Mutiny Investing Podcast

In this episode I am joined by Mutiny Fund CIO Jason Buck and our close partner at RCM Alternatives, Jeff Malec.  In this quarterly review, we discuss what we saw in volatility markets and how various volatility strategies performed in Q4 of 2020 and what we might expect to see in 2021. We go into the VIX term structure around the election, the impact of retail call buying, and the dislocation of the normal relationship between volatility and equities. In addition to our conversation, Jason also sat down with Bastian Bolesta from Deepfield Capital which employs volatility arbitrage and short term trend following models and Wayne Himelsein from Logica Funds which focused on long options strategies for their takes on the market in Q4. To give a bit of context, Q4 2020 saw The S&P up about 10.9%, and the VIX down about -14% though it was mostly range bound between 20 and 25 with one spike at the end of October.  We wanted to release this publicly so we don’t go into specific performance here and will instead focus on volatility markets broadly. Accredited investors interested in learning more can contact us at info@mutinyfund.com for more information or submit an inquiry on our site.  

In this episode, we talk with Benn Eifert, the managing member and CIO of QVR. He was previously co-founder and co-portfolio manager of Mariner Coria in New York and the Wells Fargo proprietary trading desk, which became Overland Advisors. He holds a PhD in Economics from UC Berkeley.    We talk about the history of the derivatives markets and the mixed impact of Dodd Frank legislation, why some derivatives buyers are price insensitive and the opportunities that creates, and then we really geeked out on three trading strategies using the VIX, dispersion trading and everyone’s favorite topic: European dividend futures. Underlying all of this is Benn’s unique way of looking at markets. I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did!  

In this episode, we talk with Diego Parrilla of Quadriga Asset Managers. Diego is an engineer by training and has spent 20 years in the markets. He’s spent most of that time in macro and commodities trading at firms including JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. He is the author of the bestselling books The Energy World is Flat and Anti-Bubbles. Diego has a really unique approach to the markets that we got into including why he holds his basis in gold and treasuries, how he uses exotic options to improve his opportunity set, and why portfolios should be constructed like football teams. I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did!

Formerly running Thiel Macro, Mike Green from Logica discusses monetizing options, market history, and Fed seminars. He shares insights on passive investing, long volatility challenges, gamma scalping, and historical market dynamics. The conversation also explores the Federal Reserve's influence, options market dynamics, and the Princess Bride analogy.

In this episode, my partner and CIO of Mutiny Fund Jason Buck speaks with three of the most experience volatility traders alive today: Jerry Haworth of 36 South, Bastian Bolesta of Deep Field Capital, and Chris Cole of Artemis Capital. This was originally recorded in July 2020 for the financial media channel Real Vision, but contains timeless wisdom that lies deep at the heart of investing in volatility. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.    

In this episode I am joined by our close partner at Attain Portfolio Advisors Jeff Malec and Mutiny Fund CIO Jason Buck. Now that we’ve had the Mutiny Fund’s first full quarter in the books, Q3 2020, we wanted to get on a podcast and talk through the environment as a way of helping current and potential investors better understand what we do. We’ll look to do these every quarter or so as a sort of modern version of the hedge fund ‘quarterly letter’ but where we can go into a bit more detail. Q3 saw The S&P up about 8.28%, and the VIX down about -14% though it took a somewhat different path. We wanted to release this publicly so we don’t go into specific performance here, but accredited investors can contact us at info@mutinyfund.com for more information or submit an inquiry on our site.  

In this episode, we talk with Ernie Chan. Ernie, a physicist by training, is the founder of QTS Capital Management and author of a number of books on Quantitative and Algorithmic Trading. In today’s episode, we talk about Ernie’s tail reaper strategy at QTS which seeks to profit from down moves in the S&P. We go into how Gamma Dealer Hedging and Forced Rebalancing exacerbates intraday volatility in the SPX in a way that makes the S&P one of the best places for a tail strategy to work. We also go into the Evolution of Machine Learning and how it is applied to trading strategies including tail reaper and the appropriate way to use kelly criterion for investors - a lesson Ernie learned the hard way.

In this episode, we talk with Matt Rowe from Headwaters Volatility. Matt has over two decades of experience trading volatility at multibillion dollar asset managers. We talk with Matt about why the best portfolios have both long and short volatility and how investors often get the mix wrong. Matt has particularly great point on the importance of market microstructure and why we’ve seen an increase in volatility selling programs since 2017. We also trace the long history of volatility as an asset class, particularly looking at the convertible bond market in the late 90s/early 2000s and what parallels there are to the present day. 

In this episode, we talk with Tim Jacobson, founding member of Pearl Capital. Before starting Pearl, Tim worked with a family office and designed Pearl to add a much-needed form of diversification to their portfolio and discovered many other investors have the same need. We talk about common mistakes investors make in evaluating their risk. We then get into the details on why VIX futures is the best instrument to hedge against equity market volatility and why the absolute level of the vix is not as important as the fluctuation in the VIX, the volatility of volatility. At the end, we also get Tim’s take on what the post-Covid-19 world looks like. I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did.

This is a special episode that was recorded as a panel on Navigating Market Volatility on May 21, 2020. I wanted to publish it here on the Mutiny podcast as I think it provides an interesting and insightful look into what we saw in March 2020 and what we can learn from that about how the volatility landscape, and market landscape more generally, is likely to evolve going forward. The panelists discuss the role of the VIX in a portfolio or trading strategy, whether it is too late for long volatility protection and what everyone gets wrong about options.   This panelists include Jason Buck a principal at Mutiny alongside Wayne Himelsein of Logica Capital, Bastian Bolesta of Deepfield Capital, and Kevin Davit of the CBOE. The Panel is moderated by Jeff Malec of RCM Alternatives. Wayne, Bastian and Jeff are all previous podcast guests here on the Mutiny podcast and if you enjoy this discussion on the panel, you should check out their episodes.   I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did.