meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Top Traders Unplugged

SI273: Unraveling the Mystery of Complex Adaptive Systems ft. Richard Brennan

Top Traders Unplugged

Niels Kaastrup-Larsen

Business, News, Business News, Investing

4.8712 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2023

⏱️ 68 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do you avoid overfitting, how loose is too loose in terms of loose pants and how should you approach sample sizes when designing your trading systems? What are complex adaptive systems, how do they apply to financial markets and why does regular math just not cut it? How does trend following differ from other strategies, what makes trend following so robust and what are the limitations for traditional statistics? Join us for this fascinating conversation with Richard Brennan.

-----

50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

-----


Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.

IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfoliohere.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

Follow Rich on Twitter.

Episode TimeStamps:

01:04 - What has been on our radar recently?

03:08 - Industry performance update

08:21 - Q1, Adam: In terms of loose pants, how loose is too loose?

13:36 - Trading with different models

15:42 - Adam Q2: What is a reasonable sample size in real trade observations, to compare against backtest statistics?

18:23 - A deep dive into complex adaptive systems (CAS)

20:29 - The 5 properties of CAS

25:24 - Examples of non-linearty in financial markets

30:50 - Emerging properties in financial markets

33:59 - Self organization

36:33 - Adaption and evolution

40:10 - Feedback loops

43:11 - What does CAS and trend following have in common?

49:38 - The limitations of traditional statistics

01:01:14 - Summing it all up

01:04:48 - What's next?

Copyright © 2025 – CMC AG – All Rights Reserved

----

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

Privacy Policy

Disclaimer

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You're about to join Neil's Kostrup Larson on a raw and honest journey into the world of systematic

0:06.6

investing and learn about the most dependable and consistent yet often overlooked investment strategy.

0:13.2

Welcome to the Systematic Investor Series.

0:26.8

Welcome and welcome back to this week's edition of the Systematic Investor series with Richard Brennan and I, Neil's Castablastin, where each week we take the pulse of the global markets

0:30.7

through the lens of a rules-based investor. Rich, it is wonderful to be back with you this week.

0:37.1

How are you doing down under?

0:38.8

Very good news, but very hot. It's decided to turn on the sunshine in December down here in Australia,

0:44.5

so it's boiling here at the moment, but I've got all of the fans going and I hope it cools down a bit.

0:52.5

Yeah, well, actually, I'm also in a place right now

0:55.0

where it usually is pretty hot even in December,

0:57.8

but there's a nice cool breeze coming through these days,

1:01.0

so I'm not struggling as much as you are.

1:04.3

Rich, as usual, before we dive into a question or two that we have,

1:09.7

and also a very interesting topic that you brought along.

1:15.3

I just wanted to find out a little bit of what's been on your radar recently,

1:19.4

what you're finding interesting when you look at the world at large.

1:24.4

Well, what I found was that I had a pretty good result for November, and that's because my

1:29.7

portfolio doesn't have much bond exposure.

1:32.8

So I came out of November a bit cocky, thinking that, you know, I'd done quite well in comparison

1:38.2

to a lot of the other CTAs that might have had a bit of difficulty because of the bonds over

1:42.8

the month of November.

1:44.8

And so here I was bit cocky at the end of November,

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Niels Kaastrup-Larsen, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Niels Kaastrup-Larsen and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.