Ep. 160: Ken Tropin on How to Run a Successful Macro Hedge Fund

This episode is sponsored by Amber Group

Ken Tropin is a legend in the macro space. He is the Chairman and the founder of Graham Capital Management (GCM) – $18bn fund. Ken founded GCM in 1994 and over the last 28 years has grown the firm into an industry leading alternative investment manager focusing on global macro discretionary and quantitative hedge fund strategies. Prior to founding GCM, Ken had significant experience in the alternative investment industry, including five years (1989 to 1993) as President and Chief Executive Officer of John W. Henry & Company, Inc. and seven years (1982 to 1989) as Senior Vice President and Director of Managed Futures at Dean Witter Reynolds. In this podcast we discuss: 

• The early days of macro and CTA trading 
• Influence of Paul Tudor Jones 
• Why macro is an attractive source of alpha 
• Performance around market crises from 1987 stock crash to 2008 GFC 
• The challenge of trading 2011-2021 
• How the new inflationary world makes macro attractive 
• View on inflation 
• Mispriced duration risk 
• What gives Graham an edge 
• Combining discretionary and quant strategies 
• Thoughts on platform/pod funds 
• Impact of AI 
• Market views 
• Advice to young macro traders 
• Books mentioned: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Lefevre), Market Wizards (Schwager) 

You can learn more about Graham Capital here and here.

Read the full transcript here.

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(The commentary contained in the above article does not constitute an offer or a solicitation, or a recommendation to implement or liquidate an investment or to carry out any other transaction. It should not be used as a basis for any investment decision or other decision. Any investment decision should be based on appropriate professional advice specific to your needs.)