The Derivative

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 through EAVOL, negative return expectations, gamma scalping, panic selling, Moneyball, and poker to trading parallels. About Equity Armor Investments: Equity Armor Investments is a wealth management firm offering advisory services to both retail and institutional investors. Their goal is to provide superior risk-adjusted returns through effective and efficient risk management. EAI seeks to provide investors and institutions with low volatility consistent advisory solutions. Our products and strategies seek to reduce many of the convexity issues plaguing investors. Follow along with Joe Tigay LinkedIn and Twitter, and check out the four strategies highlighted in this podcast by visiting the Equity Armor website. And last but not least, don't forget to subscribe to The Derivative, and follow us on Twitter, or LinkedIn, and Facebook, and sign-up for our blog digest. Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, or tax advice. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of RCM Alternatives, their affiliates, or companies featured. Due to industry regulations, participants on this podcast are instructed not to make specific trade recommendations, nor reference past or potential profits. And listeners are reminded that managed futures, commodity trading, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors. For more information, visit www.rcmalternatives.com/disclaimer

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 to two of the top energy guys we know – Emil van Essen of Emil van Essen, LLC and Brent Belote of Cayler Capital, LLC to get some expert opinions on how and why something like this has happened, and what the future looks like after this. In today’s episode we’re covering oil storage, whether anyone’s actually out there getting paid to own oil, very large tankers, whether brokers can even process negative prices, Russia vs Saudi Arabia vs US Shale, demand for oil, and will we ever get back to $100/barrel? Follow Brent Belote on LinkedIn and Twitter and check out Cayler Capital’s website & fund tear sheet; and follow Emil van Essen on Twitter and LinkedIn And last but not least, don't forget to subscribe to The Derivative, and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and sign-up for our blog digest. Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, or tax advice. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of RCM Alternatives, their affiliates, or companies featured. Due to industry regulations, participants on this podcast are instructed not to make specific trade recommendations, nor reference past or potential profits. And listeners are reminded that managed futures, commodity trading, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors. For more information, visit www.rcmalternatives.com/disclaimer

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 last thread of creativity in investing. Meb Faber is a co-founder and the Chief Investment Officer of Cambria Investment Management, where he creates the investment process behind their ETFs and separate accounts. Meb is the host of a popular podcast and has authored numerous white papers and actual hold in your hand books. He is a frequent speaker and writer on investment strategies and has been featured in Barron’s, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. Mr. Faber graduated from the University of Virginia with a double major in Engineering Science and Biology. Follow Meb on Twitter and LinkedIn, check out his website & the Cambria Investments website, download his free books, and take a listen to his podcast. And last but not least, don't forget to subscribe to The Derivative, and follow us on Twitter, or LinkedIn, and Facebook, and sign-up for our blog digest. Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, or tax advice. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of RCM Alternatives, their affiliates, or companies featured. Due to industry regulations, participants on this podcast are instructed not to make specific trade recommendations, nor reference past or potential profits. And listeners are reminded that managed futures, commodity trading, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors. For more information, visit www.rcmalternatives.com/disclaimer

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 hurting Europe’s youth, Jeff’s pop-up helmet invention, the good old days (2010) in the VIX, and why convexity matters. Take a Listen! Principalium Capital AG’s Volatility Strategy operates across three facets of the volatility trade:  1. collecting the roll yield premium present in the VIX futures curve, 2. Positioning the portfolio for spikes in volatility during a market crash, and 3. Capturing the mean reverting properties of volatility. The strategy systematically adjusts exposure to these different concepts dynamically, by combining 25 different individual models on different time frames applied to each of the three facets. Follow Alex on Linkedin Follow Principalium Capital AG on Linkedinand check out their website And last but not least, don't forget to subscribe to The Derivative, and follow us on Twitter, or LinkedIn, and Facebook, and sign-up for our blog digest. Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, or tax advice. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of RCM Alternatives, their affiliates, or companies featured. Due to industry regulations, participants on this podcast are instructed not to make specific trade recommendations, nor reference past or potential profits. And listeners are reminded that managed futures, commodity trading, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors. For more information, visit www.rcmalternatives.com/disclaimer

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 Schutzman and Stephen Klein about their Chinese-launched Abingdon fund and dive deeper into liquid Chinese futures markets, NY sports alliances,  moving strategies into Chinese markets, testing systematic models, the best pizza places in THE city, Fiberboard futures, black metals, tricking dogs into volunteering, and the process of taking strategies live in a new marketplace. On top of their individual U.S. ventures, the team on the Abingdon fund has over 50 years of combined experience in managing portfolios, and for the China-specific ventures, they focus on a classical systematic multi model strategy with directional trades in futures grounded by technical analysis. Notes:  Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Methods and Applications Stephen Klein LinkedIn Donate to Village Care here Donate to Gilda's Club here And last but not least, don't forget to subscribe to The Derivative, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, and sign-up for our blog digest. Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, or tax advice. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of RCM Alternatives, their affiliates, or companies featured. Due to industry regulations, participants on this podcast are instructed not to make specific trade recommendations, nor reference past or potential profits. And listeners are reminded that managed futures, commodity trading, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors. For more information, visit www.rcmalternatives.com/disclaimer

Take a listen to our latest podcast to hear why we think trading in and out of different volatility regimes in the commodity markets “like a woman” is a big PLUS. We talk with Kimberly Rios, portfolio manager of the Catalyst Hedged Commodity Strategy Fund about: the CFHIX mutual fund, meeting Muhammad Ali, being a woman in the male dominated asset management world, where commodity option liquidity is, OJ and Nicole Simpson, why buy and hold commodity investing sucks, missing senior prom, seasonality in Corn futures, why female hedge fund managers outperform males, working the Sydney Olympics, and navigating high and low volatility periods with vol as an asset class. The Catalyst Hedged Commodity Strategy Fund seeks to provide positive returns in most market conditions with low correlation to the global equity and commodity markets by investing in dynamic option strategies using physical commodity futures contracts on Crude Oil, Gold, and Corn. Trades focus on volatility, seasonality, technical analysis and price; rather than attempting to forecast where the markets will be in the future. Episode Links: Catalyst Hedged Commodity Strategy Fund page Catalyst Funds Twitter Catalyst Funds LinkedIn Kimberly Rios LinkedIn and email RCM blog post “Asset Class Scoreboard: The Decade” And last but not least, don't forget to subscribe to The Derivative, and follow us on Twitter, or LinkedIn, and Facebook, and sign-up for our blog digest. Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, or tax advice. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of RCM Alternatives, their affiliates, or companies featured. Due to industry regulations, participants on this podcast are instructed not to make specific trade recommendations, nor reference past or potential profits. And listeners are reminded that managed futures, commodity trading, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors. For more information, visit www.rcmalternatives.com/disclaimer

This timely episode gets into just what kind of investment strategy you would have needed to have to capture the huge down move in markets recently and huge spike up in volatility. We talk with Bastian Bolesta, founder and CEO of Swiss-based hedge fund Deep Field Capital, about: designing and implementing effective tail risk strategies, how most of the sell-off has happened in overnight hours, paddle boarding on the Hudson River, whether the “boy” is controlling the machine or the “machine” controlling the boy, Red Cross founder Henry Dunant, the theoretical upper bound of the VIX, squashing the sombrero, and of course…the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. Deep Field Capital AG is a purely systematic shop based in Zug, Switzerland trading highly reactive intraday and short-term systematic programs in global futures and equity markets with a positive skew, convex profile in a top-tier institutional setup. They also run a Volatility Arbitrage strategy composed of four different “pillars”: Calendar spreads in the VIX VIX/SP spreads Intraday capture in equity indices Intraday capture in VIX futures Note: If you want to skip straight to strategy/market talk, fast forward to 34:37. Links: Deep Field Materials Deep Field Capital: Quantitative Intraday and Short-term Trading Solutions Deep Field LinkedIn Contact Deep Field Books The Invention of Hugo Cabret Book The Behavioral Investor by Daniel Crosby       And last but not least, don't forget to subscribe to The Derivative, and follow us on Twitter, or LinkedIn, and Facebook, and sign-up for our blog digest. Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, or tax advice. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of RCM Alternatives, their affiliates, or companies featured. Due to industry regulations, participants on this podcast are instructed not to make specific trade recommendations, nor reference past or potential profits. And listeners are reminded that managed futures, commodity trading, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors. For more information, visit www.rcmalternatives.com/disclaimer

A little different than our usual “hedge fund strategy manager” we chat with Tom Anderson – journalist turned trader turned broker turned entrepreneur – who is now President and Chairman of the Board at DrawBridge Lending; a Chicago fintech company focused on lending in the digital asset space. We’ll be talking about loans against crypto and Bitcoin – covering both sides of the (proverbial) coin with lender and investor needs – risk-based financing, “tape recorder Tom”, why having more kids increases your opportunities to live in Australia, crypto term definitions (cold storage, hot walls, custodians,…), and how to access the Bitcoin and crypto space. DrawBridge Lending is a digital asset management company coordinating USD loans on a blockchain, and protecting borrower assets and lender capital using a third-party, qualified and insured custodians, and advanced risk management strategies [video explainer here]. Touted the “next evolution for lending”, DrawBridge is a entrepreneur in the crypto/Bitcoin lending space with low risk and easy access, designed to avoid the hassle of margin calls, hidden fees, and high rates. Episode Links DrawBridge Lending Website DrawBridge Twitter DrawBridge Facebook DrawBridge LinkedIn Tom Anderson LinkedIn And last but not least, don't forget to subscribe to The Derivative, and follow us on Twitter, or LinkedIn, and Facebook, and sign-up for our blog digest. Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, or tax advice. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of RCM Alternatives, their affiliates, or companies featured. Due to industry regulations, participants on this podcast are instructed not to make specific trade recommendations, nor reference past or potential profits. And listeners are reminded that managed futures, commodity trading, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors. For more information, visit www.rcmalternatives.com/disclaimer

We sit down with the three Canadian founders of Resolve Asset Management to talk zebras walking amongst horses, mid-frequency trading (move over HFT), how the Chicago Bears don’t add Alpha, extracting structural market flaws, low carb diets, regulatory and structural arbitrage,  Peru and the Shining Path terrorist group, orthogonal carry, fasting,  winning the content game, and economic reasoning to appease the complex thinker. Resolve Asset Management is a systematic asset manager out of Toronto focusing on unique and advanced ways of implementing global asset allocation. They operate managed account, private funds, and a mutual fund (RDMIX); using varying automated investment and allocation strategies; including flavors and ensembles of trend following, carry, seasonality, skewnewss, behavioral arbitrage (think trading around a big fund needing to rebalance at end of quarter), and AI/machine learning informed “alpha buckets”. Episode Links:  Rodrigo Gordillo Twitter & LinkedIn Adam Butler Twitter & LinkedIn Mike Philbrick Twitter & LinkedIn Gestalt University Podcast Resolve Website Rational/Resolve Adaptive Asset Allocation Fund  And last but not least, don't forget to subscribe to The Derivative, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, and sign-up for our blog digest. Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, or tax advice. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of RCM Alternatives, their affiliates, or companies featured. Due to industry regulations, participants on this podcast are instructed not to make specific trade recommendations, nor reference past or potential profits. And listeners are reminded that managed futures, commodity trading, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors. For more information, visit www.rcmalternatives.com/disclaimer

In this episode exploring the many facets of long volatility and tail risk exposure, we pick the brains of the founders of the Mutiny investment program, which invests in half a dozen VIX and volatility trading programs in a multi-manager, multi-strategy approach. Our topics include why the whole world is short vol, If squirrels and deer are the natural buyers of forest fire insurance, why Jason hates sports, debit card investing, the interesting idea of an entrepreneurial put option, and what in the world a Brazilian SuperBowl champion is. Enjoy! Black Pearl’s Mutiny investment program is an ensemble approach focused on providing investors tail risk protection across three different buckets of volatility exposure: Volatility Arbitrage, Straddles/Strangles, and Short Term Down Capture.  With each bucket containing its own ensemble of multiple investment managers focused on providing convex returns during a market sell off, with an eye towards limiting the bleed. Jason Buck: Email; Taylor Pearson LinkedIn, Twitter, Book: The End of Jobs, & his blog. Mutiny Website & Podcast. And last but not least, don't forget to subscribe to The Derivative, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, and sign-up for our blog digest. Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, or tax advice. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of RCM Alternatives, their affiliates, or companies featured. Due to industry regulations, participants on this podcast are instructed not to make specific trade recommendations, nor reference past or potential profits. And listeners are reminded that managed futures, commodity trading, and other alternative investments are complex and carry a risk of substantial losses. As such, they are not suitable for all investors. For more information, visit www.rcmalternatives.com/disclaimer