Over the years of meeting emerging managers I have found a common theme among them. They often believe when they start a money management firm, investors will automatically find them and invest. In other words, it is the “I build it and they will come” perspective. The new managers often miss the point; they started a small business. With any business, there are many components to handle including marketing / business development, technology, hiring employees, vendors, compliance and operations. Similar to most businesses, marketing / business development is often the key to grow or slow the business. In this article…...

As investors look to diversify their investment portfolio, one option is trading of derivative contracts, including futures and options on futures.  However, as the normal investor may not have much knowledge or experience trading derivatives, many investors choose the route of managed futures.  Traditionally, there are three ways in which an investor can pursue this opportunity:  a broker assisted account, an individual managed account, or a pooled investment vehicle.  To gain a better understanding of a particular firm, a customer can research a firm via NFA’s BASIC system found on NFA’s website, www.nfa.futures.org.  This system allows a potential customer to…...

We at Sugar Creek Investment Management, LLC believe that capturing fundamental alpha in agriculture requires in-depth knowledge about the underlying commodities, such as how they are produced, priced, traded, and consumed. We also believe that one cannot back-test discretionary fundamental agriculture trading and that forecasting positive returns is a function of qualitative judgment made on the trading specialist’s ability to manage risk/reward in a practical manner in respect to their trading discipline and market focus.  This trading philosophy is just one of many but it is where we feel we have an edge and it is an approach that we…...

Trading is difficult. If it was easy, everyone would do it. To excel at trading is even that much harder. Successfully competing against some of societies’ smartest and most ambitious requires employing a trading strategy that gives one an edge. Without it, one can only hope for mediocrity. Boston & Zechiel Management has two trading programs that aim for that edge in order to differentiate ourselves from the other successful trading programs in the managed future space.  We view the equity markets through the rhythm of cycles, similar to that of the ocean tides. Both have repeatable and predictable patterns.…...

The last few years have been a very challenging playing field to navigate.  As a CTA one has to wear multiple hats while trying to grow a business. While our specialty is trading and risk management one has to realize this is a business that has to be run like one and while a CTA may be a great trader they also have to run a good business.  The last few years have brought more challenges in raising assets for a CTA than trying to navigate a political solution with Vladimir Putin. MF Global was a serious setback for the…...

In late January 2014 the National Futures Association (“NFA”) announced to its membership they were: “…reviewing the current regulatory structure applicable to Commodity Pool Operator (“CPO”) and Commodity Trading Advisor (“CTA”) operations. In particular, NFA is looking at ways to strengthen the regulatory structure governing CPO operations to provide greater protection for customer funds… [and] exploring ways to ensure that CPOs and CTAs have sufficient assets to operate as a going concern.”   NFA then solicited input from its membership (now the general public) regarding the concept of imposing a capital requirement on its CPO and CTA members for the first…...