Quadriga Superfund - Managed Futures
- Thread starter USAtrader
- Start date
Well....hey a Hedge fund allowing 5k initial with a 1k "add to"...goes begging for this!
Michael B.
Michael B.
I wrote an article on Quadriga when they started advertising on US TV last year. While nobody levelled any specific allegations against the company I think it would be fair to say that there was a certain amount of doubt evident in the CTA community. That said, it could just be professional jealousy - Quadriga has about $1.1 billion AUM I believe which makes it one of the biggest European players in the field. Also Baha is not a particularly personally sympathetic character, quite pushy etc.
One interesting codicil was that another CTA manager told me that Quadriga's model is, like a lot of the black box CTA strategies, based on the work of a very small team. What's interesting is that Baha isn't one of them, and others may have left the firm. The suggestion was that without proper ongoing development the success of the model will diminish over a period of about two years.
I have no idea whether that's true or not, but I think it's worth mentioning.
One interesting codicil was that another CTA manager told me that Quadriga's model is, like a lot of the black box CTA strategies, based on the work of a very small team. What's interesting is that Baha isn't one of them, and others may have left the firm. The suggestion was that without proper ongoing development the success of the model will diminish over a period of about two years.
I have no idea whether that's true or not, but I think it's worth mentioning.
I'm no sure where you are getting your info from but let me clarify it. First off, Christian Baha did not design the system, he is the marketing muscle behind the firm and the personality. This firm never would have gotten off the ground without him. Christian Halper is the system designer. Not a small group of people, but one very smart guy who still lives in Austria and rides his bike to work every day even though he must be worth hundreds of millions by now.
As far as diminishing returns go, thats an interesting theory, however they have not had a down year since 1996 which was their first year in operation. In fact this year they are on pace to shatter all their records. Trend following funds have been around for a very long time, certainly nothing new here and trends in the market will never go away. The key to any system that chooses to hold onto long term trends is designing an algorithm that allows the system to get out of that trend as soon as possible if it's broken. This is what seems to separate the men from the boys. Does Quadriga have this algorithm down pat? I don't know. I do know they are making more money then God right now and they have caught every major trend in the last five years and have milked it to levels that would make every trend trader on ET envious.
Now will this continue going forward? I don't know, but my general rule of thumb is, until they prove otherwise, I'm sticking with them. BTW, they also have some new funds in the works as well that won't be trend following. One of them is a statistical arb fund.
Not putting my stuff forward as fact by any means.
I've not seen their performance since late last year as CTAs aren't really my beat anymore, but up till then they were performing pretty well. However, they weren't out of line with other good CTA funds, just had the access to retail customers that otheres didn't. Obviously as a result their fees were higher.
As with all these things I guess the best thing to say is go ahead but best not stick all your money in. In my case that's about three pounds fifty so not worth the bother anyway...
I've not seen their performance since late last year as CTAs aren't really my beat anymore, but up till then they were performing pretty well. However, they weren't out of line with other good CTA funds, just had the access to retail customers that otheres didn't. Obviously as a result their fees were higher.
As with all these things I guess the best thing to say is go ahead but best not stick all your money in. In my case that's about three pounds fifty so not worth the bother anyway...
Quote from LRD:
Not putting my stuff forward as fact by any means.
I've not seen their performance since late last year as CTAs aren't really my beat anymore, but up till then they were performing pretty well. However, they weren't out of line with other good CTA funds, just had the access to retail customers that otheres didn't. Obviously as a result their fees were higher.
As with all these things I guess the best thing to say is go ahead but best not stick all your money in. In my case that's about three pounds fifty so not worth the bother anyway...
They weren't out of line with other good CTA funds? I believe they were the 7th best performing CTA in the world last year. I Believe they outperformed 98% of all other CTA's on the planet. And this year they are up 24% the first two months already. I think they are doing OK. But thanks for your concern. When I find a better fund to throw some money in, I'll let you know.