The Derivative

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...

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 Pa...

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 Canad...

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...

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...

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...

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 sto...

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...

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 tal...

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 be...

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...

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 exp...

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 thro...

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 ris...

In this episode, we’re joined by a powerhouse group of volatility experts consisting of Kevin Davitt, Wayne Himelsein, Jason Buck, and Bastian Bolesta – moderated by our very own Jeff Malec discussing Navigating Market Volatility. Providing more than just witty banter, you’ll be listening to us talk about how crazy volatility was during March/April, why the VIX is more than just for tail risk, is...

The financial world seems to have a fascination with zoomorphism – the attribution of animal names, emotions, or intentions to non- animal occurrences like market shocks. Black Swans are the famous one, but there’s also been White Moose and Gray Rhino added to the lexicon. This episode we sit down with the creator of the Gray Rhino risk metaphor, Michele Wucker, author of Gray Rhino. In today’s ep...

70 days without sports – seems unbelievable, right? The COVID-19 pandemic has affected us all in more ways than one, and while no sports for 2+ months is at the top of the “first world problems” list, it’s a void left unfulfilled for many people. So we were excited to take a new twist on the Alternative Investment road in today’s episode and talk sports; particularly professional sports team/eSpor...

In today’s episode, we have a little different structure and three unique guests to bring a fresh twist on The Derivative podcast. Blu Putnam of the CME Group, Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Asset Management, and Dan Deering of Teza Technologies join us to discuss the economic & strategy impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Listening today you’ll hear some of the craziest economic stats since the Gr...

Futures traders take clicking a price to generate an order on their PCs for granted these days, much less the instant delivery of every tick, order book data, and trade fills. How’s it all work?  How did it all used to work? In this episode we talk with Guy Scott of Trading Technologies about the early days of screen trading to the evolution of modern electronic trading, to what it takes to p...

This episode’s guest, Salem Abraham, is a bit of a legend in the trend following/managed futures space, with his 30+ years of knowledge and experience making for some of the best stories in the industry (and one of our most entertaining guests to date). In today’s episode we learn more about tiny Canadian, Texas; how you have to noodles and red sauce if in a contest to make the best spaghetti, the...

VIX and volatility guru (who also sidelines as CBOE & CNBC contributor and an RIA and CFO) Joe Tigay is on our pod to share some nuggets of VIX and vol expertise with our listeners. In addition to vix & vol, we’re also talking about Michigan sports teams, the early days in the pit, Equity Armor’s four strateiges, SPX vs S&P, the risk behind options, Pequod’s pizza, trading volatility t...

Yesterday was a historic day for crude……and the trend continues today. With crude oil going negative for the first time ever. That’s right – May Crude Oil futures went to -$37/barrel. Essentially saying you would get paid $37 per barrel to own  this Oil. This has left seasoned, new, and non-futures traders scratching their heads wondering how something like this could even happen. We turned t...

In this episode we chat with an ETF creator, financial book author, and host of the popular Meb Faber Show podcast. We're talking with Meb Faber about Colorado sports teams, trend following, skiing vs surfing, farmland investments, interesting pod guests, how most asset managers are out of business already but don’t know it, how Meb invests his own money, IN-N-OUT orders, and naming ETFs as the la...

In this episode we're diving deep into VIX futures and using that instrument to gain convexity in a portfolio, we chat with Swiss hedge fund manager Alex Orus of Principalium who have a three pronged approach to trading volatility as an asset class. Our topics include  Swiss country music, personifying your trading models, the volatility of volatility, Roger Federer, negative interest rates h...

Chickity China the Chinese chicken futures. Between strict regulations, gated access, mainland-based employees, and more seemingly difficult roadblocks, the Chinese Futures Market can feel untouchable. But with abundant growth possibilities and highly volatile (= good for trading) markets, some firms are leading the charge in accessing this growing marketplace. In this episode, we talk with Fred S...