Full Title: High-Performance Managed Futures: The New Way to Diversify Your Portfolio

Author: Mark Melin (Twitter @MarkMelin)

Publisher/Date:  Wiley (2010)

List Cost/Pages:  $40 Hardcover / 320 pages

Cover Notes:
What is your financial adviser not recommending and why not? Managed futures. And, probably because he or she either lacks an understanding of the asset class or because managed futures offer true diversification—and a truly diversified portfolio can be time-consuming—it means much more work for them. It’s easier to sell clients on “stocks and bonds” and “buy and hold.” Well, here’s something you should know:

  • Managed futures grew 514 percent from 1999 to 2009
  • Managed futures performed positively in nine of the past ten stock market declines
  • Managed futures significantly outperformed both stocks and bonds over the past three decades

And, as you’ll come to discover in High-Performance Managed Futures: The New Way to Diversify Your Portfolio, what makes the asset class truly unique is its relative non-correlation to the stock market and the economy, which is especially important in today’s world in which global markets are more tightly correlated than at any other time in history.

Managed futures has been described as “mutual fund”-like programs investing around the world in commodities—oil, gold, corn, or wheat—and financial futures—interest rates, foreign currency, or stock indexes. Investments can even take place in pollution and weather futures. The asset class has no geographic or time-based investment limitation, and, unlike stock mutual funds, strategies can be long, short, or market-neutral. And, unlike hedge funds, managed futures can be transparent, liquid, and tightly regulated—investor protections that should be used as a national template.

What your financial adviser doesn’t know—or isn’t telling you—can hurt your portfolio. With government debt at an all-time high and the U.S. dollar’s dominant status in question, there’s never been a better time to seek a sophisticated modern portfolio that has the potential to profit in both bull and bear markets. Managed futures can do that. High-Performance Managed Futures shows you how.