China has been all about the #Coronoavirus as of late….making it hard to think about anything else going on in the country – but some numbers from FIA’s annual report on global Futures and Options trading caught our eye last month; and they’re particularly intriguing as RCM has been spending a better part of two […]
Category: Why Alternatives?
06
Feb
2020
Asset Class Scoreboard: January 2020
“And down goes commodities….early in the first round….” That’s no way to start a 12 round bout, but commodities go as crude oil goes , and energies were shooting down in January on the heels of economic and travel worries behind the Coronavirus scare. On the flip side, U.S. Stocks & U.S. Real Estate picked […]
04
Feb
2020
Move over Bitcoin – $TSLA is here
Maybe you’re one of those passive investors who doesn’t follow individual names… Maybe you’ve been stuck on an island talking to a volleyball. Whatever your reason – if you haven’t seen the price action in Tesla $TSLA shares this year – you’re missing one heck of a show. It’s like 400 million people in China […]
03
Feb
2020
Light Up: Cannabis Futures are Here!
Cannabis has been a hot topic in Chicago recently, with the new decade marking the first-time cannabis can be legally sold in Illinois. The result, nearly $40 million in legal pot sales in the first month of activity. This on the heels of a hedge fund conference we attended late last year in which private […]
23
Jan
2020
First comes futures, then comes the Bitcoin options.
The CME is on a rolllll, launching their second new product in recent months (right behind the micro E-mini). In their words “…..in response to interest in cryptocurrencies and customer demand for tools to manage bitcoin exposure, CME options on Bitcoin futures (BTC) are now trading.” Many would say you can’t really have a successful […]
22
Jan
2020
Will we ever stop talking about the VIX?
We’re honestly not totally sure if we’ll ever stop talking about the VIX. We correctly guessed (not that hard) the VIX was going to be a big part of the 2019 conversation, and we’re back 365 days later in our Managed Futures Outlook 2020 talking about it again: … did anything really change in terms […]
16
Jan
2020
Why Politics and Systematic Trading Don’t Mix
In an outtake from our Managed Futures Outlook 2020 – we can’t ignore the effect that politics have had on systematic trading programs over the past year or so. Something that could take a toll in the year to come…. Trade wars, new presidents and new economic policies or the impending Brexit vote will have […]
14
Jan
2020
December Performance Snapshot
We field a bunch of calls at the start of each month asking how that hedge fund, this emerging manager, and that mutual fund did last month, and thought to simplify things for you with this categorized list of different alternative investment performance for the month gone by. Note: These performance numbers and calculations include […]
09
Jan
2020
Asset Class Scoreboard: December 2019
And just like that….we’ve wrapped up another year and the final scores have been posted across the various asset classes. Positives: Every. Single. Asset. Class. Ended. In. The. Green. This is a far cry from where we ended out last year where everything (besides cash) was in the red. U.S. Stocks, World Stocks, and U.S. […]
31
Dec
2019
Asset Class Scoreboard – The Decade (2010-2019)
We’re closing out the decade with one final look back on some of the top performing markets, asset classes, and alternative investment funds over that time. Last up, the broad asset classes we track in our monthly Asset Class Scoreboard: US Stocks, World Stocks, Hedge Funds, Real Estate, Bonds, Commodities and Managed Futures – where […]
