TTU70: Market Intervention & The Effect on Trend Following ft. Marc Malek of Conquest Capital Group
Top Traders Unplugged
Niels Kaastrup-Larsen
4.8 • 712 Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2015
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this year-end review, Marc Malek explains why intervention in the markets affects trend following, but also why trend following strategies are not long volatility strategies. He discusses 2014 from the point of view of his firm, how his program did, and why he is excited about 2015.
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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
- How 2014 treated Conquest Capital.
- How volatility shows itself in a market like oil.
- What strategies performed well and what markets contributed to their success.
- How he prepares himself for extreme volatility and how he dealt with the Swiss Franc move.
- What intervention does to the markets.
- How his firm would plan for our react to a big market change such as the break up of the Euro overnight.
- Why people use correlation in the wrong way.
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Resources & Links Mentioned in this Episode:
Listen to 2 hour-long episodes with Marc Malek on this podcast here and 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 Portfolio” here.
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 Marc Malek on Linkedin.
Copyright © 2025 – CMC AG – All Rights Reserved
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The question is not whether there is intervention or not. |
| 0:06.0 | The question is how much intervention is there? |
| 0:09.0 | We're used to trading and profiting from markets where if intervention is kind of plus or minus |
| 0:18.0 | at the same level that we expect historically. The last five years have been unusually difficult for trading strategies |
| 0:24.9 | because that level of intervention ratcheted up dramatically. |
| 0:29.5 | And the closer we are to the extreme where the central banks are being extremely active, |
| 0:34.5 | the worse it is for us. |
| 0:35.7 | And the more we go towards parts where it's the normal animal spirit of the players in the |
| 0:43.3 | market that's right in the market, the better it is for us. |
| 0:51.3 | This is Mark Malick, founder and CEO of Conquest Capital Group, and you are listening to my |
| 0:57.2 | year-end review on Top Traders Unplugged. |
| 1:00.2 | Imagine spending an hour with the world's greatest traders. |
| 1:04.9 | Imagine learning from their experiences, their successes, and their failures. |
| 1:09.5 | Imagine no more. |
| 1:12.7 | Welcome to Top Traders Unplugged, |
| 1:16.3 | the place where you can learn from the best hedge fund managers in the world, |
| 1:21.1 | so you can take your manager due diligence or investment career to the next level. |
| 1:25.1 | Here's your host, veteran hedge fund manager, Niels Kastrop Larson. |
| 1:38.3 | Welcome back, Mark, for this review of 2014, where we look at the big events from the point of view of your trading strategies. |
| 1:40.7 | I want to explore the ups and the downs, as well as the big takeaway from what can only be |
| 1:45.2 | described as a great year for systematic trading strategy in general. |
| 1:49.8 | But as you know, just because you're systematic in your trading, it doesn't necessarily |
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