SI48: The state of the Bond market and do Institutions affect CTA performance

On this episode I continue my conversation with Marty Bergin, the owner and President of DUNN Capital Management, Grant Jaffarian, Portfolio Manager of the Advanced Trend program at Crabel Capital Management, and Mike Boss, who is a Director within the Capital Introductions Team at Societe General, where we cover all things trend following and some of the differences to short-term trading.-----50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HEREIn This Episode, You’ll Learn:How to use your management and incentive fees to competeGrants’s competitive strategy for his flat-fee productWhy a robust risk management system is extremely importantWho is winning the battle between the low-cost products and the traditional trend following offeringsIf the increased number of investors using trend following is impacting returns?How rising interest rates will affect long- and short-term trend followersThe guest’s biggest takeaways from 2016If machine learning is already being used by trend following firms?-----Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.comAnd please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.Learn more about Marty Bergin and DUNN Capital ManagementLearn more about Grant Jaffarian and Crabel Capital ManagementLearn more about Mike Boss and Societe GeneralCopyright © 2025 – CMC AG – All Rights Reserved----PLUS:...

19 Feb 201731min

Today I'm joined by Marty Bergin, the owner and President of DUNN Capital Management, Grant Jaffarian, Portfolio Manager of the Advanced Trend program at Crabel Capital Management, and Mike Boss, who is a Director within the Capital Introductions Team at Societe General, for a fun and insightful journey into the world of Trend Following.-----50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HEREIn This Episode, You’ll Learn:Key Insights from arguably the best Trend Follower & the best Short-Term CTAHow the challenges they overcame to get to where they are todayHow trend followers can evolve their strategies to stay aheadThe reason why some trend followers haven’t changed in decadesKey insights to how Marty has allowed DUNN to stay aheadHow Mike & Societe Generale sees the industry changing and it’s new opportunitiesWhy the UCITS Directive started benefitting smaller specialized managersThe challenges with short-term tradingWhy Crabel is strict with its capacityThe research that increased Crabel’s bottom lineHow to ensure that CTA flagship offerings retain value over low-cost alternatives-----Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.comAnd please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.Learn more about Marty Bergin and DUNN Capital ManagementLearn more about Grant Jaffarian and Crabel Capital ManagementLearn more about Mike Boss and <a href="https://www.societegenerale.com/en/home" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

5 Feb 201733min

Today I continue my conversation with Amy Elefante Bedi, Director of Hedged Strategies at Washington University Investment Management Company in St. Louis, Ernest Jaffarian, the CEO of Efficient Capital Management as well Phil Hatzopoulos , who is the Global Head of Buyside Sales at the CME Group.-----50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HEREIn This Episode, You’ll Learn:What the response has been to lower performance of hedge funds in recent yearsHow managers have dealt with the challenging performance environmentWhat institutional investors are looking to get out of the Managed Futures spaceHow Smart Beta is being usedIf its true that you get what you pay forThe movement towards BIG dataThe concern of investors about the fixed income sectorWhat would happen if interest rates starts going upWhat the biggest opportunities are for the Managed Futures industry in 2017How regulations could destroy the industryThe biggest challenge that institutions face before they embrace CTAsHow to overcome the fear of investing in the Managed Futures space-----Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.comAnd please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.Learn more about Amy Elefante Bedi and Washington University’s Investment Management CompanyLearn more about Ernest Jaffarian and Efficient Capital ManagementLearn more about Phillip Hatzopoulos and <a href="https://www.cmegroup.com/%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank"...

16 Jan 201724min

On this episode I'm joined by Amy Elefante Bedi, Director of Hedged Strategies at Washington University Investment Management Company in St. Louis, Ernest Jaffarian, the CEO of Efficient Capital Management as well Phil Hatzopoulos , who is the Global Head of Buyside Sales at the CME Group - to explore the world of Alternative Investments and why they are so valuable to investors.-----50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HEREIn This Episode, You’ll Learn:Key Insights from industry leaders in Managed FuturesHow they got where they are todayWhat Ernest did to change his career to Managed FuturesThe hesitations that endowments have had when investing in the CTA industryWhat is the state of the fund-to-fund model todayThe importance of diversifying your portfolioHow to find and access talent in the Managed Futures spaceQuestions to ask a manager when deciding on your allocationsThe issue of fees and the debate surrounding itThe performance of CTAs in the last decade-----Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.comAnd please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.Learn more about Amy Elefante Bedi and Washington University’s Investment Management CompanyLearn more about Ernest Jaffarian and Efficient Capital ManagementLearn more about Phillip Hatzopoulos and CME GroupCopyright © 2025 – CMC AG – All Rights...

4 Jan 201726min

Thanks for tuning in to the second part of our roundtable conversation with three of the leading voices in the trend following industry today. In this episode, we discuss how the industry has evolved, what the future looks like, and how to educate investors on the merits of trend following.-----50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HEREIn This Episode, You’ll Learn:How has trend following evolved in the past decadeThe different kinds of diversification and how important they areThe concept of divergent strategiesDifferent ways of generating signalsWhy entries are the least importantHow to figure out what are the most robust parameters to useWhy you should try to debunk any new trading ideasHow trend following CTAs perform risk controlHow to educate investors on trend following firms and methodsHow many trend following managers should you invest in-----Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:Trend Following with Managed Futures: The Search for Crisis AlphaReturn Dispersion, Counterintuitive Correlation (PDF)Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.comAnd please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.Follow Katy Kaminski on <a...

19 Maj 201642min

Thanks for tuning back into our show, we know it has been a while since we’ve published an episode. However, you are in for a real treat: this is the first episode where we have a roundtable of guests, representing some of the most prominent firms in the trend following space. Our guests have a combined 100 years of track record, and we’ll explore it all in this episode.We discuss the history of trend following, what it takes to practice trend following, and the human biases that effect our trading.-----50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HEREIn This Episode, You’ll Learn:The history of trend-followingThe phenomenon of momentumWhen the concept of trend following that we know today came aboutWhy Katy & Alex gathered data from hundreds of years agoKaty talks about their book on Trend FollowingWhy markets are not getting more efficientWhy the edge in Trend Following is “knowing what you don’t know”How long it took for Alex to start believing in trend followingRoberto’s first exposure to trend followingWhy humility is necessary to practice trend followingThe importance of taking the human emotion out of the decision processKaty’s voodoo finance and heuristicsAre all CTA’s trend-followers?Alex’s Random Entry System that uses coin flipsThe three decisions that are involved in a tradeThe fact and fiction of how difficult it is to do trend-followingWhy humans suffer from representative biasThe factor of simplicity when making a trend following system-----Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:Trend Following with Managed Futures: The Search for Crisis AlphaMarket WizardsTulip maniaDavid RicardoLake Wobegon syndromeFollow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.Learn more about the Trend Barometer <a...

6 Maj 201654min

In our continued conversation with Bill Dreiss, we dive into why he built his model the way that he did, and how he deals with factors like risk, drawdowns, and investor relationships. You’ll discover what he has learned from the drawdowns he has gone through, how the market has changed since 2009, and what the future looks like for Dreiss Research.-----50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HEREIn This Episode, You’ll Learn:How he thinks about succession planningWhat people should be aware of in his long track record as a firmWhat has changed in the markets since 2009How markets are more interrelated than they ever have been beforeHow he describes what he is trying to achieve for his investorsWhy you shouldn’t be investing if you can’t live through a 50% drawdownWhat the choppiness index isWhy it is so difficult for people to see the advantages of CTAs and trend followingHow many commodities he tradesHow diversified his trading program isWhat differentiates Dreiss Research from other trend following CTAsHow he measures volatilityHow he defines risk and manages riskWhy you can over-manage risk and how to weather the drawdownsWhat he has learned from the drawdowns he has gone throughHow to manage a relationship with clients so that they trust the firm during drawdownsThe biggest challenges in his long careerWhat it takes to be a good traderWhy the world is too full of quants and people should use their talents in other fields-----Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:The Misbehavior of MarketsThe Secrets of Professional Turf BettingThe GamblerThinking, Fast and SlowFollow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.Send your questions to <a...

17 Feb 201658min

Bill Dreiss has been an early adopter from the very beginning. After going to MIT and Harvard, he wanted to form a business that would allow him to be location independent and allow him to surf, his life passion. Fortunately, systems trading found him.He bought a computer before individuals owned them, started a systems trading firm before almost any of them existed, and has been in business trading his own model fro more than 25 years. You’ll gain a career’s worth of knowledge in this fantastic episode.-----50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HEREIn This Episode, You’ll Learn:Why Bill’s firm is so uniqueHow he went to Harvard business school and then went to work for a Think Tank in CaliforniaHow he developed his first trading system in the 1970sHow he did systematic trading by hand in the early days, without computersThe unique system that was the first system he builtThe first company that he started with a few partners in early 1975How he used to manage 180 clients before computersThe first computer he bought before individuals owned computersWhy he stopped managing outside money for a few yearsWhat made him setup his current company in 1991How he setup his first trading model with Dreiss Research CorporationWhy he was heavily influenced by Boinot MandelbrotWhy trend following is declared dead every few years, but why it is only sleepingWhy he trades longer term and only updates his system about once a weekHow he first managed to automate his system way before other people were able to do itHow the environment has changed from very few system traders to almost completely system tradersWhat differentiates Bill from a lot of other system tradersHow he deals with risk managementWhat drives him in his career and how he has kept it up for so longWhy he thinks in how much leisure time he can have rather than how much money he could makeHow marketing a firm is very importantWhy surfing is so important to himWhy being location independent was very important to him in setting up his business-----Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:Learn more about Richard DunchianLearn more about Benoit MandelbrotFollow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” <a href="https://www.toptradersunplugged.com/10-reasons-shownotes" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

8 Feb 20161h