First, on an elementary level, you won’t find anything on the CME website detailing a restriction on managers exceeding an arbitrary assets under management, from entering into a position into any market, nevertheless any of the grain markets. That’s not to say the question is entirely off; the root of the question, and in our opinion, the far more intriguing factor is not that they can’t but that they mostly don’t. Here’s why.
Category: Macro Commentary
25
Nov
2013
5 “other” All Time Highs
Is it just us or does all this coverage of the stock market indices seem like a broken record? Which got us to thinking of all the other things that are all time highs currently (besides the number of Attain employee children, collective age and weight in our office, etc), some having to do with the stock market, some decidedly not so…5 other areas where products/usage/items are at all time highs.
21
Nov
2013
The Surprising Connection That The Worst Performing ETF’s Share
When is enough, enough? That’s the question you have to be repeating to yourself if you’re a Gold Bull. Or maybe, the better question is, that’s what you have to be thinking if you’re invested in a long Gold ETF. Upon surfing the interwebs for useful financial commentary and statistics, we stumbled upon the Worst 10 ETF performer’s YTD from Index Universe… and can you guess what most of them had in common?
19
Nov
2013
Nobody ever lost money in a Spreadsheet
After decades of experience with trading systems and CTA’s, we are comfortable with the phrase (Past Performance is not necessarily indicative of future results), as well as disclaimers for hypothetical performance due to back testing. But what irks us, is when other advisors/investors aren’t held to the same standard. And it seems that back testing is being applied to the $1.7 trillion ETF market. And even if back testing is done correctly (which is a difficult task to accomplish), there are still some pitfalls.
18
Nov
2013
Diversification: Giving up some home runs, to avoid future strikeouts
We love Carl Richards money doodles on the New York Times ‘Bucks’ blog, and noticed this older post, which is even more timely than ever, the topic of diversification. The angle – diversification isn’t all roses and candy canes. It’s hard to stick to because it involves giving up something (hitting home runs) in order to get something (never striking out).
14
Nov
2013
Chart of the Week: Bring on the Bitcoin Futures?
With the majority of major currencies being downplayed it’s hard to imagine little Bitcoin, a digital currency grabbing the currency headlines. In less than a month it’s gained around 210% percent…. The more interesting thing to us in the managed futures world, who are semi-starved for a trend, is looking at this parabolic trend in Bitcoin and wishing there were a futures market tracking it so our clients could participate.
13
Nov
2013
4 Charts that have everything and nothing to do with Crude Oil Speculation
If there’s one thing the United States has been hell bent on, it’s reclaiming the number one oil producer in the world, and last month we achieved it! Is this the reason for the fall in gas prices? Does this mean we’re going to continue to see gas below $3.00/a gallon nationwide? Does this mean crude prices won’t be affected as much because of unrest in the Middle East? No, no, and no, and here’s why.
12
Nov
2013
Did he just say that Diversification was broken?
We’ve been starting to see more and more of this lately…. People eschewing diversification for the big returns from being fully invested in the stock market. Columnist John Authers joins the list with an article, stating “Diversification looks bad when it turns out you don’t need it.” That’s a harmless enough statement in and of itself. A lifejacket looks silly when you don’t need it. But Authers calls out the post child of diversification, the Yale Endowment, and we think otherwise.
07
Nov
2013
What if you had invested $1,000 in these (other) IPO’s
The finance world was abuzz today about Twitter’s much ballyhooed IPO, which quickly rose $45, good for 73% over the listing price. It looked all too easy, and one of the bloggers over at Stocktwits dug up a chart showing the major success of all the tech IPO’s… They chose Amazon, Ebay, and Yahoo. But what about the Tech IPO busts? Turns out investing in tech IPOs is no sure fire bet…
05
Nov
2013
Futures Trading is Risky: Myth or Fact
By now, we in the managed futures world are used to the unwarranted assumptions about who we are and what we do, but what can we do to dispel these notions? While we’ll be the first to tell you that individual futures trading is risky (in fact we’re require to say it), Mike Dever with his book “Jackass Investing” tackles a similar notion, “Is Managed Futures equally or less risky than the Stock Market?”
