Blog Posts

Yield curve control has gone from more of an abstraction to a policy that many of the world’s most influential central banks are currently using or considering using. In the US, yield curve control, often known as YCC, hasn’t been employed since World War II. Back then, the very high economic demands of WWII required […]

Elections are always a time when traders and investors think about the implications of the results on their portfolios. However, in general, market participants tend to spend too much time thinking about the outcome and effect on their allocations. Elections create another set of probabilities to deal with and represent opportunity. But timing them and […]

In a previous article, we covered liquid alternative trading/investing, a type of long/short, typically market neutral(-ish) strategy that provides liquid, uncorrelated returns to traditional asset classes. These types of strategies, because of the market neutral character of them, are a good stepping stone into covering a bit on trader psychology. Even despite how much evidence […]

More tech startups are opting for direct listings instead of initial public offerings as the preferred way of going public. In this article, we’ll cover what direct listings are, how they work and why they’re popular among high growth companies, the pros and cons relative to the traditional IPO route, sustainability of this shift, and […]

First, I’ll start with my opinion on bitcoin, then cryptocurrencies in general. Later on in the article, we’ll look at the path forward for cryptocurrencies more broadly. This will include the financial and non-financial uses and applications of crypto assets, and how traders and investors will need to view them as the niche matures beyond […]

The fed funds rate is the base rate that influences many other interest rates, including the cost of debt and equity for businesses as well as the rate of return on cash and rate at which investors can borrow. The effect of lower interest rates on earnings multiples is non-linear. We’ve mentioned in other posts […]

The risk management strategies of Japanese life insurers are slightly different from those of other investment managers given the nature of their business model and low-return realities of their domestic market. Traders and investors can always learn something from other types of investment managers. There are multiple ways and strategies to make money and manage […]

Option values are based on the price of the underlying asset or exchange traded product (ETP). Accordingly, once the underlying asset stops trading, there is no need for options to continue trading. Nonetheless, many underlying ETPs are now being traded in after hours sessions until at least 4:15 PM ET that are open to both […]

A market neutral strategy involves selecting individual securities to buy and short-sell such that roughly equal amounts of money are both long and short the asset class. The market neutral strategy is typically applied to equities, given the vast selection to choose from. Though it can also pertain to other asset classed like fixed income […]

Making better decisions trading involves knowing how markets function and what they value. Markets are information discounting mechanisms. Where markets go is not based on what things are at face value but what transpires relative to expectations that are already built into the price. To better illustrate this concept, let’s first consider an example. On […]