“Behold the greatest piece of trading art ever created. The piece is untitled, undated (likely from early 1970s) and by an unknown artist (Alfred Marshall), yet like the Mona Lisa it can be admired for it’s simplicity, intriguing facial expression and style which reflects upon it’s subject. I hereby entitle it Smug Trader.”
Category: Managed Futures
07
Jul
2014
Managed Futures June Performance
After a bumpy start to the year, the average YTD performance of the 4 managed futures indices we track has managed to pull itself into the positive for the first time in 2014 {disclaimer: past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results}. Here’s the month by month performance of Managed Futures for 2014 thus far:
02
Jul
2014
Would you like some Volatility with that Pulled Pork
Despite news of this virus hitting 14 months ago, the volatility has continued especially in the last three months, with 5 more limit moves (4 up, 1 down) to put the Hog market at the most limit moves experienced in the last 6 years.
30
Jun
2014
The Climate of Volatility, Investing, and Science
Some people have been saying Barry Rithotz’s writing has been going downhill of late (here), and we did like the old non-Bloomberg Barry a little better ourselves if truth must be told – but one of his most recent pieces is a peach, where he ties in volatility, investing, science, and climate change together. His basic message – don’t think about it as global warming, or even climate change. Think about it as a dramatic increase in the global climate’s volatility, what he calls Global Weather Volatility. And don’t get caught up in the politics about it, get caught up in how to invest in it. As Ritholtz puts it:
23
Jun
2014
Lessons Learned From 37 Years of Futures Trading
Managed Futures have come a long way in the past 37 years, and so has Barbara Mueller, who will be retiring at the end of March after nearly four decades dealing with futures trading. Barbara has been working in the industry since 1973, and has been an invaluable asset to Attain Capital since 2006.
In honor of her retirement, we’re taking a break from our traditional analysis this week to pay tribute to Ms. Mueller. It has been an honor to work with someone as knowledgeable, talented and motivated as Barbara, and here she provides us with her (often comical) insight from 37 years of experience in the world of futures trading.
23
Jun
2014
The Top 10 Managed Futures Performers of May
While one month’s performance is no way to judge an investment that has 3 to 5 year cycles, a glance at who’s doing well in the different environments month to month can be a useful data point at times. Here’s the top managed futures performers (by return only) for the month gone by:
19
Jun
2014
The Folly of Prediction (World Cup Style)
But analyzing the past performance of a soccer team and its players isn’t “inside information,” it’s past performance. And past performance has a nasty way of being a terrible indicator of future performance, especially when you get 11 different people on each team. At the very least, that’s 22 degrees of freedom put into the mix. Add in what they ate the day before, how their feeling, whether they got in a fight with their significant other, the weather, the referee, and all of the rest; you’re talking hundreds if not thousands of moving parts. That is – as they say – why they play the game.
17
Jun
2014
And Now… Some Words From Winton’s David Harding
Tonight kicks off a rigorous and what we hope to be exciting few days in Chicago with three different events; the first being the Pinnacle Awards. The hype surrounding this year’s awards is Winton’s CEO, David Harding, receiving the Pinnacle Achievement Award. We’re no stranger to writing about Harding’s success story, but we’ve never gotten […]
16
Jun
2014
Asset Class Scoreboard – YTD
The old “Sell in May” theory juxtaposed against nearly every asset class seeing gains in May seems to be a perfect case in point:
13
Jun
2014
Conference Time, Chicago Style
We’re a week away from Alternative Investment Managers flooding the streets of Chicago to talk shop, make connections, learn something new, and hopefully go home with a shiny award to prove how smart they are. What are we talking about? How about three conferences/awards/forums in Chicago in the same week!, with the Attain team in and around all of them if you want to say hi.
