Thanks to all of the customers, managers, vendors, and the folks at CTA Intelligence for recognizing all of the hard work we do here, with our second straight Best Introducing Broker award. We don’t do it for awards… in fact we like to give out the awards around here (see our Top 15 managers and ‘Commy’ awards); we do it because it is challenging, because it is fun, and because we love doing it.
Category: Managed Futures
09
Feb
2015
Attain Funds – January Performance
Our Four Family of Alternative Investment Funds started off January strong, posting positive gains in all four funds and three of the four hitting new all time highs. The Global Macro fund had its best single month return since its inception of the fund at +9.04%, +26% since the launch of the fund
05
Feb
2015
Let the Good Trends Roll
Managed Futures managers might as well be singing Louis Jordan’s 1940’s original “Let the Good (Trends) Roll,” after the first month of 2015 came to a close. Forgive us for our artistic interpretation of the famous song, we just thought it captured the current environment. Now, any trend follower will tell you there is no such thing […]
04
Feb
2015
Alternative Links: “We Basically Controlled the Oil World”
We basically controlled the oil world,” said Al Kaplan, former president of Phibro’s energy unit. Mr Kaplan. “It was quite amazing. We had very good people. There was no price dissemination, so we used to tell people what the price was.”
30
Jan
2015
28
Jan
2015
Alternative Links: A Big Surprise
“CTA managers were the big surprise in terms of returns in 2014. No one would have predicted such strong returns from this hedge fund category at the beginning of the year.”
27
Jan
2015
Managed Futures: 2014 Review & 2015 Outlook
Our 2014 review starts in the obvious place, rehashing Managed Futures come back year, where it posted its best performance since 2008. But we quickly find it wasn’t a “textbook” volatility expansion / stock market crisis period environment that gave Managed Futures its boost. In fact, 64% of futures markets actually experienced a decrease in market volatility, per our measure of the average true range.
26
Jan
2015
Crude Oil Wrapped Bacon (and Beef)
The first month of 2015 has been anything but dull in the futures markets. Many point to Crude’s Unbelievable sell off, or the Swiss Franc shooting up around 25% against the U.S. Dollar, but what we’re noticing down here on the front lines of commodity trading is the meat markets big run up might finally be coming to an end.
22
Jan
2015
10 of the Best Managed Futures Programs of 2014
But managed futures investors typically don’t invest in the asset class, they invest in managed futures programs (and funds). They invest in real managers doing real trades with real money. Which brings us to… the top such managers (by returns only) last year.
19
Jan
2015
A History Lesson in the VIX and Volatility
this three day weekend is a painful reminder in the investment space… after a huge volatility spike… which was what some say was the beginnings of what later became the financial crisis if 2008-2009 {Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results}. Last year, we covered the five year anniversary, and we feel it’s important to revisit each year. Here’s “A Different Kind of History Lesson (The VIX).”
