Athletes aspire to a national championship or an Olympic gold medal, scientists aspire to a Nobel Prize, journalists aspire to a Pulitzer… these fields have a clear way to recognize those at the pinnacle. But what’s the equivalent for CTAs?
Category: Managed Futures
12
Oct
2012
11
Oct
2012
Groupon, Zynga, and the Death Spiral
Two of the biggest tech-IPO flops in recent memory – Zynga and Groupon – have endured declines of -80% or more in less than seven months. As usual, seeing this got us wondering – how frequent are such death spirals in the world of managed futures?
10
Oct
2012
Managed Futures: $300 Billion and Counting
Managed futures has come a long way from the days when it was a largely unheard-of corner of the managed money industry. While hedge funds used to dominate the field, the latest asset flow statistics indicate that investors focused on reducing their tail risk are increasingly turning to CTAs.
04
Oct
2012
Managed Futures Mutual Funds September Update
With the books closed on September, it’s time to update our look at so-called managed futures mutual funds, and once again, the results aren’t pretty (for the mutual funds). We don’t think mutual funds are the best vehicle to access the managed futures asset class if you have the capital to stand on your own and invest in individually managed accounts, and the numbers continue to back us up.
01
Oct
2012
Managed Futures end September down -0.89%
For the second month in a row, managed futures has struggled to find the right kind of trading environment. While September wasn’t quite as bad as August in terms of choppy, sideways, markets, it offered few sustained trends for CTAs to latch on to, and saw some reversals of a few of the trends managers had been enjoying.
25
Sep
2012
Winton Makes a Play for China?
Managed futures are used the world over by sophisticated investors, but one rapid growth space where they’ve yet to gain a foothold has been China. Despite the nation’s stellar economic growth, it’s been slow to move into the managed futures space, but one of the largest, oldest CTAs in the world is looking to change that.
25
Sep
2012
Same Shirt, Different Color: Traditional 401(k) “Diversification”
As we perused the news this morning, a headline jumped out at us: How to Get Better Returns From Your 401(k). The article made a few good points, but there was a problem. When it came to diversification, we found the options… well, not so diverse – which is especially frustrating in a world where true diversifiers – like managed futures, can be a part of a 401(k).
20
Sep
2012
Timing Failures
The old adage “sell in May and go away” was looking very good for stocks this year after markets took a tumble from the April highs to the June lows. Since then, however, the markets have bounced back, leaving many investors worse off. But we wouldn’t give up on timing altogether – it’s better to have some data-backed strategy instead of just blind buy and hold.
19
Sep
2012
Thoughts from Atlantic’s Andrew Taylor
In a world of cold metrics and glossy brochures, there’s something reassuring about hearing it from the horse’s mouth. There’s nothing like seeing a manager laying out their approach and sentiment toward the markets to get a sense of what kind of trader they are. That’s why we love to see messages like the one we received from Atlantic Capital Advisors principal and managing director Andrew Taylor.
17
Sep
2012
John Henry Looking for Moneyball
One of the most famous names to come out of the CTA space is probably John Henry – and mostly for his success as the owner of the Boston Red Sox. However, just as his foray into the world of sports is having a tough year, his main CTA, GlobalAnalytics, is also suffering – with a new max drawdown and dwindling assets.
