One of my favorite people to discuss trend following with is Catherine Kaminsky,

because she has a great way of simplifying and explaining some of the key concepts in the strategy.

In today's short episode, we talk about the phrase crisis alpha and how it may be better to think

about these strategies as divergent strategies, because in reality,

we don't really need a crisis in order for trend following to do well.

Years like 2014 and 2017 are great examples of this and perhaps even Q1 of 2019 as a more recent example.

We also touch on converting strategies, which in my mind to a large extent are short

volatility strategies, even if not all investors realize this.

I think events from 2018 gave us a taste of what is to come when volatility starts to reemerge in the markets.

Now it's time for you to sit back and relax and enjoy these unique takeaways from my conversation with Catherine.

And if you would like to listen to the full conversation, and I hope you do, just go over to top traders on plodg.com forward slash 41 and also forward slash 42.

I want to stick with the cover of your book and especially the last part of the title,

The Search for Crisis Alpha.

Now, I know you are responsible for coining this term, Crisis Alpha.

And I want to talk to you about this.

But before I do so, I also want to offer a slight concern that I have about the perception of the role of trend following in a

crisis. And it goes something like this. The way I see trend following being positioned,

and this is not new, this is something that's happened for many, many years. It's kind of a hedge

against equity markets if and when they run into trouble.

And that always gets labeled as we're in some kind of crisis. And that's obviously where the

crisis alpha is linked to. But there are far more bonds than equities in the portfolios of investors.

And I never really hear any debate about trend following as quote-unquote a hedge or a protection

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