While everyone is talking about the risks in China, with them ratcheting up stakes in the trade war with a Yuan devaluation, and threatening troops in Hong Kong to squash protests, many in the quant space are busy analyzing the Chinese markets for investment opportunities. Now, we’re not talking about picking the next Tencent IPO […]
Category: Why Alternatives?
22
Aug
2019
20
Aug
2019
Risk Parity + Trend Following = ?
Bridgewater & Associates is commonly known as the world’s largest hedge fund, with more than $140 Billion in assets under management and close to 1,500 employees. Its founder Ray Dalio is about as eccentric as you would expect from the founder of the world’s largest hedge fund – penning his own manifesto, and installing a […]
15
Aug
2019
Hedge Fund Fees: Should 1 or 30 be the new 2 & 20
For as long as anyone can remember, the classic hedge fund fee structure has been two and twenty. Or more formally, a 2% annual management fee and a 20% performance fee. The management fee is to allow for the manager to operate their business, invest in technology, and pay their quants. The performance fee is […]
08
Aug
2019
August shall now be called VIXust
What a way to get August going. First, we had this happening last Thursday = Since Trump announced his China tariffs, the markets have plummeted https://t.co/uVHztmpL5o pic.twitter.com/OAkOPIpwD3 — David Nir (@DavidNir) August 1, 2019 That left us down about -1%. Then, there was a little more of the same on Friday, although nobody on Wall […]
06
Aug
2019
Basics for Building an Alternative Investments Portfolio
Just throwing something into a portfolio labeled an Alternative Investment is likely going to be a mess. But a lot of times, that’s what happens. A client listens to the words Alternative Investments, but hears the words diversification and stabilization and all the rest. Before you know it, some random Alts strategy is in a […]
22
Jul
2019
The Definitive List of the Best Investing Movies
We love movies…so much so that we’ve been known to tweet out asking to bring back movie futures, compared the 60/40 portfolio to Top Gun, and put out the greatest infographic of all time aligning 20 investments with Star War characters. Movies have the innate ability of breaking down barriers and making almost any subject […]
11
Jul
2019
The ‘right twice a day clock’ that is gold.
We have long been in the Warren Buffet camp in relation to Gold: “Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their […]
02
Jul
2019
Asset Class Scoreboard: June 2019
It’s like someone put a mirror between asset classes in May and June – with most asset classes performing nearly the exact opposite side of their percentage from the month before. Low volatility continues to persist (as we had suggested at the beginning of the year) bringing in big positives across the board after the […]
20
Jun
2019
Why use automated execution algorithms? Here’s why.
We’ve been talking a lot about quants and algos recently – like this whitepaper, this blog, and this blog – which only strengthens the thought that, though necessary, quants and algos can be confusing. Even for us, who happen to share coffee and donuts with a whole in-house team of quants dedicated to working on […]
17
Jun
2019
The new AI –> AT, Artificial Trading
One of the best follows on non-financial Twitter is Salesforce.com’s Chief Digital Evangelist: Vala Ashsfar. He comes up with inspiring lists highlighting what it means to be a good mentor, what money can’t buy (happy home, manners, etc.), and companies founded by immigrants (Apple, Google, Amazon to name a few). Not to mention his mesmerizing […]
