finish the 3rd quarter up +4.93% (past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results)
29
Sep
2014
Long the US Dollar… And Loving it
We tend to have a knack for highlighting a certain market move or environment on the blog, and that market or environment quickly reversing course upon our piece hitting the airwaves. The latest example looks to be the Currency Markets. So it’s no coincidence that the ‘best quarter for the dollar in 4 years’ coincides with the best managed futures performance in 4 years. This is just the sort of move that managed futures programs are designed to capture.
