Top Traders Unplugged With Niels Kaastrup-larsen | Engaging Conversations With The Top Traders & Investors

This week, we discuss Bank of America’s declaration of the end of the traditional 60/40 portfolio, the different attitudes to having ‘insurance’ in the markets, the reasons why too many fund managers are aiming for average returns, and the importance of consistently being present to profit from the biggest price moves.  Questions we cover this week include: what can be considered a large enough sample size when performing a backtest? What is the best investing advice you have ever received? Should Trend Following funds screen potential clients? How do you deal with positions that show no price movement for a period of time?-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE : SIGN-UP for Rick Rule's Symposium: Once in a life-time natural resource insights from the BEST investors in the world via a first-class livestream or Live event!Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.I

On this week’s episode, we discuss the tendency for investors to confuse volatility & noise with risk and instability, the benefits of great mentorship, why the best investments are those that have survived calamitous periods, why risk from any single market shouldn’t be able to ruin your portfolio, and Larry Hite’s observation that there is very little magic in Trend Following. Questions we answer this week include: can a 10-year track record can be considered as anything more than noise? Is there a way to achieve exceptionally high returns with minimal risk & volatility?  What really is a ‘fat tail’?  Can Trend Followers make money in rising interest-rate environments?  Can you apply Trend Following to the VIX index?-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE : SIGN-UP for Rick Rule's Symposium: Once in a life-time natural resource insights from the BEST investors in the w

This week, we discuss the potential risks of aiming for smooth & steady returns, the pitfalls of having to make predictions, the higher-than-expected appearances of tail events, why it’s dangerous to look at the ‘average performance’ of an industry, and why aiming to trade in a style that suits your personality can actually turn out to be a bad idea.  Questions we cover this week include: Have you encountered any CTAs with unusually low-frequency trading strategies? Should the optimization of your strategy come from an ideas-based approach or a data-based approach?  How do you feel about the integration of Value Investing into a Trend Following strategy?  What does discipline mean to you, and how do you stay disciplined?-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE : SIGN-UP for Rick Rule's Symposium: Once in a life-time natural resource insights from the BEST investors in the wor

Today on Top Traders Unplugged, I continue our conversation with Alan Sheen, talking about how and why he designed Dalton Street Capital’s investment strategy the way he did, and how it has performed compared to the market average over the past three years. Listen in to today’s episode to learn how Alan’s strategies are different from traditional managed futures, his managerial approach that enables employees to innovate, and what an investor should ask a potential manager when doing their due diligence.-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder ToolIn This Episode, You’ll Learn:Why Alan developed a hedging strategy based on volatility and liquidityThe connection between the Australian and US marketsWhy Alan does not trade in US markets in his intra-day strategyWhy Dalton Street Capital focuses on Australiasian marketsWhere Dalton Street Capital’s return profile comes fromWhy Alan also trades in medium to long-term trend fol

In this week’s episode, we discuss why Sharpe Ratios should be taken with a pinch of salt, the benefits of using a Trading Coach, why consistently aligning with the best odds may be a better strategy than trying to predict future price moves, DUNN Capital’s recent award from HedgeWeek magazine, why ‘the standout hedge fund traders this year have been computer-driven Trend-Followers’, and why Risk Management is more important than strategy or philosophy.  Questions answered this week include: Why are commodities seen as more risky than equities?  Can you use Options in a Trend Following strategy? Should you keep your stop-loss proportionately the same across different time-frames?  Are there any markets to be avoided by new managers?-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder ToolFollow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FR

Today on Top Traders Unplugged, I’m speaking with Alan Sheen, Founder and CIO of Dalton Street Capital. Alan has an interesting background in science and engineering, and also spent time in the military, which allowed him to later thrive in rules-based investing. He’s also the first Australian manager to be on the podcast. Listen in to today’s episode to learn about Alan’s journey from the Australian military to starting his own investment firm, why investors should look at volatility not as risk but as an opportunity, and what an investor’s own personal car says about their investment strategies.-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder ToolIn This Episode, You’ll Learn:What Alan’s childhood was like in AustraliaWhy Alan studied aeronautical engineeringHow Alan equates gas-turbine engines with robust investingHow Alan’s experience in the military helps him as an investorHow Alan was influenced by Darwin’s “The Origin of th

In this episode, we discuss Howard Mark’s comments regarding not losing money being more important than missing opportunities, how solid Trend Following performance can often stay on the edge of randomness, recent opposing comments from the AHL founders on the effectiveness of Trend Following in today’s markets, why complexity and complication might actually be different from one another, and we also touch on a white paper which points out an increased inaccuracy with backtests the more complex a system gets.  Questions answered this week include: How easy is Trend Following to carry out? Are funds today charging too much in fees?  Is there a way to accurately predict future price moves?  Daniel Crosby mentioned in a recent Top Traders Unplugged interview, that ‘the best investments were the ones that were left alone’, what do we think about that statement? How do we keep our cool around friends & family after a very bad week in the markets?  Do clients have a wide & varied attitud

On today’s episode, Niels continues his conversation with Dr. Daniel Crosby, Chief Behavior Officer of Brinker Capital, and the host of The Standard Deviation Podcast. Niels and Daniel discuss how emotion affects investment decision-making, the problem with financial media, and what investors can do to correct their bad investment behavior.-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder ToolIn This Episode, You’ll Learn:The key points of dealing with emotion as an investorWhy rules are better than goalsDaniel’s Four “C”s of investingThe importance of rule-following for investment managersWhat is the role of clarity in investingWhy an overabundance of data can be detrimental to decision-makingThe role of courageousness in investmentsWhy process over outcome is importantWhy volatility is not the same as risk-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE : SIGN-UP for Rick Rule's Symposium: Once in a life-time natural resource insights from the BEST inve

In today’s episode, we discuss if it’s possible to successfully blur the lines between Discretionary & Systematic Trading, why most of the largest Hedge Funds in the world are Systematic, results of the rolling 10-year returns of Trend Following versus the S&P 500, how diversification can prevent long drawdown periods, why forming an opinion on your stock position can negatively affect how you manage the trade, and we also explain some of the differences between Cash Contracts and Continuous Contracts.  Questions answered this week include: Should you beware of high win percentages?  Are large drawdowns a normal part of Trend Following? What are the largest up or down moves we’ve ever experienced?-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE : SIGN-UP for Rick Rule's Symposium: Once in a life-time natural resource insights from the BEST investors in the world via a first-class live

The tables have turned! In this episode, Niels Kaastrup-Larsen becomes the first featured guest on Erik Townsend’s newest podcast – MacroVoices Spotlight! In this episode, Niels and Erik discuss Trend Following, the history of the Turtle Traders, Benefits of de-correlation and conditional correlation, how CTAs have been performing, and much more.Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.IT’s TRUE

On today’s episode, Niels Kaastrup-Larsen speaks with Dr. Daniel Crosby, Chief Behavior Officer of Brinker Capital, and the host of The Standard Deviation Podcast. Dr. Crosby came to investment management through clinical psychology and therefore has a unique perspective on behavioral economics. The discussion ranges from how human behavior is evolutionarily ill-equipped for investment management, the importance of having rules for investing during turbulent times, and what investors can do to modify their behavior for success.-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder ToolIn This Episode, You’ll Learn:What makes Daniel’s background rare in investment managementHow the eradication of Guinea Worm is relevant to investing behaviorWhy the evolution of human behavior is antithetical to investingHow being a quantitative investor is beneficial to overcoming bad behavioral economicsThe correlation between activity and success in th

In our special Anniversary Edition of the Systematic Investor Podcast, we invite Peter Borish onto the show to discuss the differences between Discretionary and Systematic Investing, Peter’s journey from the New York Federal Reserve to his role at Quad Group, his experience working with Paul Tudor Jones, his opinion on the CTA industry and its current approach to attracting capital, the benefits of having solid business partners during the best and worst of times, the power of Market Cycles, how perception rather reality can affect a client’s judgement, the effectiveness of Trading coaches, and we also get Peter’s opinions on the current state of the markets.  We asked Peter many questions this week, including: Where do you draw the line between normal drawdowns, and feeling compelled to change your models?  How do you best explain the benefits of a Rules-Based Trading approach to potential clients? What does Quad Group do, and how difficult is it to find new talent?  Can the collapse of Passiv

In this week’s show, we discuss using multiple systems to further enhance diversification, the differences between a portfolio meeting expectations versus benchmarking it against an Index, Trend Following in-house versus using an experienced Systematic Investment manager, having the temperament to stay the course with your investments, and the effectiveness of trying to predict the next moves of CTAs. Questions answered this week include: Are interest rates lower than usual at the moment? Does the market ever display any meaningful sentiments from the crowds? Do we use any rules for liquidity? What questions would we consider before allocating to a Systematic Trading strategy? What’s the maximum loss of equity we would be willing to accept due to one return driver, such as the Swiss Franc in 2015, and do we ever have to ‘step-in’ and override our systems?-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE

Today we discuss the potential dangers of avoiding simplicity, how good Trading is counter-intuitive to Human Nature, the benefits of doing the same thing over and over, how to earn big profits through aggressive Trend Following strategies, the secrets to building wealth through investing, and how we like to approach correlations in our portfolios.  Questions answered this week include: Why are complex strategies more attractive to investors?  Is the phrase ‘this time it’s different’ actually true?  How important is it to have access to vast amounts of data?  How much capital is needed to operate a profitable & diversified Trend Following portfolio?  What questions should Investors be asking Fund Managers?  Do we use Volume as part of our strategies?-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE : SIGN-UP for Rick Rule's Symposium: Once in a life-time natural resourc

Today, we discuss the potential dangers of taking time away from the markets, the importance of Investor behaviour over the ability to analyse data, Morgan Housel’s article on the universal Laws of Investing, the differences between Buy-and-Hold, periodically re-balancing your portfolio, versus a more active Trend Following approach, as well as the art of profiting from Tail Events.  Questions we address this week include: is Inter-Market Analysis a useful tool or a dangerous approach? Should a Trading System be designed to be comfortable to execute?  Would a reduced presence of Trend Followers in the market result in slower, more random price movements?  What is the overall effect on markets of large participation from Trend Following strategies, and can the space become too overcrowded?-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE : SIGN-UP for Rick Rule's Symposium: Once in a life-

This week, we discuss the current state of the Bond market, how the larger, commercial institutions affect overall CTA Trend Following performance, how to deal with the fluctuations in currencies when performing backtests, and we also give our thoughts on various Trading exit strategies. Questions answered this week include: does the majority of CTAs get out of their equity positions when the S&P500 falls below its 200-day moving average?  Should you avoid trading markets that perform badly in backtests?  Can a system that is working too perfectly be a bad sign? What are the implications for trading every market in the same way?  What is the benchmark Sharpe Ratio for Trend Following strategies?  Is there a limit to portfolio diversification?-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE : SIGN-UP for Rick Rule's Symposium: Once in a life-time natural resource insights from th

This week, we discuss the importance of avoiding any emotional attachments to your positions, how correlated markets can affect your portfolio, how to decide which trades to execute when your signals outweigh the amount of equity available to trade, and we also give our thoughts on Margin-to-Equity related to Position Sizing.  Questions answered this week include: does uncertainty in the markets have any negative effects on Trend Following strategies? Can the S&P 500 ever be a good comparison when gauging Trend Following performance?  Are there any signals that can reliably measure trend strength? When Trend Following strategies aren’t working, should you apply any other strategies?  Does Jerry trade Index Futures or single stocks?-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE : SIGN-UP for Rick Rule's Symposium: Once in a life-time natural resource insights from the BEST investors

When it comes to Behavioural Finance, a few people stand out in terms of their contribution to helping us all understand why and how it works. The intersection between Human Behaviour and Quantitative Investing can be difficult to understand for even the most sophisticated investors.  Today, I want to share some really important insights from one of my favorite professors, who is also a practitioner of this discipline, namely Andrew Lo of MIT Sloan School of Management and Director of MITs laboratory of Financial Engineering.  Many people know Andrew as the father of the Adaptive Market Hypothesis, and our conversation was wide ranging, entertaining, and deeply insightful.  So enjoy these truly unique take aways from Professor Andrew Lo.Listen to the full episode here. Part 1 & Part 2.-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE : SIGN-UP for Rick Rule's Sympo

This week, we discuss whether commodities are more risky to trade than equities, if a stocks-only Trend Following strategy can be profitable in the long run, if a deep drawdown is worse than a long drawdown, and the importance of over-estimating any possible drawdowns implied by a backtest. Questions answered include: should all Trend Following funds be required to provide Crisis Alpha? Is there ever a good time to override your system and trade outside of the rules? Should you always execute trades from your signals immediately, or wait for an extra confirmation sometimes? Is there an edge to be gained from seeking the perfect entry into a long-term trade? How many positions should you have open at any one time? What can be considered a good amount of leverage?-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE : SIGN-UP for Rick Rule's Symposium: Once in a life-time natural resource insights from the BE

It has been said that: ‘The biggest room of all, is the room for improvement’, and one thing that is clear to see in the amazing careers of today’s guests, is the continued hunger for learning in the quest for an improved investment process. This has led to an unprecedented success for this trio.  Today, I share the last key insights from my conversation with Michael Adam, David Harding and Marty Lueck, also known as the founders of AHL.  In this post, we don’t just discuss the importance of learning… but also how you must un-learn certain things in order to move forward.  Lastly, we discuss what the three of them wish the legacy of AHL will be. So, sit back and relax and enjoy these truly unique takeaways from my conversation with Michael, David and Marty.Listen to the full episode here.-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----ATTENTION TTU TRIBE : SIGN-UP for Rick Rule's Symposium: Once