With the lackluster returns in the equity markets, many investors are looking for alternatives for their investment dollars, one of the sectors attracting a lot of interest is the futures markets or commodity markets.
Many of these new investors in the futures markets are looking for someone experienced. They are looking for someone with an established track record to handle the trading decisions of their personal account. In the world of futures, these money managers are referred to as Commodity Trading Advisors or CTA’s. Many investors wrongly assume that they do not qualify to have a CTA manage their personal futures account, I will attempt to clarify some of these misconceptions.
Reasons for this common misconception include:
- Investors do not know that managed futures with a documented track record exist for individual investors
- Investors assume that they would not qualify because of high initial account sizes
- Investors have heard the horror stories of a “truck showing up at someone’s front door with a delivery of 5,000 bushels of Corn”
Managed Futures has been an investment class that has historically been available to institutions and high net worth individuals, like everything this is changing. The track records and performance information for managed futures remains difficult to find for the average investor. While individual investors might assume that they would not meet the criteria of participating in a managed futures program, this is not always the case. Many managed futures programs have lower requirements than most would expect bringing managed futures as an asset class to the mainstream investor.
These managed futures programs have documented track records and the managers are required to be registered with both the NFA (National Futures Association) as well as the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission). All managers are required to provide potential clients with a disclosure document that covers the risks as well as the historical performance for their programs. Client accounts are established with a broker that introduces the account to the Manager.
Many investors wrongly assume that they do not qualify for a managed futures account because they assume that they need to meet high initial account balances in order to participate in these programs, this is just not true. Currently we offer a variety of managed futures programs. You might be surprised to learn that you can open a managed futures account with as little as $35,000.
The different managed futures programs that we offer are programs that have shown consistent positive returns with historically low volatility that are managed by proven Commodity Trading Advisors. While we understand that there are many investors and traders that are looking for triple digit yearly returns, experience has taught us that most investors are not looking for the “flash in the pan” program that shows high volatility but are more comfortable with a consistent return with lower volatility. One of the benefits of investing with a managed futures program is that the performance of the program does not depend on the direction of anyone particular market. Managed Futures have shown to have a low correlation with stock markets. These programs are not dependent on the market direction to provide returns.
Many have heard the old story of “I knew someone that had to take delivery of corn and a truck showed up at his front yard with 5,000 bushels of corn” this is just not true. A futures contract represents the obligation to either buy or sell a commodity of a certain class at a certain time in the future (why they are called futures), it is the duty of the Commodity Trading Advisor to remove this risk from their trading program. Traders should remember that over 90% of futures contracts never go to delivery they are offset in the market. The process of delivery usually only happens to a trader that is new and unfamiliar with the markets and is trading alone. Brokers usually help new traders by making sure that these small but very costly mistakes do not occur.
Les Jones hails from Chicago, IL and passed his series 3 exam in March of 1990. After a couple years with small commodities firms Les went to work for a large commodities firm in Chicago where he spent 14 years. Les recently joined the staff at Extra Mile Trading LLC. With 16 years experience in trading and servicing customers He is well versed in most of the futures markets and many trading methods. Les Jones believes in going the Extra Mile to help his customer.
Article Source: ezinearticles.comSpending over $1 million dollars during a 12 month period is quite an investment for any company or organization. The government of Queensland is planning to spend over $1 million over a 12 month period to boost business through direct investment.
The campaign which the Queensland government has begun includes several TV, Radio, Newspaper, and internet campaigns – which are being managed by a local company called Virgin Blue. The organization has stated that they would like to see more direct domestic and foreign investment. These types of investment strategies are important to any corporation. Australia contains several large businesses that have their headquarters in Sydney and Melbourne cities, which have a large amount of foreign and domestic businesses. Attracting investment in a foreign business and domestic business is very difficult; however the Queensland Government plans to spawn their investment capital into local business –which does need the infusion of business.
Investing in Australia has created a large boom in investment, through this $1 million dollar investment. Over the next 12 months, this investment is sure to pay off- showing us the importance in direct investment by a local organization or government. By partnering with a large organization or government, a company can easily shoot past the point of needing only venture capitalists.
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