SI142: How Decentralised Is Bitcoin Really? ft. Rob Carver
Top Traders Unplugged
Niels Kaastrup-Larsen
4.8 • 712 Ratings
🗓️ 30 May 2021
⏱️ 89 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rob Carver is on the show with us today to discuss why Elon Musk & the Chinese government might be proving that Bitcoin may not be as decentralised as first assumed, whether you should adjust your system according to the instrument being traded, some processes for reinvesting profits into your portfolio over time, thoughts on position sizing, different ways of defending against inflation, if short-term Trend Following may actually be as good as long-term Trend Following, and the sweet spot for number of different futures contracts a good system should trade.
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In this episode, we discuss:
- If Bitcoin is really as decentralised as it's reputed to be
- Adjusting your system on an individual trade basis
- What to do with your trading profits
- Defending against inflation
- Short-term Trend Following versus long-term Trend Following
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Episode TimeStamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:33 - Macro recap from Niels
04:02 - Weekly review of returns
12:15 - Rob’s decision to trade Bitcoin futures
21:28 - Why Bitcoin may not be so decentralised
38:05 - Q1; Dan: Do you think fitting by instrument makes sense for intraday Trend Following?
48:43 - Q2; John: Why does Rob only allocate part of his profits back into his portfolio?
57:19 - Q3; Peewee: If Rob could only trade 5 or 6 futures markets, which ones would he pick?
01:02:54 - Q4; Saed: Do you prefer keeping position size constant across all trades, or adjusting according to volatility?
01:06:38 - Financial Times article: ‘How to Defend Against Inflation’
01:13:47 - Check out the new episode from the Top Traders Unplugged series, coming out soon
01:14:22 - Article from FactorResearch: ‘Short vs Long-Term Trend Following’
01:20:26 - Benchmark performance update
01:21:27 - Recommended listening or reading this week: Mark Rzepcynski's blog post on commodity prices during inflationary periods, Nikhil Shamapant on the Hidden Forces Podcast & Josh Rogin on the Joe Rogan Podcast
01:26:54 - Next week, special guest Eric Crittenden joins us on the show
Copyright © 2025 – CMC AG – All Rights Reserved
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're about to join Jerry Parker, Maritz Siebert, and Neil's Kostrup Larson on their |
| 0:06.3 | raw and honest journey into the world of systematic investing and learn about the most |
| 0:11.0 | dependable and consistent yet often overlooked investment strategy. |
| 0:15.1 | Welcome to the Systematic Investor podcast series. |
| 0:22.5 | Welcome and welcome back to this week's edition of the Systematic Investor series |
| 0:25.9 | with Rob Carver and I, Neil's Castor Larsen, where each week we take the pulse of the global |
| 0:31.1 | markets through the lens of a rules-based investor. |
| 0:35.6 | If you're new to the show, let me start by saying welcome |
| 0:38.3 | with the hope that today's episode |
| 0:39.9 | will trigger your curiosity and hunger for learning, |
| 0:42.8 | enough to check out the back catalog |
| 0:44.4 | and listen to past episodes that you may have missed. |
| 0:47.5 | Like my conversation with Mark last week, |
| 0:50.2 | where we talked about momentum crashes, |
| 0:52.4 | Bitcoin's recent challenges, |
| 0:54.0 | and how an inflationary |
| 0:55.9 | environment may affect trend following. Now, Rob, it is always good to be back with you. |
| 1:03.2 | How are things where you are in the UK at the moment? The weather is good, which is nice. |
| 1:08.5 | So it's half-term holiday here. Hopefully we'll have a nice |
| 1:11.6 | break with some sunshine. And also the whole week, there've been men like building something |
| 1:17.1 | in the house behind mine. So all week I've had like drilling noises, but I did speak to them yesterday |
| 1:22.1 | and I said, guys, please tell me you're having Saturday off. And of course, they were good English |
... |
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