Blog Posts

Over the years, markets have become increasingly made up of quantitative oriented traders, both in market making and actively setting prices.  Math, algorithms, and specific rules are used in these strategies to strip away emotion, gut feel, and behavioral errors that are common with humans. At the same time, intuition-based trading is still part of […]

Whether day trading is worth it as a financial strategy depends on various factors including individual skill level, risk tolerance, market knowledge, and access to trading tools and technologies. Let’s look in a bit more detail.   Key Takeaways – Is Day Trading Worth It? For Day Trading: Potential for Quick Profits – Can capitalize on […]

The phrase “it’s a stock-picker’s market” means that there’s enough performance dispersion in the market’s components such that it benefits those armed with better information, analysis, or insight on which securities will outperform (or underperform).  The phrase is typically promoted by active managers and those paid to pick stocks. Naturally, it’s a controversial claim/slogan given […]

What do central banks own in their portfolios and why is it important? Fundamentally, understanding why markets are doing what they’re doing is a function of who’s buying and who’s selling and for what reasons. Since central banks are some of the largest asset managers globally, it helps to understand their influence and their motivations […]

Derivatives are a way to customize and isolate specific exposures to hedge or create returns streams that are unique from traditional financial assets. For this reason, they are immensely popular among hedge funds and various institutional investors in terms of how they create value. Volatility itself is also considered an asset class. How do these […]

The concept of leverage involves using borrowed capital for investment and amplifying the potential returns. While leverage can magnify profits, it also magnifies losses. Below we focus on how you can generate leverage in your portfolio, through options, futures, borrowing, shorting, and more.   Key Takeaways – How to Generate Leverage in a Portfolio Leverage […]

Everyone has a trading personality, or a certain style of going about the markets that best fits their temperament and other life factors. Everyone has different risk tolerance, handles uncertainty differently, has different ways in which they want to be involved, and simply different amounts of time they can dedicate to trading. How well we […]

The momentum factor is an isolated characteristic of assets that shows that, on average, winners keep winning. The evidence for momentum is supported by decades of academic and practitioner research. Studies have shown momentum as a far explaining asset returns in the US as far back as the late 1800s and early 1900s. The evidence […]

Below are some well-known trading and investing quotes that encapsulate various aspects of market philosophy, risk management, and trading and investment strategy. We also have some unique quotes in the section after, which have fun applications to trading and investing contexts.   Trading & Investing Quotes “[Many] know the price of everything, but the value […]

Factor ETFs track stocks that share specific characteristics (factors) that academic and institutional/practitioner research has shown explain differences in risk and return. They’re often called “smart beta” ETFs because they blend passive indexing with active selection rules and tilts.  Instead of simply tracking a market-weighted index (e.g., the S&P 500), they focus on measurable traits […]