Here's a question which comes up time and time again, and I've heard it again this week. Why invest in a trend following CTA when I can buy and hold the S&P 500 for "zero cost" and end up making money when holding it for multiple years? Note that I've put quotation marks around "zero [...]
Trading is the hardest game in the world. It’s just you against the market and there’s no referee. Your bankroll is an unerring real-time scorekeeper. It goes up when you win, and down when you lose. It’s that simple. Far from simple is the fact that you’re up against some of the sharpest minds [...]
Investors do not necessarily lower their risk by reducing the volatility expectation of their returns. That’s because volatility and risk are two very separate matters. When investors are too keen on obtaining a smooth “all weather” return stream, odds are that at some point they will end up with the opposite. That opposite is negative [...]
What signals do you use to get into a trend following trade - price breakouts, or moving averages? That's a question which has come up several times on the Systematic Investor podcast in recent years. Through this article I'd like to answer the question a bit more detail and give an overview of the [...]
It's been my pleasure to give an introductory presentation/course on options and volatility to a select group of students at Queen's University.Download the slide deck here.Main discussion points:The basics: forward pricing theory, quanto vs. local forwardsAlternatives to the Black-Scholes modelSkew and term structurePut-Call ParitySensitivities ("Greeks")The GME gamma squeezeVIX, VSTOXXCorrelation & basket optionsThe key to learning [...]
As outlined in part 1 of this article, Bitcoin mining uses a lot of power, and because this power isn’t 100% renewable, Bitcoin has a carbon footprint. That’s a fact. A lot of the criticism that’s directed at Bitcoin is based on the assumption that it’s useless. A digital mirage which neither has substance [...]
One year ago, on 23 March 2020, the S&P 500 closed at 2,237 index points. Today, it's at 3,913 - an almost 75% increase in value. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq 100 has rallied from a low of 7,000 to about 12,800 today, up 83%. In Europe, the Eurostoxx 50 is up 60%, and in Japan [...]
According to Digiconomist, Bitcoin’s (BTC) annual carbon footprint equals that of Switzerland (40 Mt CO2) because running its network is power-intensive, consuming approximately as much power as Finland requires in a single year (85 TWh). The numbers for Ethereum (ETH) are smaller (14 Mt CO2, which is about the same as the annual CO2 [...]
This is an excerpt of the topic of the month "Flight to inflation" from our most recent Focus report. To read the whole thing and a lot more, check out our subscription options. If you like to stay updated on our blog posts and other free stuff, sign up for our newsletter! When [...]
In (real) tennis you need to take almost every shot. If you don't return the ball, your opponent wins. However, even though you need to return the ball over the net, you don't have to go all-in with each and every shot. You can control the risk - sometimes you push, other times you [...]
