An over-extended counter attack. Weakness on your flank. The opportunity to push through the center and secure the higher ground. A general has to observe the entire field of battle when designing what strategy will not only win the current battle, but also serve them best in the overall war. Investors assembling portfolios of alternative […]
Category: Why Alternatives?
08
Jan
2019
The top 12 financial and investing blogs you should follow
With 24/7 access to thousands of websites and blogs covering topics as far afield as VIX to private REITS to good old passive equities via ETFs, weeding out the *really* good ones can be a challenge. Although it would be nice to spend all day canvassing the internet for the best ones around, we think […]
31
Dec
2018
The top 10 posts in 2018
This might be a humble brag, but 2018 was a great year for our Attain Alternatives blog. Content was pushed out covering non-correlation, backwardation, the world cup and the crazy year for managed futures. We put together the top 10 blogs of 2018 — based on the number of reads. If you haven’t already, take […]
31
Dec
2018
The best and worst futures markets in 2018.
With 2018 coming to a close, we’d once again like to take a look at the best and worst of this year’s futures markets. Using the year to date tab over on finviz on the last day of the year lets us see the 2018 performance of 48 futures markets: What we noticed: VIX […]
11
Dec
2018
Wild Trading is Straining the Plumbing?
You have to hand it to the WSJ – they really know how to make the safety of Trillions of Dollars in derivatives trading across dozens of exchanges look pretty pedestrian. Their hero image of the firm, which cleared 4.3 Billion contracts last year and holds about $130 Billion in margin deposits for clients, is […]
01
Nov
2018
AMAZONIAN sized risk
We can’t help but stare at the Amazon ($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 […]
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 […]
18
Jul
2018
Alternative Links: What One Wants Out of Alternatives
While experts are hesitant to call out “good” and “bad” alternatives, the strong message is that alternatives are what you make them.
16
Jul
2018
Low Fees Doesn’t Trump Low Performance
But super low-cost stock index replication is not the same as replicating more complex hedge fund strategies, and a few recent articles are pointing out that the low fee experiment in alternative investments might not be working so well.
12
Jul
2018
Are Tariffs a Black Swan?
Some markets like stocks and currencies are treating the tariffs as rather binary events to be immediately bought or sold en masse, other markets like soybeans and metals seem to be letting it create a new market environment with different long-term price levels.
