Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
US Presidential Election Year Stock Market Seasonal Trend - 29th Nov 24
Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past - 29th Nov 24
Gold After Trump Wins - 29th Nov 24
The AI Stocks, Housing, Inflation and Bitcoin Crypto Mega-trends - 27th Nov 24
Gold Price Ahead of the Thanksgiving Weekend - 27th Nov 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast to June 2025 - 24th Nov 24
Stocks, Bitcoin and Crypto Markets Breaking Bad on Donald Trump Pump - 21st Nov 24
Gold Price To Re-Test $2,700 - 21st Nov 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks: This Is My Strong Warning To You - 21st Nov 24
Financial Crisis 2025 - This is Going to Shock People! - 21st Nov 24
Dubai Deluge - AI Tech Stocks Earnings Correction Opportunities - 18th Nov 24
Why President Trump Has NO Real Power - Deep State Military Industrial Complex - 8th Nov 24
Social Grant Increases and Serge Belamant Amid South Africa's New Political Landscape - 8th Nov 24
Is Forex Worth It? - 8th Nov 24
Nvidia Numero Uno in Count Down to President Donald Pump Election Victory - 5th Nov 24
Trump or Harris - Who Wins US Presidential Election 2024 Forecast Prediction - 5th Nov 24
Stock Market Brief in Count Down to US Election Result 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Gold Stocks’ Winter Rally 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Why Countdown to U.S. Recession is Underway - 3rd Nov 24
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24
At These Levels, Buying Silver Is Like Getting It At $5 In 2003 - 28th Oct 24
Nvidia Numero Uno Selling Shovels in the AI Gold Rush - 28th Oct 24
The Future of Online Casinos - 28th Oct 24
Panic in the Air As Stock Market Correction Delivers Deep Opps in AI Tech Stocks - 27th Oct 24
Stocks, Bitcoin, Crypto's Counting Down to President Donald Pump! - 27th Oct 24
UK Budget 2024 - What to do Before 30th Oct - Pensions and ISA's - 27th Oct 24
7 Days of Crypto Opportunities Starts NOW - 27th Oct 24
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future - 27th Oct 24
This Points To Significantly Higher Silver Prices - 27th Oct 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Wheres Does the Money Sit When Commodity Trading?

InvestorEducation / Learn to Trade Nov 10, 2009 - 06:03 AM GMT

By: Andrew_Abraham

InvestorEducation

Too many investors forget to ask this very important question when trading commodities. In many cases commodity traders leave money in segregated accounts at their Futures commission merchant. As well there are cash management companies. In order to survive in these trying times …using the words of Andy Grove… ” The Paranoid Survive”. I am paranoid…in my trading with my partners in our commodity pool…as well as I am paranoid when I allocate to other commodity trading advisors. As Nissim Taleb has brought out in his book…Fooled by randomness anything can happen and for that fact I prepare for it.


For those commodity traders that have been around remember Refco the Futures commission merchant. Quoting Wikipedia..Refco was a New York-based financial services company, primarily known as a broker of commodities and futures contracts. It was founded in 1969 as “Ray E. Friedman and Co.” Prior to its collapse in October, 2005, the firm had over $4 billion in approximately 200,000 customer accounts, and it was the largest broker on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The firm’s balance sheet at the time of the collapse showed about $75 billion in assets and a roughly equal amount in liabilities. Though these filings have since been disowned by the company, they are probably roughly accurate in showing the firm’s level of leverage. More so…Refco, Inc. entered crisis on Monday, October 10, 2005 when it announced that its chief executive officer and chairman, Phillip R. Bennett had hidden $430 million in bad debts from the company’s auditors and investors, and had agreed to take a leave of absence….And even more so..On March 15, 2006, information leaked by the U.S. prosecutor’s office revealed that Refco held offshore accounts holding as much as $525 million in fake bonds.

Now imagine you had been trading with Refco even with segregated accounts? Not a fun experience…If I remember correctly, that even Jim Rogers had money with them. The story can be continued even with Lehman brothers… These highlight just leaving money at your FCM or broker…

Then there are other nightmares with cash management companies..

Sentinel the cash management company filed for bankruptcy Aug. 17 2007 after four days after halting withdrawals from clients. Sentinel whose clients included clients futures brokers, as well as high net worth investors and commodity trading advisors.. blamed the worldwide credit crunch for its problems, although the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused the cash-management firm of fraud and misappropriation of clients’ assets. Sentinel was another scam that destroyed many commodity trading advisors careers. As it is very important to try to maximize your returns…as well as returns via interest…but at what price?

What sets us apart from other Commodity trading advisors and commodity pools is that we are not only concerned about the return on investment but how much risk you will have to tolerate to achieve your goals. Commodity traders at Refco got hit by fraud and thought they were secure because they were in segregated accounts… This was not exactly correct. Commodity traders that invested with Sentinel wanted to maximize their interest returns… which ended costing them their business.

After being in the field for all these years… One suggestion… be Paranoid…What we do is keep our money that is not required for margin at the Fed with Treasury Direct. I would believe this is the safest place for cash. The US govt can always print more money. Keeping your cash that you do not need for margin is one of the steps of prudence that should be over looked. If you are trading commodities yourself…open a treasury direct account. If you are allocating to a commodity trading advisor…ask where the cash is sitting. You can feel most comfortable if it is sitting at the US Treasury.

Andrew Abraham
www.myinvestorsplace.com

Andrew Abraham has been in the financial arena since 1990. He is a commodity trading ddvisor and co manager of a Commodity Pool. Since 1993 Andrew has been a proponent of quantitative mechanical trading programs. Andrew's major concern is not only total return on investment but rather the amount of risk that one would have to tolerate in order to achieve returns He focuses on developing quant models that encompass strict risk adherence and correlation. He has been a speaker at conferences as well as an author of numerous articles. Andrew has spent years researching ideas that have the potential to outperform indices as well as maintain fewer draw downs.

Visit Angus Jackson Partners (http://www.angusjacksonpartners.com) Contact: A.Abraham@AngusJackson.com (mailto:A.Abraham@AngusJackson.com)

© 2009 Copyright Andrew Abraham - All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.


© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in