Copper steps out of the shadow of gold and silver in this wide‑ranging conversation with StoneX’s Natalie Scott-Gray and Summerhaven’s Kurt Nelson. Jeff digs into why “Dr. Copper” sits at the heart of electrification, AI data centers, EVs, and defense, and how underinvestment in mines, fragile supply chains from Chile to the DRC, and China’s […]
Category: Podcasts
21
May
2026
The Doctor who Traded Pork Bellies: Patrick Welton’s Journey from Stanford Oncologist to one of Trend Following’s Quiet Legends
In this episode, Jeff Malec sits down with Dr. Patrick Welton to trace his remarkable path from Wisconsin kid to Stanford oncologist to veteran futures trader and founder of Welton Investment Partners. Patrick shares how trading pork bellies and interest rate futures in the late 1970s to pay tuition evolved into a decades-long career shaped […]
14
May
2026
Painting Corners to Protecting Portfolios: Former MLB pitcher Scott Karl on How Athletes Blow the Money, Alts, the Mental Side of Performance, and the NIL Era
In this episode, former Milwaukee Brewers left-hander Scott Karl traces his journey from Carlsbad baseball standout to big league starter and then into life as a financial advisor. He swaps stories with Jeff about golf trips to Bandon Dunes and his recent move from California to Lake Norman, then dives into his baseball career, getting […]
07
May
2026
Crisis Alpha, Cocoa Trends, and Correlated Trendlessness: Inside Aspect Capital’s Strategy with Christopher Reeve
Jeff Malec sits down with Christopher Reeve, Chief Investment Officer of Aspect Capital, one of the original managed futures shops with roots tracing back to the “L” in AHL. Chris shares his path from chemistry and early-2000s AI at Oxford to 22 years at Aspect, where he now runs the investment side of the business. […]
30
Apr
2026
Status of Alternatives – A Live Recording from Uncorrelated Puerto Rico
Recorded live in Puerto Rico, this special episode of The Derivative features host Jeff Malec with guests Brent Johnson, Jason Buck, and Mark Tower exploring how alternative investments are behaving in a world shifting from globalization to de‑globalization. The panel covers why some managed futures and volatility strategies haven’t delivered as expected in recent crises, […]
16
Apr
2026
Spring Six Pack: Talking Florida Conferences, Bonds, AI & Hand Dryers
Join Jeff Malec for another solo Six Pack episode of The Derivative, where he riffs on everything from the post-COVID conference circuit to bond markets, AI, and yes… public restrooms. Jeff contrasts the buttoned-up energy of iConnections with the beach-side vibes of Future Proof and asks whether meeting managers face-to-face actually improves allocation decisions or […]
09
Apr
2026
The Hedge Fund that Polls Regular People Where Markets Are Going?
In this episode, Jeff Malec sits down with Vuk Vukovic and Scott Alford of Oraclum Capital (ORCA) to explore how an academic project on elections turned into a $70M hedge fund powered by crowd predictions. Vuk explains how he and his co-founders, coming from economics, physics, and computer science backgrounds, built a survey-based system that […]
26
Mar
2026
OpenSnow’s Joel Gratz built a Pod Shop for Powder Days: the PMs are Meteorologists and the Returns are Faceshots. Send It!
What happens when a data-obsessed mind that could have been optimizing portfolios decides to optimize powder days instead? This episode features meteorologist and @OpenSnow founder Joel Gratz in a deep dive on snow, skiing, and the science of weather forecasting, told through the lens of someone who treats every incoming storm like a market opportunity. […]
05
Mar
2026
SuperCars, Salad, and Sumo Wrestlers: Inside One River’s Systematic Risk Mitigation Playbook with Patrick Kazley
In this episode of The Derivative, Jeff Malec is joined by Patrick Kazley of OneRiver explore how long volatility, convexity, trend following, and systematic macro can be combined in a capital‑efficient way to improve equity compounding and protect portfolios from major drawdowns. They discuss crisis “shapes,” why time-based rebalancing often beats intuitive drawdown triggers, how […]
26
Feb
2026
Carry, Calendar Spreads, and Climate: Bruce Sinclair on the Future of Grain Markets
In this episode of The Derivative, host Jeff Malec talks with South African grain spread trader Bruce Sinclair (Brent Trading) about how he went from a farming background to running a spread-focused commodities program trading Chicago grains from a remote game farm in South Africa. Bruce explains, in plain language, how carry and calendar spreads […]
