TTU131: How CTAs manage their Cash ft. Mike Kastner, Principle & Co-Founder at Halyard Asset Management

Today, we are joined by Mike Kastner, Principle and Co-Founder at Halyard Asset Management, for a conversation on how they use fixed income instruments to manage the cash of many CTA portfolios. We discuss how managers have evolved in terms of the way they manage cash, how Halyard Asset Management construct a portfolio from a liquidity point of view and the current state of liquidity, how they approach credit rating and why they avoid buying paper from certain banks. We also unpack what they think the sweet spot for foreign exchange hedging is and how they approach risk management, why Kastner does not believe we are approaching a recession and that there is a likely chance of a significant fall in the long bond price, as well as what Kastner believes will happen in the housing market and much more.

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Episode Timestamps:

02:40 - Introduction to Halyard Asset Management

04:12 - History of Cash Management

07:16 - What happened with money market funds?

09:34 - Has the Cash Management space changed?

11:02 - Cash Management philosophy

12:23 - A liquid portfolio

17:39 - Drawing the safety line

19:25 - Considering ESGs

21:11 - Managing cash in different currencies

22:41 - Balancing the mandates

23:52 - Managing risk

25:44 - Thinking about expected returns

27:05 - The evolution of fees

29:40 - Lessons learned

31:27 - How does Kastner see the world?

33:22 - Where are we heading?

37:00 - The global perspective

39:05 - The debt issue

41:30 - Why Cash Management is not Easy

43:00 - Expectations for 2023

45:59 - Thanks for listening

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