SI289: Kahneman, Trend Following & Cocoa ft. Mark Rzepczynski

Mark Rzepczynski joins us to remember one of the most important people within modern-day finance, author and psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, and the impact he had on our industry. We also discuss how increasing interest rates change the way investors behave and why trend following and CTAs have performed so well the past 5 years, perhaps without been given the credit the strategy deserves. We also dive into the cocoa market to discuss why it may still have a long way to go, despite racking up another 60% rise in March 2024 alone. We then move on to explain why the financial conditions index is important to understand for trend followers and why Mark believes stocks may continue to rise. Lastly, we discuss what makes trend following unique, why having trend following in your portfolio can help you achieve better performance and more diversification and much more.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

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Episode TimeStamps:

01:03 - Remembering Daniel Kahneman

03:54 - Things are changing

09:54 - Industry performance update

13:32 - What the Credit Suisse Managed Futures Index is missing

16:23 - Let's talk about Cocoa

21:55 - Trends can last longer than people expect

24:44 - Is the Cocoa market a bubble?

28:31 - Less markets = better performance?

30:43 - Static vs. Dynamic position sizing in the Cocoa market

39:13 - Understanding the financial conditions index

45:09 - A euphoric environment

49:47 - What makes trend following unique?

54:50 - Global macro vs. trend following

59:01 - A rotation in the alternative markets

01:03:15 - Thanks for listening

Resources discussed in this Episode:

• LINK SI289: Global Macro and Managed Futures Hedge Fund Strategies: Portfolio Differentiators?
• LINK SI289: A Century of Macro Factor Investing

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