The Derivativ‪e‬ RCM Alternatives

We’re bringing out the cake & ice cream for this pod because it’s The Derivative’s 1 year anniversary! If you’ve been with us since the beginning – you may fondly remember our inaugural episode The Human Behind The Hedge Fund with Wayne Himelsein.

So, in today’s episode, we brought back Wayne, President and Chief Investment Officer at Logica Capital Advisers, and as a special anniversary bonus – his business partner Michael Green, Chief Strategist at Logica.  We’re talking with Mike and Wayne about running a hedge fund and helping clients through the trials and tribulations of 2020, the “two star” problem, Twitter fitting into the business model, straddling volatile calls, inception of the Iron Man (Wayne) and Captain America (Mike)partnership, dynamic of the macro overlay logic, value vs momentum, staying power of the Wall Street Bets model, COVID due diligence, and failure not being part of the Logica vocabulary.



Chapters:

00:00-02:25 = Intro

02:26-22:44 = One Year Anniversary!

22:45-39:35 = Value vs Momentum – when the system needs to breathe / Noise Traders

39:36-50:45 = The Tony Stark/ Captain America Dynamic 

50:46-58:58 = The Two-Star Problem

58:59-01:09:05 = Hard-Hitting Tweets

01:09:06-01:21:04 = Favorites



Follow along with Mike (@profplum99)and Wayne (@WayneHimelsein) on Twitter and check out the Logica Capital Advisers website.

Check out our past episode with Wayne here; and our past episode with Mike here. 

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

Talking this week with Poker Pro Chris Sparks on everything from game strategy to deciphering A.I. capabilities and catching bots. With Founder, CEO, and Performance Coach of The Forcing Function we’re taking it back to the beginning where we dive in with Chris about an interesting online alias “GoMuckYourself”, grabbing seats at poker tables in Vegas, exploring his latest paper “Play to Win: Meta – Skills in High Stakes Poker” and using behavioral science and system thinking to lead a new generation in the game and the investing world with Peak Performance Architecture.



Chapters:

02:36-19:10 = Gambling for a Living

19:11-28:27 = Data is Power

28:28-50:37 = Playing to Win

50:38-59:00 = Sizing Bets & Catching Bots

59:01-01:13:34 = Peak Performance Architecture

01:13:35-01:20:20 = Playing the Investment World

01:20:21-01:32:34 = Favorites



Read Chris’ Play to Win: Meta-Skills in High-Stakes Poker and his honorable mention to check out  Fortune’s Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific  Betting System that Beat the Casinos and Wall Street

Follow along with Chris (@SparksRemarks) on Twitter, and check out the forcingfunction.com 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

Why can't vol managers tell good jokes? Bad timing? Buh dum tsss.
All jokes aside, we’re excited to be back talking Volatility on The Derivative with the Professor, the DJ, the Han Solo of Vol trading, the one and only Benn (with two N’s) Eifert. Benn is Founder and CIO of QVR Advisors and joined us to talk about VIX and options and the overall volatility space. We’re digging deep in this episode about matching hoodies, delta hedging driving gamma flows, hedge funds ability to be aggressive, quantimental approaches, big players & flow dislocation, what the VIX highs really mean, structural patterns in flows, tail risk vs absolute return, the force being out of balance, DJ D-Vol, retail call buying, QVR Advisors, institutional pension volatility sellers, FinTwit, and what professional vol traders are overlooking.

Chapters:
02:40 = Friday Interview Questions, Good Seats, & Prop Desks
27:51 = QVR – Market Neutrality & Managing Tail Risks
49:29 = Players & Flow
01:11:31 = Are We Seeing a VIX Echo?
01:24:36 = Favorites

Follow along with Benn (@bennpeifert) on Twitter, and check out the QVR Advisors 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

Bitcoin started the year with a bang, rising up above $41k before falling back into the 20ks, and settling in the mid 30ks lately. It was at $5k in March 2020! Yet it feels way different, and dare we say – less volatile – this time. How are we supposed to interact with bitcoin, how do you capitalize on the volatility, and where does it fit into investor portfolios overall? We have two big-time bitcoiners on with us today to go over it all – Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, and Nic Carter, Partner at Castle Island Ventures and Cofounder at Coinmetrics. In this episode we’re talking about: finally not being the most volatile asset, bitcoin futures contract, crypto buyers jumping to options & vice versa, ethos of decentralization, your digital footprint, capturing volatility, risks in owning bitcoin, bitcoin as a trading game, adding bitcoin to your portfolio, is bitcoin too expensive right now?, the future of crypto regulation,  the bitcoin price ceiling, bear case of bitcoin, and whether the opportunities are in the coin or the peripheral services.

Chapters:

02:14 = The Strange Digital World

16:32 = Backgrounds, Booms, and Busts

32:08 = The Next Iteration of Crypto & Bitcoin Nation

46:56 = Bitcoin as an Investment

01:06:10 = Defi, Crypto & The State of Bitcoin Success

01:23:04 = Favorites



Follow along with Meltem at @Melt_Dem and CoinShares and with Nic at @nic__carter, Castle Island Ventures, and CoinMetrics.

Here’s the Star Wars infographic mentioned.

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

If you’ve been on the internet, watched TV, or talked to anyone outside of yourself in the past week and a half you can’t have missed it. GameStop stock ($GME) went from trading at a low of $3/share to +$400/share thanks to a masterful subreddit trolling from retail traders. And it’s not stopping at just GameStop, shares from Blackberry ($BB), AMC ($AMC), Express ($EXP) and Nokia ($NOK) are quickly following suit – and its leaking over into S&P futures and options. So how does this happen, why is it busting the billionaires, and how does it end? We’re joined by The Derivative veterans Cem Karsan and Kris Sidial to get the low down on all this and more in our newest WTF ^%$# installment, coving all things r/wsb, GME, gamma hedging, short squeezing, rates, AI, and even inequality.

*BONUS SECTION: After the “official wrap up” we continued to riff a little, so make sure to stick around at the end for some additional Cem, Kris, and Jeff convo.*

Get more information on the funds at Ambrus Group here and at Aegea Capital here.

Chapters:

00:00-01:46 = Intro

01:47-15:54 = GAMMA, Risk, Flows & Squeezes

15:55-29:03 =Leverage cuts both ways

29:04-36:15 = How Does This End? More Sex?

36:16-53:24 = BIGGER, FASTER, BETTER

53:25-01:05:19 = Passive, Inequality, and Rates

01:05:20-01:21:28 = Final Thoughts



Follow Kris (@Ksidiii) and Cem (@jam_croissant) on Twitter to keep up with all of this and much, much more.

Check out our other WTF^%$# episodes here: No President Yet, So Market Rallies Huge What ^%$#?, Market Up/Vol Up, Market Down/Vol Down…WTF Episode, $TVIX gets Terminated – What^%$#, Crude Oil goes Negative… What^%$#.

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

Welcome to the Wizarding World of Market Wizards – and today’s special guest is head wizard who wrote the actual books on market wizards, Jack Schwager. Jack has written 6 books on the markets including his original: Market Wizards and the newly released: Unknown Market Wizards. In addition to his authoring (is that even a word?) Jack has served as a Director for futures research - meaning he knows soybean contract from a Spac. In today’s episode, we’re covering all things Market Wizard books, along with some fun conversation including Colorado, FundSeeder, favorite interviews, and more.

Chapters:

00:00-02:00= Intro

02:01-15:45= Fundamental Analyst to Author

15:46-32:14= The Market Wizards Interviews

32:15-47:45= Unknow Wizards

47:46-01:00:26= You Can't Train Talent

01:00:27-01:14:57= Favorites & Words of Wisdom



Purchase Jack’s books here including his new book: Unknown Market Wizards, and follow along with him on Twitter.

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