It’s not every day you see a Forbes 400 Member settle a class action suit surrounding market manipulation – but that was exactly what’s happened. Futures Industry ‘Hall of Famer’ Louis Moore Bacon’s firm Moore Capital has agreed to pay $48 Million to settle allegations of manipulating Platinum and Palladium prices. There’s no knowing what really happened, either way if you traded Platinum and Palladium why not submit your claim for part of it.
Category: Managed Futures
27
Aug
2013
26
Aug
2013
The “Bond King” coming to Managed Futures
Look out Managed Futures! Here comes the Bond King! Bill Gross is buying the drawdown in managed futures…well sort of. Pimco has filed papers with the SEC to open a Managed Futures Mutual Fund. While we are never too found of these mutual funds, it’s a little early to pass judgment. So what’s Bill Gross’s reason to invest in Managed Futures right now?
22
Aug
2013
Goldfinger, Gold iPhone, and Gold Backwardation!
Our society hasn’t lost its obsession with that shinny medal just yet. First Apple is in talks of a gold iPhone, and a great piece on Slate’s Blog MoneyBox talking about the political and economic undertones on the James Bond Classic: Goldfinger. Was this a classic Bond film with the ejector seat car, or a movie about the Bretton-Woods system of semi-fixed exchange rates restricting British citizens from buying and storing large quantities of gold. The piece draws some eerie parallels with today, noting that Labour Party Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
21
Aug
2013
EuroDollars: the Biggest Market You’ve Never Heard of
What’s the most common futures market in nearly every managed futures portfolio we run across? The Eurodollar. While many mistake it as the official currency of the European Union, it actually refers to the US dollars deposited abroad. EuroDollar futures contracts are derivatives on the interest rate paid on those deposits. So why are million’s of these contracts being traded a day?
16
Aug
2013
Zilmax doing zilcho to Cattle futures?
Organic food lovers and animal rights activists alike are celebrating after a domino effect of large players doing away with the growth inducing drug Zilmax, partially because the cattle were so big they struggled to move. While this hasn’t effected cattle futures, one meat trader we work with put in a position due to the news. Here’s the logic behind it all.
15
Aug
2013
Asset Class Scoreboard: July 2013
We’re half way through August, but it’s worth looking back at how the asset classes stacked against each other in the month of July. Managed Futures remains in the middle of the pack, but its still positive YTD. Meanwhile, stocks make big gains, and commodities are no longer in last place.
14
Aug
2013
John Henry buying the Newspaper Drawdown?
John Henry must not be hurting too bad from his eponymous managed futures program’s closing down in 2012, as the futures industry hall of famer recently made headlines for buying the Boston Globe from the New York Times for $70 Million. And while the days of hearing John Henry’s name mentioned alongside managed futures or commodities trading are most likely done with, it was nice to see a few publications thrust managed futures into the spotlight
13
Aug
2013
The Death of Orange Juice? 30 Years after Trading Places…
It seem like just yesterday Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd were in the old Comex pits making millions off of Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate. Now 30 years after Trading places, it looks like the hype surrounding Orange Juice is fastly fading, with only 20,000 outstanding contracts. So what’s the reason?
12
Aug
2013
Managed Futures to find a Hero in 10yr Notes?
Managed Futures could sure use a good outlier move from somewhere. They are roughly even YTD, and everyone is holding our for a hero til the end of the night to be the catalyst to jump start performance. So who is this knight in shining armor? It just might be the bond market, spurred on by 10 Year Treasuries.
12
Aug
2013
MAR and Calmar Ratios: Identical twins with Opposite Personalities
With the stock market at all time highs, It’s easy to forget about risk adjusted performance. Enter the Calmar and the Mar Ratios. At first glance you may think there wouldn’t be much of a difference between the two risk adjusted metrics, but all we need to do is consider the stats from our old friend the S&P 500 to see how different these metrics can be.
