Mark Melin
Mark Melin is a managed futures practitioner whose specialty is recognizing a trading program’s algorithmic formula and mapping it to a market environment and performance driver. He provides analysis of managed futures investment performance and commentary regarding related managed futures market environment. A portfolio and industry consultant, he was an adjunct instructor in managed futures at Northwestern University / Chicago and has written or edited three books, including High Performance Managed Futures (Wiley 2010) and The Chicago Board of Trade’s Handbook of Futures and Options (McGraw-Hill 2008). Mark was director of the managed futures division at Alaron Trading until they were acquired by Peregrine Financial Group in 2009, where he was a registered associated person (National Futures Association NFA ID#: 0348336). Mark has also worked as a Commodity Trading Advisor himself, trading a short volatility options portfolio across the yield curve, and was an independent consultant to various broker dealers and futures exchanges, including OneChicago, the single stock futures exchange, and the Chicago Board of Trade.
Facts That I Think Bloomberg Should Have Covered In Its Managed Futures Story
A recent Bloomberg Markets article by David Evans, “Fleeced by Fees,” raises several valid points but leaves critical “misimpressions,” a word the Evans uses to describe how managed futures is misrepresented to investors. The primary thesis of the article is that [...]
Molinero Global Markets Monthly Update
August ended down -2.07%. Our portfolio was well positioned early in August and models increased our risk exposure slowly. However, markets started to move against us while our exposure was fairly high. Our risk management stopped out some positions fast thereby [...]
What is the capacity of managed futures? Newedge white paper explores the topic
In a recently released strategy note, Newedge researchers Galen Burghardt and Lianyan Liu teamed with Ewan Kirk of Cantab Capital Partners to consider an often discussed issue: Is there a capacity issue with managed futures. The research team dives deep [...]
Bloomberg asks the question: Are hedge funds for suckers? If they are correlated to the stock market, yes
Here is a link to the latest issue of Opalesque Futures Intelligence: OFIJulyFinal The recent Bloomberg Businessweek cover story, Hedge Funds are for Suckers, was interesting, as is increasing push back from those in the traditional equity-dominated investment world towards [...]
CTA Interview: Short Volatility CTA Discusses The Ability to Predict Volatility and Risk Management
Below is an interview excerpt for web site members before the article is published in the upcoming Opalesque Futures Intelligence. Here is a link to a performance sheet of the CTA: Global Sigma Recent Pinnacle award winner Hanming Rao [...]
Sunrise Capital: The First Half Of 2013 Was A Time For Less Conventional CTA Approaches
Sunrise Capital, a trend following CTA based in California, provided market commentary for the upcomming Opalesque Futures Intelligence (below). For links to their performance documentation, click here: Sunrise_Evolution_JUNE 2013. The first half of 2013 proved to be quite tricky for the [...]
News Analysis: CFTC Files Aggressive Charges Against MF Global CEO Jon Corzine and back office executive Edith O’Brien
(Below is an early peak at an article in the upcoming Opalesque Futures Intelligence) By Mark Melin On June 27 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed civil charges against MF Global’s CEO Jon Corzine and assistant treasurer Edith O’Brien in what [...]
Altegris Publishes White Paper on Trend Following
The feature article in the next Opalesque Futures Intelligence is a white paper from Altegris. Below is a sneak peak at a recent interview for web site members and a link to the Altegris white paper: Two Minutes With Matt [...]
Why Past Performance of a Conventional (60-40) Portfolio Is NOT Indicative of Future Performance
By Mike Dever / Brandywine Asset Management For the past 31 years[i], a conventionally-diversified portfolio consisting of 60% stocks and 40% bonds has provided investors with satisfying returns of +10.80% annually. This was the result of both stocks and bonds [...]
Managed Futures Account Type Categorization
There is much discussion regarding account type options. The first place to begin understanding is categorizing the account type. While many categorization opinions exist, I organize account type in three categories based on their regulation, distribution channel and primary investor [...]