SI175: A Winning Approach to Risk ft. Rob Carver
Top Traders Unplugged
Niels Kaastrup-Larsen
4.8 • 712 Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2022
⏱️ 86 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rob Carver joins us today to discuss the different ways that Trend Following is perceived by investors, the optimum amount of positions to trade at once, rating the riskiness of various investment strategies, Trend Following on the VIX, suitable risk amounts per market, what to do with the free cash in your futures account, if Trend Followers pyramid positions, trading CFDs and dealing with transaction costs, and the best lookback period when measuring correlations.
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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE
In this episode, we discuss:
- The perception of Trend Following among various types of investors
- How many positions to trade at once
- The ‘riskiness’ of various investment strategies
- Combining Trend Following and Volatility strategies
- Risk-per-futures contract
- How much cash to keep on the sidelines and what to do with it
- Pyramiding positions
- CFD trading and navigating commissions
- Measuring correlations effectively
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Episode TimeStamps:
00:00 - Intro
03:24 - A huge thank you to those who have left a rating or review on iTunes. Feel free to share this podcast with like-minded friends using this link:
https://top-traders-unplugged.captivate.fm/listen
04:47 - Macro recap from Niels
08:17 - Weekly review of returns
11:01 - How has your new approach been working out, Rob?
19:33 - Q1; John: How should I approach risk-per-contract?
27:41 - Q2; Patrick: What is your opinion on using a fixed percentage of free-cash balance?
34:30 - Q3; Frederick: How do professional Trend Followers pyramid into a position?
46:24 - Q4; Michael: Which full-size contract would you say is a ‘must-have’?
01:01:19 - Q5; Rene: When it comes to trading CFDs, how can I deal with changing transaction fee percentages?
01:09:55 - Q6; Michael: Do you have any advice for a 34-year old who wants to enter the managed futures industry? Has Rob ever considered starting his own fund?
01:15:52 - Q7; James: How far back should we look when measuring correlations?
01:23:27 - Benchmark performance update
Copyright © 2025 – CMC AG – All Rights Reserved
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PLUS: Whenever you're ready... here are 3 ways I can help you in your investment Journey:
1. eBooks that cover key topics that you need to know about
In my eBooks, I put together some key discoveries and things I have learnt during the more than 3 decades I have worked in the Trend Following industry, which I hope you will find useful. Click Here
2. Daily Trend Barometer and Market Score
One of the things I’m really proud of, is the fact that I have managed to published the Trend Barometer and Market Score each day for more than a decade...as these tools are really good at describing the environment for trend following managers as well as giving insights into the general positioning of a trend following strategy! Click Here
3. Other Resources that can help you
And if you are hungry for more useful resources from the trend following world...check out some precious resources that I have found over the years to be really valuable. Click Here
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 |
| 0:11.1 | 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 with |
| 0:26.4 | Rob Carver and I, Niels Karzablasen, where each week we take the pulse of the global market |
| 0:31.2 | through the lens of a rules-based investor. |
| 0:33.9 | If you're new to the show, I hope that today's episode will trigger your curiosity enough |
| 0:37.9 | to check out the back catalogue and listen to the past episodes that you may have missed, |
| 0:42.7 | like my conversation with Alan last week, which received a lot of positive feedback |
| 0:46.8 | and where we discussed some of Alan's really interesting research into the criticism |
| 0:51.4 | of the CTA slash trend following community a few years ago and how he decided |
| 0:58.2 | to answer those criticisms from the perspective of an allocator and that led really to some |
| 1:04.8 | fascinating discoveries and conclusions. As you know or may know, the aim of the podcast is |
| 1:10.7 | to inspire you as an investor. |
| 1:13.0 | We want to be prerogative without being polarizing. |
| 1:16.3 | We want to challenge the consensus narratives and to advocate how to think critically about |
| 1:21.7 | investing in an uncertain world and to provide you with a framework and a mindset that we |
| 1:27.0 | believe is truly robust. |
| 1:29.1 | And if you want to help us achieve our goal, what we ask of you is that if you can comment, |
| 1:34.5 | if you can continue to send us your questions, if you can share these episodes with your friends, |
| 1:39.6 | and not least if you can rate and review them in iTunes, we would greatly appreciate it |
... |
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