Top Traders Unplugged

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Latest Episodes:

TTU09: 40+ Years of Trading & Still Making NEW Highs ft. Marty Bergin of DUNN Capital Management – 1of2 Jun 29, 2014

Show notes

Our next guest is a partner in a firm that has enjoyed 40+ years of trading success with a 35+ year continues track record of their WMA program.

The track record of the organization, DUNN Capital Management, is world-class. The legendary Bill Dunn offered partnership to our next guest and he replied, “I’m happy with where I am.” Bill’s response will make you laugh.

Please enjoy my conversation with, Marty Bergin.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

The Story of DUNN Capital and the Evolution of the firm
How Marty began working with the firm and how he became a partner
The company culture of DUNN Capital and why it’s so important to their success
An overview of the DUNN WMA program
How the Value At Risk (VAR) approach separates DUNN Capital from other CTAs
Why DUNN Capital manages all tasks in-house
About the 40 year+ track record of DUNN Capital
The big research upgrades taking place in 2006
About the change to using two separate "Trend Following Models"
About the adaptive risk profile (ARP)
DUNN’s approach to diversification across sectors (for example; 23% in agriculture and 13% currency allocation)

Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:

Learn about DUNN Capital’s methodologies and awards.
Q&A with Bill Dunn

Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTubeor via the TTU website.

Learn more about DUNN Capital

IT’s TRUE 👀 – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

And you can get a free copy of my latest book “The Many Flavors of Trend Following” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes so more people can discover the podcast.

TTU08: Key Traits to Success in the CTA Industry ft. Martin Estlander of Estlander & Partners – 2of2 Jun 26, 2014

Show notes

Today we rejoin the conversation with Martin Estlander the Founder and CEO of Estlander & Partners. If you missed the first part, feel free to listen to it here.

In this episode we explore the evolution of the CTA industry, the skills required to run a successful business and finally the fun, less known facts of Martin’s life outside of trading.

Welcome to the second part of our conversations with Martin Estlander.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

The best rule of thumb to visualize risk in a traditional CTA portfolio
What Martin has learned from being in drawdowns and the difference between drawdowns before and after 2009
The effect of volatility in the markets and how this impact CTA performance
How Martin Estlander manages the emotional roller coaster
Research processes and research cycles at Estlander & Partners
How to identify and address systems that were working but now aren’t
The biggest challenge for Estlander & Partners going forward
What are investors not asking that they should be asking when choosing a CTA
Where the misunderstandings can happen for investors when trying to understand the CTA industry
How to become better at communicating with investors
Martin’s key traits to success in the CTA industry
Personal habits that have contributed to the success of Martin Estlander
How Martin manages failures and improves from them
The things Martin would do differently if he started over today

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Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:

Learn about Commodities Corporation, the company behind some of the all-time great traders

Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTubeor via the TTU website.

IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

Follow Estlander & Partners Linkedin.

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PLUS: Whenever you're ready... here are 3 ways I can help you in your investment Journey:

1. eBooks that cover key topics that you need to know about

In my eBooks, I put together some key discoveries and things I have learnt during the more than 3 decades I have worked in the Trend Following industry, which I hope you will find useful. Click Here

2. Daily Trend Barometer and Market Score

One of the things I’m really proud of, is the fact that I have managed to published the Trend Barometer and Market Score each day for more than a decade...as these tools are really good at describing the environment for trend following managers as well as giving insights into the general positioning of a trend following strategy! Click Here

3. Other Resources that can help you

And if you are hungry for more useful resources from the trend following world...check out some precious resources that I have found over the years to be really valuable. Click Here

Disclaimer

TTU07: Inside Scandinavia’s Longest Running CTA Firm ft. Martin Estlander of Estlander & Partners – 1of2 Jun 22, 2014

Show notes

Estlander & Partners – The Oldest CTA firm in Scandinavia and one of the Longest Running CTA firms in the World.

Thank you for listening to my conversation with its founder Martin Estlander.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

How Martin got involved in the CTA Industry
The Evolution of Estlander & Partners and Where They are Today
Founding of an options trading business in Frankfurt in 1991
About the inspiring time in which he was part of the Commodities Corp. team until 1998 when Goldman Sachs came in and bought CC
About Jan Haraldsson’s Alpha Trend Program and how they recently opened the Program for external investors
The recreational activities that support Martin’s trading philosophy. Skiing, Tennis, Sailing and Meditation
An overview of the Main Programs Estlander & Partners run today – Alpha Trend, Freedom, Global Markets & Presto
The business organization of a modern day CTA firm – What is “in-house” and what is outsourced
How volatility is perceived in the Estlander & Partners portfolio
The structure of the Alpha Trend Program and why it is designed to trade 74 different instruments and how they mix together
How Alpha Trend’s pattern recognition differs from the traditional moving average crossover or price breakout
Whether Alpha Trend is Intra-day, End-of-Day… or both
What Alpha Trends’ models are designed to capture
How Alpha Trend manages stop loss and stop profits when entering a new market
Particularly important key performance drivers of Alpha Trend
The human intervention required to run the Alpha Trend model
How Martin Estlander defines risk
Achilles Risk and how Alpha Trend manages for it

Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:

Learn about Commodities Corporation, the company behind some of the all-time great traders

Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTubeor via the TTU website.

Follow Estlander & Partners Linkedin.

IT’s TRUE 👀 – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

And you can get a free copy of my latest book “The Many Flavors of Trend Following” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes so more people can discover the podcast.

TTU06: Why Trend Following Systems Make Money Over Time ft. Tushar Chande – 2of2 Jun 12, 2014

Show notes

We’re back with the second part of our conversation with the Head of Research at Rho Asset Management. In this episode we discuss the details of Managing Equity Curves, Trade Length in CTA systems and how Rho achieves to get the optimal position size when entering new trades.

Thank you for visiting, now let’s continue the interview with Tushar Chande.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

How Rho creates for algorithms to decide the size of a new position
The difference between the models in terms of trade length
The trade frequency Rho Asset Management
About the design philosophy in creating the profile of its Altius Program
Discussing the research cycle and the research reviews
Major findings that led to the creation of the Altius Program
Why trend following systems make money over time
How the CTA strategies will overcome challenges in the future
The main thing investors should take away as a benefit of investing with CTAs

Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTubeor via the TTU website.

IT’s TRUE 👀 – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

And you can get a free copy of my latest book “The Many Flavors of Trend Following” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes so more people can discover the podcast.

TTU05: What You Must Do To Survive In the CTA Business ft. Tushar Chande – 1of2 Jun 09, 2014

Show notes

On today’s show I am talking to Tushar Chande, Co-Founder and Head of Research at Rho Asset Management. Tushar is also the author of a number of books on the topic of how to design rule based trading systems as well as having been actively trading these systems for more than 20 years.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

Why the random nature of the markets attracted Tushar to develop systems for trading these markets
Background information on Rho Asset Management and it’s philosophy
How Tushar utilizes behaviors of discretionary traders to make estimates of conviction about their individual trades
How Rho has designed it’s Altius Program to offer meaningful protection when equity markets go down
What to be aware of when exploring an Asset Manager’s performance over a 20 year period
Offense/Defense Ratio, What it means and How to use it to Measure the quality of systems design
How Rho’s models have been designed in order to achieve the overall objective of the Program
What Trend Following Indicators are used for and why
Exploring the volatility of the equity curve
The input data needed to run the Altius Program, the time it takes and when they run the model

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Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:

Beyond Technical Analysis by Dr. Tushar Chande

Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTubeor via the TTU website.

IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

----

PLUS: Whenever you're ready... here are 3 ways I can help you in your investment Journey:

1. eBooks that cover key topics that you need to know about

2. Daily Trend Barometer and Market Score

3. Other Resources that can help you

And if you are hungry for more useful resources from the trend following world...check out some precious resources that I have found over the years to be really valuable. Click Here

Disclaimer

TTU04: What it Takes to Become a Great Trader ft. Mike Dever of Brandywine Asset Management – 2of2 Jun 05, 2014

Show notes

In this episode we continue our conversation with the founder and CEO of Brandywine Asset Management and discuss the aspects of what makes his rule based asset management style so successful.

Enjoy the second part of my conversation with, Mike Dever.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

Continuing the Conversation around why Trend Following can be more difficult
Describing Disparate Return Drivers
How Brandywine Assets Management actually implements the decisions of their trading model
Why Position Sizing and Risk Management Principles are Everything
How position sizes are managed across various Return Drivers
Why Sharpe Ratio is a meaningless measure on it’s own. It doesn’t give you any idea on predictability of returns.
The professional traders approach to the emotional challenges of drawdown.
Managing regulation challenges
The environment of marketing trend following strategies to investors
What it takes to become a great trader today
Who Mike started out aspiring to be like
If Mike has any personal habits that contribute to his success

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Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:

Jackass Investing by Mike Dever
Learn about Dick Donchian the Grandfather of Trend Following
Learn about Poul Tudor Jones of Robin Hood Foundation
Learn about John W. Henry

Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTubeor via the TTU website.

IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

Follow Mike Dever on Linkedin.

----

PLUS: Whenever you're ready... here are 3 ways I can help you in your investment Journey:

1. eBooks that cover key topics that you need to know about

2. Daily Trend Barometer and Market Score

3. Other Resources that can help you

And if you are hungry for more useful resources from the trend following world...check out some precious resources that I have found over the years to be really valuable. Click Here

Disclaimer

TTU03 How To Get Predictable Returns ft. Mike Dever of Brandywine Asset Management – 1of2 Jun 02, 2014

Show notes

On today’s show I am talking to Mike Dever, the Founder and CEO of Brandywine Asset Management. Mike is a Divergent Thinking Systematic Investment Manager and Author of the best selling book “Jackass Investing”. Mike has been trading for almost 4 decades and shares a wealth of insight to how he has stayed successful and how his trading approach and research has stayed current in an ever changing financial landscape.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

The Evolution of Mike’s Trading
How Mike almost got in to business with Richard Donchian
How they developed a systematic trading model in the 1980s
How Mike met and invested with Paul Tudor Jones, John W. Henry and was the first outside investor in Transtrend
How Mike went from being a discretionary trader to become fully systematic when launching the Benchmark Program, and Why
About the experience of running the Brandywine Benchmark Program in in the ‘90s
How Mike discovered the importance of Portfolio Allocation in the 1980s
The Story of Developing the Predictive Diversification Portfolio Allocation Model
The Entrepreneurial Storm that Kept Mike away from Trading and Brandywine for Years
The story of developing the Brandywine Symphony Program
How many people it takes to run a system with more than 1,000 strategy/market combinations
Exploring the track record of Brandywine Symphony Program
Why one should avoid making decisions based on single return drivers
5 Themes in Brandywine’s Asset Allocation Strategy: Fundamental, Sentiment, Event, Arbitrage and Alpha Hedge
How Marginal Cost of Production Works as a Return Driver
Are the strategies from the 1980’s just as effective today?
What is directional arbitrage?

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Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:

Jackass Investing by Mike Dever
Learn about Richard Donchian the Grandfather of Trend Following
Learn about Poul Tudor Jones of Robin Hood Foundation
Learn about John W. Henry

Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTubeor via the TTU website.

IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

Follow Mike Dever on Linkedin.

----

PLUS: Whenever you're ready... here are 3 ways I can help you in your investment Journey:

1. eBooks that cover key topics that you need to know about

2. Daily Trend Barometer and Market Score

3. Other Resources that can help you

And if you are hungry for more useful resources from the trend following world...check out some precious resources that I have found over the years to be really valuable. Click Here

Disclaimer

TTU02: Why The Game of Picking Sectors is a Fool’s Errand ft. Jason Gerlach of Sunrise Capital Partners – 2of2 May 29, 2014

Show notes

Welcome back to our conversation with Jason Gerlach of Sunrise Capital Partners.

In this interview we discuss the history of Sunrise Capital Partners, the current evolution in their financial product line and the inner workings of what it takes to make it as a successful trading organization in the ever changing market conditions.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

Exploring the design structure of the Sunrise Evolution program: Quadrant A, B, C and D and how they play together
Detailed examples of how trading models can be different.
How trade implementation works with complex systems like these
About the Volume of trading the Sunrise Capital does each day
Why the game of picking sectors is a fools errand
Strategies for dealing with the emotional weight of drawdowns
Sunrise Capital Management’s approach to research
The traits and what it takes to become a great CTA
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Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTubeor via the TTU website.

IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

Follow Jason on LinkedIn.

----

PLUS: Whenever you're ready... here are 3 ways I can help you in your investment Journey:

1. eBooks that cover key topics that you need to know about

2. Daily Trend Barometer and Market Score

3. Other Resources that can help you

And if you are hungry for more useful resources from the trend following world...check out some precious resources that I have found over the years to be really valuable. Click Here

Disclaimer

TTU01: Are Research Ideas Overrated? ft. Jason Gerlach of Sunrise Capital Partners – 1of2 May 26, 2014

Show notes

Sunrise Capital was the first CTA (Commodity Trading Advisor) ever.

The company has evolved considerably since its inception in the 1970s.

Today on the show, Jason Gerlach, the Chief Executive Officer at Sunrise Capital joins us to discuss the history of the company and about the evolution of their trading strategy over nearly 4 decades. Sunrise has achieved astounding results over the lifetime of the company and Jason provides unique insights to the inner workings of Sunrise.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

The story of Sunrise Capitals founding in the early 1970s
Rick Slaughter (Sunrise’s Chief Researcher) founded Commodity Monitors – the First Hedge Fund/CTA firm ever launched
Jack Forest (Sunrise Commodities) and Gary Davis (Cresta Commodities) – The doctors trading outside the hospital
How the three pioneers of the CTA/Commodity Trading Industry came together to form Sunrise Capital Partners in the mid 90’s
How Jason was brought on into the firm and developed a succession plan for the business
The unexpected story of how Jason “the Attorney” turned into Jason “the Systematic Trading Guy”
What Sunrise Capital Partners offer today?
How does one structure a CTA firm like Sunrise, what functions and how do you manage them?
The role of outsourcing in the day-to-day operations of Sunrise Capital Partners
What Sunrise discovered in the early 00’s which indicated to them a decay in long-term trend following and how they responded

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Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:

Download the article Niels mentioned: Fallacies to Avoid When Selecting a CTA

Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTubeor via the TTU website.

IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

Follow Jason on LinkedIn.

----

PLUS: Whenever you're ready... here are 3 ways I can help you in your investment Journey:

1. eBooks that cover key topics that you need to know about

2. Daily Trend Barometer and Market Score

3. Other Resources that can help you

And if you are hungry for more useful resources from the trend following world...check out some precious resources that I have found over the years to be really valuable. Click Here

Disclaimer

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