Blog Posts

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 […]

For many months, U.S. equities have appeared to be heading in one direction – up. However we’ve been crunching key financial metrics and the gap between what investors are paying for U.S. stocks compared to internationally has reached a worrying gap that history tells us may lead to slimmer future returns. Add in a record […]

Factors in finance are systematic drivers of risk and return. They help explain why assets move the way they do and why some earn higher returns or have higher risks than others. They primary exist due to: risk compensation (which means they’re likely to endure and not merely be arbitraged out if discovered) psychological factors […]

We’re looking at the topic of Bitcoin in the context of a balanced portfolio. For this, we’re looking at standard portfolios that are a mix of diversified stocks and bonds, with 15% gold. Then we add Bitcoin in allocations of 10%, 5%, and 3% and look at the results. After that, we look more carefully […]

What are the highest-returning – but sustainable – ETFs? What we’re doing in this article isn’t just listing option-income funds (like JEPI or QYLD) or levered ETFs (which aren’t appropriate beyond day trading purposes due to tracking error) but ETFs that are more strategically engineered to provide higher returns. These could include overlays, alt exposures, […]