It’s been no secret that Alternative investments haven’t provided on their promise of diversification during the recent sell off in equity markets (even if that promise is based on providing non-correlation, not negative correlation at each down turn). The excuses are mostly valid – in that the sell off was a reversal of an up […]
Category: Markets
14
Nov
2018
Natural Gas back to Widowmaking?
While natural gas over much of past 4 years has been about as fun as watching paint dry – staying mostly in a range between 2.50 and 3.50, it has picked up in activity as of late, shooting up about 17% today behind some cold weather in the Northeast. It was enough to get Josh […]
05
Nov
2018
Asset Class scoreboard: Red October
Even if one of our favorite books/movies is the Hunt for Red October – it was a little disconcerting to see a sea of red on the asset class scoreboard in October – with nowhere to hide among traditional stocks and bonds or alternatives like Managed Futures, Hedge Funds, and Commodities. No quarter was given […]
01
Nov
2018
AMAZONIAN sized risk
We can’t help but stare at the Amazon ($AMZN) charts this month in amazement. An investment down -25% over the case of a few weeks is generally seen as an unmitigated disaster. As a sign of big problems and a failing business. But while Amazon has shed a quarter of its Trillion dollar value recently […]
25
Oct
2018
VIX: Not All 1,000 pt drops are the same
We jokingly tweeted out yesterday how the VIX’s three different reactions to seemingly similar market sell offs this year has reminded us of the many faces of Jim Carrey. Here’s the imagery to go along with that concept: But all jokes aside, it’s worth noting the movement […]
24
Oct
2018
Where’s the Non-Correlation?
Those in the alternative investment space have long trumpeted the power of alternative investments (and particularly managed futures) to perform in a stock market crisis (see our evidence of that here and here). There’s no doubting that managed futures have performed during past crisis periods, but as the disclaimer says – past performance is not necessarily […]
11
Oct
2018
They’re baaacckkk – VIX pops 8mos after Feb 5th
ok Maybe it was the Cat 4 hurricane barreling down on the Florida panhandle which had everyone’s attention, but yesterday’s VIX spike sure didn’t feel like the one that brought people out in body bags back in February. February 5th saw the Dow fall about 1,200 points, it’s worth point loss in history; while yesterday […]
03
Oct
2018
Real Estate as a Portfolio Diversifier?
It seems like we’re working our way through the Ritholtz Wealth team’s posts recently, spending a bit of time on Barry’s views on disappearing Hedge Fund Performance, and then reading with interest Ben Carlson’s questioning post recently: “Is Real Estate a Non Correlated Asset Class?”. Based on the title alone, we were ready to pounce […]
26
Sep
2018
Hedge Fund Investors Great Reset
We talked a few weeks ago about ‘Why There’s Trillions in Hedge Funds with Stocks at All Time Highs’, and read with interest Barry Ritholtz’s Bloomberg piece lamenting “missing hedge fund performance”. We tweeted out our thoughts: It’s more of a function of hedge fund vol dropping below equity volatilityhttps://t.co/fRFhoeJzuC https://t.co/QWjIFlXYWN — RCM Alternatives (@rcmAlts) […]
19
Sep
2018
10 years ago – Remembering the best Managed Futures run we’ve seen
What a Difference a year 10 years makes. If you haven’t noticed from all the posts on your fintwit timeline, this past week marked the 10 year anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse: Hard to believe the Lehman collapse was 10 years ago yesterday. It’s been quite a decade. **The next decade promises to be […]
