2020 was ruled by global macro events – are we looking at the same fate in 2021? Our guest today can talk not only global macro, but also volatility, bond yields, correlation, oil, metals and more. To ring in the new year we’re joined by Diego Parrilla, Managing Partner at Quadriga Asset Managers and Author of " The Energy World is Flat " and " The Anti-Bubbles .” Diego isn’t just a global macro manager, and in today’s episode we’ll be talking about Spain, quoting complex options, the switch fro...
Jan 14, 2021•1 hr 39 min
We’ve already covered the first three months of 2020 with Part I of our 2020 review . We’re now heading into Part II with Jason Buck, CIO at Mutiny Fund and Adam Butler, CIO at ReSolve Asset Management discussing how the fall out of the first three months of 2020 dictated the ending 3/4 of the year. Tune into this next episode to hear more on the possible bond fallout, stimulus holding US markets hostage, the future of the traditional 60/40 portfolio, ReSolve’s Riffs, do deficits matter?, commod...
Dec 30, 2020•59 min
2020 has been a year for the books – be it the fastest every market sell-off or a just as amazing tech rally from the lows. Whether you’re looking at it from a social/emotional/fiscal lens, it probably didn’t pan out the way you imagined based on your New Years Resolution. And in today’s podcast, we’re focusing out with the long lens to take a look back at the year that was 2020 to investigate what strategy types got it right, which got it very wrong, and more. We’ve brought on two of our favori...
Dec 23, 2020•1 hr 21 min
It’s hard to get too far into the words Trend Following without running into the name Michael Covel . If you’ve ever looked into the strategy type, his name is there. From speeches to his many books, the aptly named Trend Following Radio and his trend following twitter thread, Michael has been digging into the philosophy and people in and around trend following for nearly 24 years. And as our guest on today’s pod, we cover a large span of topics including: living in Vietnam, first COVID flight, ...
Dec 10, 2020•1 hr 26 min
Many investors look at commercial real estate as a high-risk, confusing, and sometimes scary way to invest. Our guests today show us why this isn’t the case. From commercial real estate, to mortgage-backed securities, pandemic affects, and hedging risk, Matt Lasky of Equity LLC and Darren Kottle of Caddo Capital Management are on today to go through it all. Take a listen to learn more about private investments, hedging real estate with trading models, mortgage-backed securities, favorite investi...
Dec 03, 2020•1 hr 8 min
One of the leading volatility trading and derivatives investing events of the year wrapped up last month and we have lots of thoughts. From new vol dispersion products to portfolio design, tail-risk management and structural vol; if it’s been a hot topic in 2020 – Global EQD covered it. We’re joined by Jim Carroll, Senior Vice President at Toroso Advisors and John Cummings, Director of Research at RCM Alternatives. There were sessions we agreed with, opinions from some of our favorite finfluence...
Nov 27, 2020•1 hr
Does all this Machine Learning stuff really work? If it’s so good, why aren’t AI powered hedge funds printing money? And what is the difference between AI, machine learning, deep learning, machine trading, and more. Today’s guest is one that’s been at the center of the AI/MT/ML universe for over four decades. Ernie Chan runs a machine learning hedge fund at QTS Capital management, has authored 3 books – with the 4th on the way - and is the creator of PredictNow.ai. Ernie is joining us on The Der...
Nov 19, 2020•1 hr 11 min
Our guest today is somewhat of a modern philosopher, mapping out how the investing world sees the real world, while at the same time questioning his own place in that world and how he can change it for the better. Ben Hunt, Co-Founder of Second Foundation Partners and creator of the Epsilon Theory blog, joins us on The Derivative, offering up his fresh perspective and novel insights into market dynamics. Today, Ben is sharing his knowledge on identifying narrative patterns, how to be authentic i...
Nov 12, 2020•1 hr 16 min
Votes are being counted, CNN and Fox are on 24-hour reporting cycles, and Tweets/FB Posts/Texts are still being sent out at lightening speeds. What happens if a winner isn’t announced for 2 or more days? What happens if President Trump remains in power? What happens if former Vice President Joe Biden takes over as POTUS? In today’s U.S. Election – What^%$# Episode we’re joined by Matt LaViolette, Founder & Principle at Breakout Funds, and Kris Sidial, Vice President at Ambrus Group talking a...
Nov 05, 2020•49 min
For every option buyer, there is a seller. The brave souls who are accused of picking up pennies in front of a freight train. But are they dumb? Crazy? Or just better at timing the market than the rest of us? Understanding option strategies which involve collecting premium seems easy, but there’s way more that goes into this recipe. As Jeff Malec asked our guest in this pod “Give it to me straight, partner” (41:25 mark) in the world of options selling. Mark Adams, Assistant Portfolio Manager and...
Oct 29, 2020•1 hr 11 min
Is trend following too big? Can managed futures do it without the bond tailwind they’ve had for 30 years? Does globalization take away diversification? We’re debunking these trend following myths/truths (?) in today’s podcast – and today’s guest is ideal to take us through the ins-and-outs of these trend following theories. We’re joined by Kathryn Kaminski, PHD, CAIA, and Chief Research Strategist & Portfolio Manager at AlphaSimplex who has written the literal book and research papers on the...
Oct 22, 2020•1 hr 13 min
Today’s pod is all about word play playing into alternative investment. How does Jam Croissant relate to Cem Karsan? What about Vanna Charm and options definitions? Or the forever popular “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” evolving to “nothing is ever risk free”? To get together the definitions, explanations, and educated facts on all these nuances, we have FinTwit VIP & Founder and Senior Managing Partner of Aegea Capital Management, Cem Karsan. On top of alternative investment word wi...
Oct 15, 2020•1 hr 32 min
With storms named Gamma and Delta making their way to US shores – we really couldn’t have timed this release better from a hurricane-content-meets-alts-investment podcast; it’s the: perfect storm ( buh-dum-ch ). Today’s guest is creator of Weather Underground and the Cat 6 blog, a person who has flown through an actual hurricane, and a whiz at modeling weather data in a way that us non-meteorologists can understand – Dr. Jeff Masters. In today’s podcast we’re talking with Jeff about hedging comm...
Oct 08, 2020•1 hr 14 min
If men are from Mars and women from Venus, it often feels like stock/bond investors are from Earth and us Alternative Investment folks are from Vulcan. We’re digging in with the Bull and Baird blog’s author and Baird market analyst Michael Antonelli to hear how the earthlings (aka wealth management clients) actually think about investments, direct from the guy who is serving up what a whole bunch of them read week in and week out. How is he explaining this crazy investment world to them? In this...
Oct 01, 2020•1 hr 11 min
We’re joined by option guru and author of ‘The Second Leg Down’ in this episode to talk through the real-time test of market crashes and volatility dynamics we’ve witnessed since February. Is our guest’s theory on volatility sequencing proving its worth in this environment of bigger VIX spikes, oil going negative, and retail trader flow? Hari Krishnan has all the insight on how to survive during volatile periods. Our conversation with Hari also includes: hobby jogging marathoning, basic income o...
Sep 24, 2020•1 hr 13 min
The “bar” we walk into in this episode is one that specializes in blending the unique flavors of beta and alpha, and our mixologists are Victor Canto, Chief Economist of Cadhina & Co, and Donn Stobierski & Jim Kleinops, the Founders and Managing Members at Black Bear Capital Advisors joining us to talk about convexity and rebounds, and adding equity to global macro. Today’s podcast delves into the Dominican Republic, the secret sauce behind how the tail works, the ability to stick with y...
Sep 17, 2020•1 hr 10 min
So – what’s happening in the wide world of volatility? The market moved to new all time highs and the VIX actually went UP. The market then mini-crashed lower and VIX barely budged? WTF indeed? Is it Robinhood traders? It is market makers? Is it sustainable? To break it down we’re doing another of our WTF episodes, and are joined by two VOL pros, Matt Thompson – Managing Partner at Thompson Capital Management, and Pat Hennessy – Head Trader at IPS Strategic Capital to talk about volatility, VIX,...
Sep 10, 2020•1 hr
In today’s episode we’re pushing the boundaries of traditional alternative investments and getting into oil trading, trend following, and taking risks (both in business & with your strategy) with Lead Portfolio Manager and CIO at Auspice Capital Advisors, Tim Pickering. From trading shell oil to striking out on his own – Tim’s expansive experience in the alts world is about as big as the Canadian Wilderness he hails from. Today we’re talking with Tim about Lewis and Clark, Tim’s background i...
Sep 03, 2020•1 hr 23 min
With a Top Gun-like bio of working with billionaires and big hedge funds, Michael Green is one of the top prospects in the alternative investment game. BUT, all we hear him talking about these days is his passive thesis, to the point where he jokes – that may end up on his tombstone one day. We’ve heard all that elsewhere, so wanted to get into more – like what he has going on at Logica, if he loves straddles as much as Wayne Himelsein, how he views the current volatility landscape, his killer S...
Aug 27, 2020•1 hr 36 min
We’re leaving the fire of hedge funds and jumping headfirst into the frying pan of……performance mindset? Yep, from pro athletes to pro traders, everyone needs a performance mindset, and today’s guest founded his firm to help get those who need to perform, ready to perform. Russ Rausch (former Trading Technologies/Emil Van Essen exec) refocused his passion from the trading arena into training automatic thought and emotional patterns to improve; performance, resilience, and engagement to anyone fr...
Aug 20, 2020•1 hr 9 min
It’s a job all in itself to be able to look at data – especially data that affects all of us on a daily basis – and be able to interpret that to make sense to yourself. Take that and have to turn it into something that makes sense to everyone else – well that’s a gift. And we’ve got the most gifted of them all joining us on The Derivative – CME Group’s Chief Economist Blu Putnam. We’re lucky enough to have Blu on today's episode breaking down all that’s going on in the craziness of what we’re li...
Aug 13, 2020•1 hr 11 min
Legend time. We’re hearing straight from the mouth of well-known Turtle Trader – Jerry Parker – on this episode to talk all things trend following. Becoming a leading voice in the alternatives investment and trend following space – Jerry has turned his Turtle Trader experience into a trend following career (perhaps at the expense of some other things in life, as he mentions…) Join us for this talk with Jerry about new remote CTAs, the hidden gem of Tampa, the famous Wall Street Journal ad, what’...
Aug 06, 2020•1 hr 22 min
We sat down with three different legs of the hedge fund stool who (feeling the currently hedge fund investment landscape is a bit broker) are partnering on bringing some disruption to the hedge fund space with a new platform/fund of funds approach to analyze and allocate to different strategies. This three-way conversation touches on the perception that hedge funds suck in light of their stock market underperformance, and what investors can do about it. We’ve got Managing Member at Linnis, Max N...
Jul 30, 2020•58 min
In a #ThrowbackThursday of sorts, we’re bringing you an episode recorded pre-pandemic where we hit the road and traveled to Utah to interview the brain behind Certeza Asset Management, Founder and CIO – Brett Nelson. Brett is another guest deserving of the moniker VIXpert – having been trading the VIX since it first entered the game, literally trading VIX back when there were a few dozen contracts a day changing hands. We’ll be covering everything VIX (along with non-VIX topics) including: skiin...
Jul 23, 2020•1 hr 16 min
How do you get investors to stick with an asset allocation that’s good for them in the long term, but maybe doesn’t taste so good over shorter timer periods? Today’s guest has designed a new mutual fund to attempt just that, giving investors the whole meal instead of letting them fumble around with the ingredients. Eric Crittenden, Co-Founder and CIO of Standpoint Funds joins us today to talk about Standpoint’s new $BLNDX fund. We’ll be getting into the weeds on this unique fund, as well as talk...
Jul 16, 2020•1 hr 29 min
In today’s episode, we’re passing by all the players and calling in the head coach – the head coach of Ycharts that is. Sean Brown – CEO of Ycharts joins us to talk about how this FinTech SAAS focused company is helping investors and advisors make the complex easy, and the easy look good! Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about: Notre Dame vs Stanford, fundamental charts, a home chef’s best grilled cheese, Ycharts easy consumer interface, human support for a technical product, taking ov...
Jul 09, 2020•1 hr 5 min
We recently wrapped up our virtual conference: “Capitalizing on China’s Growth: Opening the Door for Investors and Managers” where we had some great one-on-one interviews with hedge fund managers operating in Asia and live in mainland China markets, including futures. We pulled the best nuggets from each individual manager and mashed them into the ultimate pod on different strategy nuances across AI models, fixed income trading, stock picking A Shares, systematic trading of China futures markets...
Jul 02, 2020•1 hr 40 min
Similar to how we quickly grabbed some experts to discuss Crude Oil going negative , we grabbed some VIX experts as soon as the news hit this week that Credit Suisse was pulling the plug on one of the biggest VIX tracking exchange traded products. What will this do to VIX futures volume, liquidity, and the curve. What does this mean for traders and firms using these VIX products to tweak their exposure. Our guests today are two of our favorite VIX twitter follows Jim Carroll and Patrick Hennessy...
Jun 25, 2020•58 min
Our guest today is the Co-founder & CEO of Newfound Research, host of the popular podcast Flirting with Models, and FinTwit “influencer” – Corey Hoffstein. In this episode, we’re talking with Corey about the impact of “data”, the juvenile meaning behind Flirting with Models, 1000s of flavors of trend, hitting the gym, the founding of Newfound, suicides in Ithaca, sticking to your strategy through investor unrest, alts vs equities firm, the value of managed futures, implementing an ensemble a...
Jun 18, 2020•1 hr 30 min
In this episode, we’re flipping the script of our usual hedge fund manager and drilling down on the allocation side. Alexander Mende is a Senior Investment Analyst and Head of Investment Research at RPM Risk and Portfolio Management. We’re covering a lot of ground with Alexander including herd immunity in Stokholm, an allocator’s due diligence, billion dollar AUMs, picking managers with higher risk adjusted returns vs higher absolute returns, being a lead singer in a punk rock band, trend follow...
Jun 11, 2020•1 hr 2 min
