Shore Capital Management LLC

_The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Presents:
Harnessing the Power of Biomass Energy in the Midwest

The report, “Harnessing the Power of Biomass Residuals: Opportunities and Challenges for Midwestern Renewable Energy,” examines opportunities and the key challenges limiting the current capacity of alternative biomass energy technologies, including financial constraints, market penetration barriers, and behavioral routines. It concludes with a series of recommendations that offer a framework for making better use of residuals in the region.

This half-day symposium will bring together business, civic, and government leaders from around the Midwest to discuss with Steve Brick, the report’s author, his research and findings.

The symposium will also feature panels of experts who will explore the relationship between renewable biomass energy and economic development, environmental conservation, waste management, energy security, and soil productivity, and examine the future of biomass energy policy at the state, regional, and national levels.

Date: Nov 29th

Read more

_
The Mankoff Company Presents:

After the Bell Trading Forum Chicago

Opportunities and Challenges in Trading Across Asset Classes: Algo, HFT and Big Data

In Today’s ultra-competitive environment, it is critical to keep abreast of the latest developments in technology, regulations and cross- market opportunities.

Common industry questions include:

What do I need to have in place to start up a prop trading firm successfully?

What is the latest and greatest when it comes to the high frequency space?

Which asset class will provide the greatest growth opportunities?

What type of algorithm will I need? And how will I handle the data needs of my company?

How are new regulations going to impact us?

The After the Bell panel discussions incorporate the "top-of-mind" issues for the trade. Held after trading hours so as not to take time away from the desk, these events offer a unique combination of topical discussion and industry networking.

Read more

_
Loyola University Chicago, School of Business Administration and PRMIA Chicago

Present:

"Economic Policy at a Crossroads:  What Next?"

A group of distinguished academics and practitioners will share their views and answer your questions on economic policy.  

Welcome
Don Schwartz - Director of the Center for Integrated Risk Management and Corporate Governance

Introduction
George Kaufman - is the John F. Smith Professor of Finance and Economics at Loyola University. He has also served at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.


Presentations
Daniel G. Sullivan- Daniel Sullivan is the director of research and an executive vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Robert S. Chirinko- is a professor of finance at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a research fellow at the Center for Economic Studies in Munich, Germany.


Commentary
Michael H. Moskow - is the Vice Chairman and Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. From 1994-2007, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

John E. Silvia - is chief economist for Wells Fargo Securities. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, he served as senior economist for the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee and chief economist for the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

A.G. (Tassos) Malliaris - is the Walter F. Mullady Professor of Economics and Finance at Loyola University Chicago, where he specializes in financial economics, derivative markets and risk management. His most recent research has been on asset price bubbles

Read more:

Bloomberg L.P. Presents:

The Bloomberg Hedge Funds Summit

The Bloomberg Hedge Fund Summit will convene hedge fund managers and investors in New York City. The program will cover the impact of the European debt crisis on the global markets, break down the fundamentals driving volatility in the equity markets, and look at how investors can scratch beyond the veneer when investing in China.

The summit will look at the future of Hedge Funds in a regulatory environment where some of the biggest managers are closing their funds and what the election year ahead will mean for Wall Street.

Date:  Dec 1st, 2011

Some of the topics include:
Outlook for the Global Markets
The Unraveling of Europe
Equity Volatility, Tail Risk and Quant Strategy
Alternative Asset Classes and Structured Products
Preparing for Black Swans and the Thesis for Chasing Alpha

For more information click here

On November 9th State Representative Kelly Cassidy of the 14th district (Edgewater, Andersonville and Rogers Park) announced an invitation to the community to join her Community Advisory Committee on Economic Development.

“Hearing ideas and insights from community members allows me to make better decisions in Springfield” Cassidy said.

The citizens of the 14th district will propose ideas to stimulate growth in local neighborhoods.

The Community Advisory Committee on Economic Development will also nominate an annual “Good Neighbor” Business of the Year Award to recognize businesses in the area “that go above and beyond to improve our community” said Cassidy. Anyone is welcome to nominate a business they believe is a “Good Neighbor”.

Meetings are held on a quarterly basis:

Date: Monday Nov 14th, 2011
For more information click here

On September 15th, 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported the Midwest Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)

The Chicago-Gary-Kenosha region reported an increase of the All Items August Consumer Price Index by 0.2% and 3.2% for the past 12 months. The August Core Consumer Price Index (excluding food and energy) increased by 0.4% and 1.6% for the last 12 months. Food and energy are excluded in the core index as those are historically the most volatile components of the index.

For comparison, the All Items National CPI for August increased by 0.3% and 3.8% for the last 12 months.

Read more

Hedge Funds Care Presents:
3rd Annual Connecticut Cocktails On the Sound

Not ready for summer to end?
Join Hedge Funds Care in Connecticut to celebrate the end of summer in style and welcome everyone back again.  This is sure to be the event to attend!

Cocktails, Hors d'ouevres, live music, giveaways, and take a quick tour of the waterfront on a stunning Hacker Craft boat.

Hedge Funds Care is an international charity, supported largely by the hedge fund industry, whose sole mission is preventing and treating child abuse. It has 2 goals:

 •    To raise as much money as possible to fund the programs that do the preventing and treating. 

•   To showcase the philanthropy of the hedge fund industry.

Read more

CFN Services and Link Investimentos
Presents

Implementing BM&FBovespa into your Trading Strategy: Opportunities and Challenges

Brazil has been in the news and much is being said about the richness of its market.  But what does it mean for the US trader?  What opportunities are available and what do you need to know before you implement a trading strategy in the Brazilian market? These issues and others will be addressed in an after-hours forum sponsored by CFN Services, Link Investimentos and supported by The Mankoff Company.

Topics covered include:
-Challenges of working with the Brazilian exchange BM&FBOVESPA
-Regulations
-Tax issues
-Mission critical topics involved when adding Sao Paulo to your trading strategy

Read more

World Research Group
Presents
The 4th Annual Emerging Managers Congress for Institutional Investors

This conference is geared toward providing solutions and answers for how and why pension plans, foundations and endowments should utilize emerging managers for their investments

The event delivers a balance of high quality content together with networking activities for the exchange of ideas and best practices. Networking activities take place during morning coffee, and lunch, as well as during key breaks throughout the agenda. There is also a cocktail reception created to facilitate relationship building.

Read more

By Mark Shore

I was recently interviewed for a few articles and the topic of overlaying strategies was discussed as a potential component of a managed futures portfolio. Realizing this topic is not discussed as much as it should be; it opens the door to a more in-depth understanding of managed futures. It is a topic I cover in my managed futures course at DePaul University.

Discussing this topic of overlaying strategies really gets to the heart of one question that keeps reappearing, “why are CTAs non-correlated to equities?” This is a very simple question to ask and is asked with high frequency. But the answer includes many topics to properly answer it. As Matt Davio recently stated, it’s the “special sauce” in understanding managed futures. One of the topics of the special sauce is the utilization of overlaying strategies.

For example, let’s assume the following of a fictional CTA (Commodity Trading Advisor):

- The CTA trades a diversified systematic trend following model (Core model) in 20 markets in both financial and commodity futures.

- The model can be long, short or neutral in any of the 20 markets of its portfolio. (Neutral means the portfolio does not hold any positions in a particular market.)

- The size of each position is not static, but may be dynamic based on some formula built into the trading algorithm. For example: our fictional CTA may trade a 20 contract position in 30 year bond futures. On the next trade in that market, they may hold more or less contracts based on their trading strategy.

- Stops and other risk management tools may be used utilized for risk management purposes

The above assumptions imply the portfolio at any given time could hold positions in zero to 20 markets. And due to the dynamic nature of being long, short or neutral and the utilization of various risk management methods the portfolio may be very fluid causing changes in the portfolio due to the strategy components. Thus the equity curve of the portfolio creates a non-correlation potential to equities.

Now that we have conquered the understanding of the Core model, let’s move forward in time and assume the CTA now allocates within their fund to a few other trading systems that may involve longer or shorter time frames or some other variations.

Perhaps the CTA allocates 70%, 80% or 90% to the Core model and allocates (or overlays) the balance of the fund to the other systems. The logic of overlaying other systems is to smooth out the returns of the Core model.  By overlaying various systems into one fund, the CTA has in essence organically created a quasi Fund of Fund.

The investor as well as the CTA has to ask: Does the overlay smooth the returns? Does it reduce volatility? Or asked another way, does it reduce the negative volatility (tail risk)? Keep in mind there is a difference between positive and negative volatility. We will leave the discussion of parsing volatility for another time.

By allocating to multiple systems it potentially maintains a fluid and/ or dynamic portfolio, thus equating to potential tendencies for non-correlation to equities. From the CTAs perspective they are not only managing a portfolio of futures markets, but they are also managing a portfolio of portfolios. One may call it a second derivative of the portfolio.

In times of economic stress, nervous investors tend to run for the exit door simultaneously causing the correlations of many sectors and asset classes to increase. 2008 is great example of investors running for the exit door. If a manager is trading multiple markets from a long, short or neutral perspective and potentially overlaying strategies; could this investment be non-correlated to equities?

In summary, not all CTAs overlay trading systems into a fund or portfolio, thus one more reason why CTAs differ (see Decoding the Myths of Managed Futures). This is not a judgment call of a good or bad idea of risk management. But simply as part of the due diligence process, the investor should know if the CTA is overlaying systems, to understand the concepts of those systems and the source of returns of the fund and how the overlay may offer another potential method of non-correlation to equities. Understanding this topic gives an investor a deeper understanding of the managed futures industry.

Ultimately the investor has to determine if the investment adds value to their current portfolio.

Copyright ©2011 Mark Shore. Contact the author for permission for republication at info@shorecapmgmt.com www.shorecapmgmt.com Mark Shore publishes research, consults on alternative investments and conducts educational workshops. Mark Shore is also an Adjunct Professor at DePaul University's Kellstadt Graduate School of Business in Chicago where he teaches a managed futures/ global macro course.

Risk Disclosure:
Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.  There is risk of loss when investing in futures and options.  Always review a complete CTA disclosure document before investing in any Managed Futures program.  Managed futures can be a volatile and risky investment; only use appropriate risk capital; this investment is not for everyone.  The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and are only for educational purposes. Please talk to your financial advisor before making any investment decisions.