Commodities
ESG and Its Growing Influence in the Timberland Investment Sector
Dec 17th, 2020 | Filed under: Private Equity, Newly Added, Natural Resources and Land, Other Issues in Private Investments, ESG, Commodities, Private Investments, Real AssetsBy Chung-Hong Fu, Managing Director, Research Timberland Investment Resources, LLC As interest in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues increases, investors and investment managers are working to define and refine what ESG means and what ESG engagement looks like in the context of their portfolios and the asset classes inRead More
How Challenges in Commodity Trade Finance are Creating New Investment Opportunities
Dec 6th, 2020 | Filed under: Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, Other Issues in Private Investments, Commodities, Emerging Alternative Investments, Other Topics in A.I.
By Annie Yung 2020 certainly has had many challenges across markets, and trade finance has been no exception. Trade finance is critical for global companies for support of operations and to enable the expansion of trade and growth. The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled a growing funding gap and has exposedRead More
Measuring the Inflation Risk of Three ‘Inflation-Hedges’
Nov 24th, 2020 | Filed under: Newly Added, Risk management, The Global Economy & Currencies, ETFs, Economics, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Macroeconomics, Commodities, Allocating to A.I., Finance & Economics
By Doris Bao, FRM and Alex Botte, CFA, CAIA, Client Solutions Research team at Two Sigma In our previous post on inflation, we covered how the Local Inflation risk factor in Venn, Two Sigma’s risk analytics platform, is constructed and we reviewed its historical performance. The primary conclusion was thatRead More
Three Sources of Alpha: A Call for Small Manager Investment
Oct 13th, 2020 | Filed under: CAPM / Alpha Theory, Hedge Fund Strategies, CTA, Investing in Commodities, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Seeding/early-stage, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Finance & EconomicsBy Karl Rogers, ACE Capital Investments I recently finished a multi-strategy fund of hedge funds build for an institution where I focused on three sources of alpha: small manager, equities and commodities. Small Manager Alpha Given that “small” managers have been found to outperform their larger peers[1], why do manyRead More
The Coming Oil Crisis
Aug 13th, 2020 | Filed under: Commodities, Newly Added, oil, Commodities: Examples, Energy, CommoditiesExcerpted of Goehring & Rozencwajg, Natural Resource Investors We are on the cusp of a global energy crisis. Like most crises, the fundamental causes for this crisis been brewing for several years but have lacked a catalyst to bring them to the attention of the public or to the averageRead More
Oil Prices Went Where?
Apr 26th, 2020 | Filed under: Commodities, Newly Added, oil, Commodities: Examples, The A.I. Industry, CommoditiesBy Adam A. Rozencwajg, CFA, Managing Partner, Geohring & Rozencwajg Oil prices joined bond yields in doing the unthinkable: trading at negative levels. In the case of oil, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) May 2020 contract reached a low of -$40.32 at 2:24 pm before rallying back to finish the day atRead More
Alpha Comes in Waves
Feb 20th, 2020 | Filed under: Retail Investing, Newly Added, Alternative Beta & Hedge Fund Replication, Smart Beta, The A.I. Industry, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Commodities, Structure of the Hedge Funds Industry, Allocating to A.I.The brief history of replication funds may already be divided into three waves, the third of which is still in formation. The first wave was about democratization: putting hedge fund strategies in the hands of people who cannot meet the accreditation requirements to invest in hedge funds proper, or ofRead More
Making Your Portfolio About #Goals
Feb 13th, 2020 | Filed under: Performance, Analytics & Metrics, Retail Investing, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, Benchmarking & Performance Attribution, CAIA Alternative Viewpoints, High-net-worth investors, Asset Allocation Models, Endowments & Foundations, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Real Estate Equity Investments, Family Offices, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Private InvestmentsBy Aaron Filbeck, CFA, CAIA, CIPM, Associate Director, Content Development at CAIA Association Central Issue of the Paper If you’re a social media junkie, you have probably seen “#goals” in your timeline. In most cases, the hashtag is referring to an attractive couple or an aesthetically pleasing plate of food.Read More
Biofuels and Deforestation: A CSR/ESG Cautionary Tale
Feb 9th, 2020 | Filed under: Newly Added, Alternative energy, ESG, Energy, Climate change, The A.I. Industry, Commodities, SRI and Clean Energy, Other Topics in A.I.The Republic of France, in March 2019, decided that it would no longer consider fuel made from palm oil to be a “biofuel,” effective as of January 2020. So that redefinition is now in effect. Meanwhile, the EU recently set tariffs on palm oil coming in from Indonesia or Malaysia:Read More
Hedge Fund Investors Respond to the Turning of the Business Cycle
Jan 13th, 2020 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, Private Equity, Hedge Fund Strategies, Investing in Commodities, Equity Hedge Funds, Debt Types of Private Equity, Newly Added, Equity Types of Private Equity, Other Issues in Private Investments, The A.I. Industry, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Private InvestmentsIt is reasonable to expect that a diversified hedge fund portfolio will make more modest returns in 2020 than it did in 2019, according to Agecroft Partners, which has done its usual January crystal-ball gazing on the new year, looking for the top industry trends and how they may playRead More
Simpler Rules for Commodity Pools
Jan 9th, 2020 | Filed under: Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Regulatory, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Family Offices, CommoditiesThe Commodity Futures Trading Commission has changed the rules for the managers of commodity pools. The new regulations, approved in November and published in the Federal Register for Dec. 10, take effect on Thursday, January 9, 2020. Some key points about these changes: They have codified Family Office No-Action Letters,Read More
Commodities:Waiting for a Paradigm Shift
Dec 25th, 2019 | Filed under: Commodities, CTA, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, The Global Economy & Currencies, The A.I. Industry, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Finance & EconomicsRay Dalio, in reference to the current financial scene, with its long period of expansion over more than a decade has said, “This set of circumstances is unsustainable and certainly can no longer be pushed…[which] is why I believe that the world is approaching a big paradigm shift.” Dalio hasRead More
The Imminent Demise of the LNG/Crude Oil Link
Dec 19th, 2019 | Filed under: Commodities, Hedge Fund Strategies, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, oil, Commodities: Examples, Energy, The A.I. Industry, Hedge Funds, CommoditiesLiquified natural gas has long been sold through long-term contracts that are benchmarked to the price of crude oil. This makes a certain intuitive sense. The two commodities are in many contexts substitutes, so that one would expect a rise in the prices of one to inspire an echoing riseRead More
Blenheim Closes, Ushering in a New Era in Commodities
Oct 31st, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, CTA, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, The A.I. Industry, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Hedge Funds, CommoditiesWillem Kooyker is folding up his tent at Blenheim Capital, the commodities-focused hedge fund headquartered in an office park in Berkeley Heights, N.J. Kooyker is a legend. In 1981, he went to work at Commodities Corp., Princeton, N.J., where he was a peer of Paul Tudor Jones, Louis Bacon, andRead More
Eurekahedge: The Return of Alpha
Sep 29th, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, CTA, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Indexes, Event-Driven Hedge Funds, The A.I. Industry, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Structure of the Hedge Funds IndustryThe Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index was up in August, 0.17%, easily outperforming the global equity market, as measured by MSCI ACWI, which was down 2.37%. The August number brings the Eurekahedge HFI’s year-to-date result to 6.58%. Approximately 32.6% of the funds Eurekahedge tracks are in double-digits (positive) territory for theRead More
Boone Pickens, A Trailblazer, Passes On
Sep 17th, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, Socially responsible investing, Event-Driven Hedge Funds, oil, Alternative energy, Other Issues in Private Investments, Energy, The A.I. Industry, Hedge Funds, Commodities, SRI and Clean Energy, Other Topics in A.I.T. Boone Pickens died quietly at home in Dallas, Texas on Sept. 11, 2019. In his long career Pickens did a good deal to give the current hedge fund industry, as well as the broader asset management industry and the energy commodities markets, their character, in a life that sometimesRead More
PORTFOLIO PROTECTION VIA MANAGED FUTURES LIQUID ALTS?
Sep 8th, 2019 | Filed under: Commodities, Hedge Fund Strategies, CTA, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, Alternative Mutual Funds, Liquid Alts, ETFs, The A.I. Industry, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Commodities, Allocating to A.I., Other Topics in A.I.By Nicolas Rabener of FactorResearch (@FactorResearch) INTRODUCTION The mafia and the hedge fund industry share some characteristics. Both are powerful, non-transparent, and create little value for society. Naturally the mafia is a criminal organization while the only “criminal” element of hedge funds are the high fees they are charging forRead More
Is it Time for the Gold Bug to Bite?
Aug 27th, 2019 | Filed under: Commodities, Hard metals, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, Commodities: Examples, ETFs, The A.I. Industry, Gold, CommoditiesDiane Merritt, of the Closed-End Fund Association (CEF) spoke recently with Axel Merk, of Merk Investments, about precious metals as part of a portfolio, and specifically the role these metals can play late in the business cycle: which, according to a rather broad consensus, is where we now are. TheRead More
Equity Differential: A Factor in Currency Returns
Jul 23rd, 2019 | Filed under: Currencies, Newly Added, Forex, The Global Economy & Currencies, The A.I. Industry, CommoditiesA recent publication by two executives of State Street Associates identifies a new factor in currency turns, which it calls the “equity differential.” In effect, it argues for the viability of a trading strategy based on this factor. The paper argues that the differential in trailing equity market performance stronglyRead More
Restrictions on Pension Plan Investments: A Global Survey
Jul 16th, 2019 | Filed under: Derivatives, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Structured Products, Allocating to A.I.A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development surveys the main quantitative investment restrictions to which pension funds and other pension providers are subject in both OECD countries and a selection of International Organization of Pension Supervisors’ (IOPS) member countries. It reminds us of the general desireRead More
Oil & Gas: Where is the Capital Flowing?
Jul 7th, 2019 | Filed under: Private Equity, Commodities, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, Equity Types of Private Equity, oil, Other Issues in Private Investments, The A.I. Industry, Commodities, Private InvestmentsThe last two years have seen record low levels of mergers and acquisitions activity in the oil and gas sector in the United States. There are other signs of lassitude in the field: a record low volume of PE deals, (more of that in a moment), and only six initialRead More
Hedge Fund Index Backslides in May; Remains in Positive Territory
Jun 25th, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Industry Trends, CTA, Industry Size & Managers, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Indexes, Event-Driven Hedge Funds, Funds of Hedge Funds, The A.I. Industry, Hedge Funds, Relative Value Hedge Funds, CommoditiesRed ink spoiled an otherwise positive 2019 for he Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index. The decline of 0.71% leaves the year-to-date performance still well up, at +4.32%. Approximately 41.6% of the funds Eurekahedge tracks were in the black for the month. And 15% have generated double-digit gains year-to-date. North America-mandated hedgeRead More
Crop Protection and Inputs Management: Growing Investments in AgTech
Jun 20th, 2019 | Filed under: Private Equity, Commodities, Agriculture, Investing in Commodities, Debt Types of Private Equity, Newly Added, Venture capital, Farmland, Equity Types of Private Equity, Natural Resources and Land, Angel investing, The A.I. Industry, Commodities, Private InvestmentsThe agricultural sector is under pressure from several directions, including depressed commodity prices, increased regulation, climate change, and changes in consumer tastes. This pressure creates a demand for technological progress, and that in turn creates a market for agtech. Two years ago, Finisterre Ventures and Pitchbook combined their data gatheringRead More
The Value of Speculation Limits, or Lack Thereof
Jun 18th, 2019 | Filed under: Commodities, Derivatives, Newly Added, Commodity Forward Pricing, The A.I. Industry, CommoditiesCFTC Commissioner Daniel Berkovitz recently spoke to the FIA Commodities Symposium, in Houston, Texas, about the reduction of systemic risks and the strengthening of market integrity under the Dodd-Frank Act. He gave the usual disclaimer, that the views he expressed in this address were his own not those of theRead More
A HORSE RACE OF LIQUID ALTERNATIVES
Jun 13th, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, CTA, Investing in Commodities, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Liquid Alts, ETFs, The A.I. Industry, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Hedge Funds, Liquid Alternative Investiments, Commodities, Other Topics in A.I.By Nicolas Rabener of FactorResearch (@FactorResearch) INTRODUCTION Investing is challenging as it is complex and complicated, which requires continuous learning and updating of mental frameworks. Conflicts and contradictions are found everywhere. For example, data from the mutual fund industry shows that most funds fail to outperform their benchmarks, but investors inRead More
ICE Futures Gets Its Speed Bump
Jun 4th, 2019 | Filed under: Commodities, Algorithmic and high-frequency trading, Newly Added, Business News, The A.I. Industry, CommoditiesOn Feb. 1, ICE Futures US Inc., informed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that it was instituting a new “speed bump,” formally called the Passive Order Protection (or POP) Functionality for its gold daily and silver daily futures markets. The idea of POP is to limit the advantage that canRead More
The Two Faces of Investing in Renewables
May 27th, 2019 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, Investing in Commodities, Equity Hedge Funds, Newly Added, Socially responsible investing, Event-Driven Hedge Funds, The Global Economy & Currencies, Emerging markets, Alternative energy, Commodities: Examples, Energy, The A.I. Industry, Frontier markets, Hedge Funds, Emerging Alternative Investments, SRI and Clean Energy, Other Topics in A.I.Renewable energy, however defined, is widely seen as a sustainable and socially responsible (and, if the investing is done right, very profitable) addition to one’s portfolio. Indeed, such entities as the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, an Ohio based research-and-analysis shop, exist to show that renewables are theRead More
Bart Chilton: A Career of Regulating Commodities, Futures and Cheetahs
May 7th, 2019 | Filed under: Commodities, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, The A.I. Industry, CommoditiesBart Chilton, a senior adviser at DLA Piper who was from 2007 to 2014 a Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, passed away April 27. Chilton had a colorful reputation in the largely grey-hued world of commodities regulation. President George W. Bush appointed Chilton to the CFTC at aRead More
Backwards to the Future
Apr 16th, 2019 | Filed under: Commodities, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, Commodity Forward Pricing, The A.I. Industry, CommoditiesOliver Wyman, the international consulting group, has posted a white paper about commodity trading in the face of the “relentless erosion in trading margins” since 2014. The paper estimates, moreover, that margins will continue to decline for at least the next five years because commodity markets will continue to becomeRead More
Commodities are Beginning to Resemble Equities
Apr 7th, 2019 | Filed under: Commodities, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, oil, Energy, The A.I. Industry, Gold, CommoditiesObservers have long noticed that the relationship between return shocks and equity price volatility is asymmetric. That is, positive shocks do not have a marked effect on volatility; negative shocks do. Fischer Black wrote on the subject more than 40 years ago. Recently there has been a good deal ofRead More
Pension Funds Not Quite Swamped by ‘Grey Tsunami’
Mar 5th, 2019 | Filed under: Real Estate, Private Equity, Hedge Fund Strategies, Infrastructure, Equity Hedge Funds, Debt Types of Private Equity, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Asset allocation, Event-Driven Hedge Funds, Equity Types of Private Equity, Natural Resources and Land, Asset Allocation Models, Operationally Intensive Real Assets, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Real Estate Equity Investments, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Private Investments, Real Assets, Allocating to A.I.A recent study of public employee retirement systems in the United States reaches conclusions, that, after a fair amount of “grey tsunami” alarmism in recent years, sound reassuring. The study, based on a recent survey of system managements conducted by the National Conference of Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) inRead More
Green Bonds: The Future of Infrastructure Investing
Feb 24th, 2019 | Filed under: Commodities, Infrastructure, Investing in Commodities, Debt Types of Private Equity, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Socially responsible investing, Operationally Intensive Real Assets, Climate change, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Private Investments, Real Assets, SRI and Clean Energy, Other Topics in A.I.Two scholars affiliated with the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Canada, have taken a look at the future of green bonds, that is, bonds whose proceeds are employed to fund environmental initiatives. The paper, by Olaf Weber and Vasundhara Saravade, begins with a guesstimate as to the amount ofRead More
Alpha: The Rise of the Middle Class in Emerging Markets
Feb 21st, 2019 | Filed under: Investing in Commodities, Financial Economics Theory, Newly Added, The Global Economy & Currencies, Emerging markets, The A.I. Industry, Commodities, Finance & EconomicsA new paper from State Street Global Advisors takes a sociological approach to the search for alpha in emerging market nations. It contends that the “major theme for growth” in the emerging markets moving forward will be “based on the rise of the middle class and rising consumption in theseRead More
A Proposed Model for VIX Derivatives Pricing
Feb 14th, 2019 | Filed under: Derivatives, Newly Added, The A.I. Industry, Commodities, Structured ProductsThe VIX may be about to get some competition. VIX is the “fear gauge,” the very visible measure of expected price fluctuations in the S&P 500 index options. On the foundation of its popularity, CBOE has built a monopoly on exchange-traded volatility products. VIX derivatives have become among the mostRead More
Do the Capital Markets Reward Low-Carbon Business Models?
Jan 15th, 2019 | Filed under: Commodities, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, Socially responsible investing, Natural Resources and Land, oil, Alternative energy, Commodities: Examples, Climate change, The A.I. Industry, Commodities, Emerging Alternative Investments, Real Assets, SRI and Clean Energy, Other Topics in A.I.A new study by two scholars, an American and an Italian, presents evidence that financial markets are pricing the risk of reliance upon carbon, penalizing carbon-intensive assets and rewarding low-carbon assets. Irene Monasterolo and Luca de Angelis, respectively of Boston University and the University of Bologna, begin with the ParisRead More
Financialization and the Volatility of Commodity Prices
Dec 20th, 2018 | Filed under: Commodities, Industry Size & Managers, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, oil, Energy, The A.I. Industry, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Commodities, Risk Management & OperationsA recent article in the Journal of Risk and Financial Management takes a fresh look at a familiar issue: whether the development of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and related instruments tracking the commodities industry (or, in short, the financialization of commodities) has had an impact on the volatility of the pricesRead More
Agtech: Comfort Zones and Value Chains
Dec 11th, 2018 | Filed under: Real Estate, Agriculture, Investing in Commodities, Debt Types of Private Equity, Liquid and Fixed Income Real Estate, Newly Added, Venture capital, Farmland, Equity Types of Private Equity, Natural Resources and Land, Other Issues in Private Investments, The A.I. Industry, Real Estate Equity Investments, Commodities, Private Investments, Real AssetsAn agtech-focused venture firm has issued a report about global VC activity across agtech and its subsectors. The firm, Finistere Ventures, which describes itself as in the business of helping “ambitious founders transform food and agriculture,” collaborated with Pitchbook in preparing the review. Finistere looks specifically at: (a) macro trends,Read More
National Market System: What to End; What to Mend
Oct 14th, 2018 | Filed under: Algorithmic and high-frequency trading, Newly Added, Regulatory, Regulatory Environment, Business News, The A.I. Industry, CommoditiesThe Principal Traders Group of the Futures Industry Association (FIA PTG) recently offered its thoughts on market structure, outlining one direction of reform for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Reg NMS. Reg NMS (National Market System) was promulgated in 2005, in order to ensure competition among markets, and in theRead More
The View from Las Vegas: Quiet Buying? Aggressive Buying?
Sep 23rd, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Emerging markets, Digital currencies, Alternative Investments in Context, Commodities: Examples, The A.I. Industry, Gold, Commodities, Emerging Alternative Investments, Personalities in AIOn Sept. 24, the 9th Annual Inside Alternatives and Asset Allocation event convenes at Wynn Las Vegas, with CAIA sponsorship. The purpose of the event: to look beyond traditional alternative investments and strategies, to take the measure of a new breed of alternatives, including impact/SRIs, cryptocurrencies, and the application ofRead More
Oil Trading and Round Number Effects
Sep 13th, 2018 | Filed under: Investing in Commodities, Financial Economics Theory, Newly Added, Behavioral finance, oil, Commodities: Examples, The A.I. Industry, Commodities, Finance & EconomicsThe “round number effect” is an endless source of fascination in the worlds of both trading and statistics. Human brains, after all, tend to think in round numbers. A market pundit on television may say, “If the price of stock XYZ gets below $8.00, it’ll be worth buying.” He won’tRead More
The Connection between Audit Fees and Derivative Hedging
Sep 11th, 2018 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Operations and Risk Management, Newly Added, Risk management, oil, Commodities: Examples, The A.I. Industry, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, CommoditiesIt is generally acknowledged that there exists a positive association between business risk and audit fees. There is room for dispute as to what that means. On the one hand, the riskier clients for whom an audit firm works might simply be the ones that have the most complicated books,Read More
Hedging or Trading? Why Italian Banks Use Derivatives
Aug 23rd, 2018 | Filed under: Derivatives, Newly Added, Risk management, Credit Derivatives, The Global Economy & Currencies, Economics, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Risk Management & OperationsA recent report by the Bank of Italy looks at why the various banks of Italy use derivatives. Specifically, the central bank of that country wanted to know: is it a matter of hedging? Or is it a matter of keeping a proprietary book? Hedge fund managers and other pursuersRead More
Hedge Funds Arms Race for Alpha
Aug 10th, 2018 | Filed under: Consultants, Hedge Fund Strategies, Newly Added, Institutional Investing, Endowments & Foundations, The A.I. Industry, Institutional Asset Management, Hedge Funds, CommoditiesBy Don Steinbrugge It is no secret that the vast majority of investors, including hedge funds managers, have underperformed market indices over time. However, some managers have distinguished themselves generating very strong risk adjusted returns. Outperforming an index requires an information advantage over what is broadly available in market. ItRead More
New SEC Commissioner Dissents on a Bitcoin ETF
Aug 9th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Regulatory, Crowdfunding, Regulatory Environment, The A.I. Industry, Commodities, Emerging Alternative Investments, Other Topics in A.I.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently (on July 26) disapproved of proposed rules changes that would have greenlit listing of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust on the Bats BZX Exchange. In essence, the SEC has now rejected the listing of a Bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) on a national exchange. TheRead More
Volatility Arbitrage and Cross-Border Options
Jul 29th, 2018 | Filed under: Hedge Fund Strategies, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, Alpha Strategies, Risk management, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Hedge Funds, Commodities, Risk Management & OperationsA new paper, by Adriano Tosi, of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, looks at the mispricing of a cross-section of international option returns, which suggests that there is money to be made (in more decorous language a “positive risk premium” may be “commanded,”) by selling exchange-traded products and buying theRead More
Centralized Exchanges and Cryptocurrencies
Jul 26th, 2018 | Filed under: Currencies, Investing in Commodities, Financial Economics Theory, Newly Added, The Global Economy & Currencies, Digital currencies, Commodities, Emerging Alternative Investments, Finance & EconomicsCryptocurrencies are increasingly traded on centralized exchanges, such as Gemini and Coinbase. This fact itself has generated some resentment in the crypto world, because the very idea of centralized exchange seems to violate the original anarchic animating spirit of the cryptocurrencies, even of “Satoshi” himself. Vitalik Buterin, who as the creatorRead More
BarclayHedge Numbers Show Cryptocurrency Dive
Jul 19th, 2018 | Filed under: Currencies, CTA, Newly Added, The Global Economy & Currencies, Digital currencies, The A.I. Industry, Macro and Managed Futures Funds, Commodities, Emerging Alternative Investments, Other Topics in A.I.BarclayHedge says that its flash estimate for the Barclay CTA Index shows a 0.05% loss in June, and a 2% loss year to date. More remarkably, the flash estimate shows a 16.23% drop in June and a 45.43% drop YTD for the CryptoCurrency Traders Index. The founder and president ofRead More
Using the Variance Risk Premium to Predict Futures Markets
Jul 15th, 2018 | Filed under: Commodities, Hard metals, Newly Added, Risk management, oil, Risk Metrics and Measurement, Commodities: Examples, Energy, Risk Management Strategies & Processes, Gold, CommoditiesA new study of volatility in commodity prices indicates that both the total and the decomposed variance risk premiums of at least certain commodities markets contain information with predictive power. The variance risk premium is the pay-off of the synthetic variance swap contract. Specifically, it’s the difference between the floatingRead More
Stein’s Law and Rising Production Costs
Jun 26th, 2018 | Filed under: Commodities, Investing in Commodities, Newly Added, Insolvency, Business News, CommoditiesHerbert Stein, who was President Richard Nixon’s chairman of the Counsel of Economic Advisors, is often quoted as saying, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” This statement, known as “Stein’s Law,” has the right ring of profundity about it, a mixture of tautology and empirically verifiable generalization.Read More
The CBOE and VIX: The Appearance of Manipulation
May 6th, 2018 | Filed under: Newly Added, Business News, Commodities, Finance & EconomicsOn April 23, 2018, the chairman and the president of the Chicago Board Options Exchange issued an open letter to address concerns that the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is subject to manipulation. There were at least two incitements behind this letter. First, its authors, Chairman Ed Tilly and President ChrisRead More