The last several months of 2014 will definitely be known for falling oil prices as the topic found itself constantly in the headlines and in the conversation of the business, economic and political news. Besides energy, the metals and grain sectors made significant lows. One of the largest commodity moves in 2014 occurred in the rally of the coffee market. The meats sector made new highs last year.
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Mark Shore
Shore Capital Management LLCSubscribe to the NIBA Journal for the latest insights and industry updates.
While industry veterans in the futures space understand the value of CTAs in a portfolio, hedge fund assets under management dwarf those AUM totals by over thirteen times. To explain it like one of my traders, “There is a multi-trillion-dollar industry pushing stocks no matter how they perform.” We do not have that luxury as investors come to us looking to steady their portfolio and ultimately hold us to a more demanding standard. After all, the marketing machine is owned by our competition. This puts the value of reaching potential prospects at a higher premium. Each conversation is one more that we can position to help someone now or down the road. So where does one look for these investors?...
For decades, investors frequently perceived a traditional portfolio allocation in the range of 60 percent equities and 40 percent bonds for proper diversification. Since 2000 investors, both large and small, have experienced several moments of negative returns to their portfolios. This experience has enlightened many investors to seek wider portfolio diversification in attempts to reduce their correlation risk, tail risk and negative volatility. As investors search for greater diversification, it begs the question, is there an added value to allocate some portion of a traditional portfolio to a volatility index, such as VSTOXX® Futures? Investors often view each component of their portfolio as a standalone investment. Ultimately asset allocation is about how each portfolio component compliments the entire portfolio. Asset...
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