Capital Efficiency Is the Next Edge | Open Interest | Ep.23

Summary

Charlie McGarraugh, CEO of Altis Partners, discusses the evolution of systematic investing beyond traditional trend following. He explains why adaptive portfolios, capital efficiency, and smarter position sizing are becoming critical edges. The conversation covers the growth of managed futures ETFs, the unique opportunities in Chinese onshore commodity futures, and why portfolio construction often matters more than finding the next predictive signal.

• Charlie's career path from Goldman Sachs metals trading to Altis Partners via crypto and fintech.
• Altis evolved from a pure trend-following CTA to a multi-factor macro strategy blending trend, carry, and reversion.
• Adaptive strategies gain importance as governments shift from volatility suppression to volatility inducement.
• Capital efficiency and dynamic leverage are underappreciated edges in systematic futures trading.
• Managed futures ETFs scale distribution and offer different design choices between absolute return and hedging profiles.
• Chinese commodity futures provide diversification, strong momentum, and segmentation from western markets.
• Kelly sizing and tolerance for larger drawdowns can dramatically improve long-term compounded returns.
• Portfolio construction and risk management are often more impactful than finding new return-predictive signals.