Podcasts Archives

The Mad Hedge Fund Trader Interviews Mark Hana aka ?Trader Mark? on Hedge Fund Radio

?Trader Mark?, who?s real name is Mark Hana, is the?? publisher of the wildly popular, www.fundmymutualfund.com investment website

He believes that the US economy is in a ?drugged pleasure dome that kicks the can down the road,? and will bring ?another ugly episode in the market.? If the S&P 500 breaks the 200 day moving average, which is looking increasingly likely by the day, he?ll turn on a dime and bail on his longs.

Mark employs a hybrid fundamental/technical, long/short approach to the market which he has developed through trial and error over the last 15 years. His record enabled him to build a readership of 150,000 a month at his website, and brought him an impressive 13,482 followers at blog aggregator www.seekingalpha.com . Mark has delivered an impressive? 77% return through model portfolio tracker, Investopedia, that has brought him $7 million in commitments for a mutual fund he plans to launch this summer.

Mark likes the small cap mobile technology area, and has traded in Atheros Communications (ATHR), Asia Info Holdings (ASIA), and Dragon Wave (DRWI). China and India have great fundamentals, even though they are getting overhyped. More attractive is Brazil, which offers a small cap ETF (BRF). In the BRIC complex, he?d take Russia (RSX) out, which presents unquantifiable country risks, and substitute in Indonesia (IDX), another resource exporter with a growing middle class that is close to China. Also on his horizon are Australia (EWA) and Vietnam (VNM).

To listen to my interview with Trader Mark in its entirety, pleaseclick the ?play? button below.

Hedge Fund Radio is a weekly program featuring one-on-one interviews with the titans of the hedge fund industry. The show is hosted by legendary hedge fund manager John Thomas, one of the most seasoned players in the industry. It is broadcast live on station KGOL 1180 AM in Houston, Texas as part of the BizRadio?? network to 100,000 local listeners, and will be streamed online to a further 100,000 national and international listeners.

The show is broadcast every Saturday morning at 12:00 pm Eastern time, 11:00 am Central time, 9:00 am Pacific Coast Time, and 5:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time. For pilots and the military, that is 17:00 Zulu time. For the online link to the show, please go to www.bizradio.com or click here, click on ?Listen Live!?, and click on ?Houston 1110 AM KTEK.? For that added insight into the future of the markets tune in, or catch the show in my Hedge Fund Radio archives.

January 23, 2010/by John Thomas

Hedge Fund Manager Yra Harris Covers the World with his Global Macro View of the Financial Markets and Tells all to The Mad Hedge Fund Trader on Hedge Fund Radio

Podcasts

Long time futures trading veteran, Yra Harris, thinks we are in a mini bubble now, which is not built on excessive leverage, and therefore won?t go as high as previous ones.?? The carry trade is now pouring into large cap equities with decent dividends and healthy balance sheets, like Verizon Communications (VZ) and AT&T (T).

Why should banks bother lending to borrowers of dubious credit when they can simply pick up a clean 400 basis points in the Treasury market. He foresees chop inside a range for the indefinite future, frustrating the hell out of traders.

Yra likes gold and silver against FX shorts, like the euro and the British pound, as investors continue to seek a deflation hedge. He also likes the grains long term, as Obama is continuing the disastrous policies of the Bush administration, such as promoting ethanol as an alternative fuel. He is cautious on copper, which has become overextended and is overly dependent on the China trade. The Fed should raise interest rates by 2% tomorrow, as the artificially low 0.25% rate now is creating dangerous imbalances in the financial system.

Yra is a global macro hedge fund manager who has been a fixture of the futures community for over three decades. He writes a daily blog on macro investing called Notes From Underground, which you can find at www.yrah53.wordpress.com .

Hedge Fund Radio is a weekly program featuring one-on-one interviews with the titans of the hedge fund industry. The show is hosted by legendary hedge fund manager John Thomas, one of the most seasoned players in the industry. It is broadcast live on station KGOL 1180 AM in Houston, Texas as part of the BizRadio?? network to 100,000 local listeners, and will be streamed online to a further 100,000 national and international listeners.

The show is broadcast every Saturday morning at 12:00 pm Eastern time, 11:00 am Central time, 9:00 am Pacific Coast Time, and 5:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time. For pilots and the military, that is 17:00 Zulu time. For the online link to the show, please go to my podcast page.

January 16, 2010/by John Thomas

ETF Trends Tom Lydon Discusses the Future of the ETF Industry on Hedge Fund Radio With The Mad Hedge Fund Trader

Podcasts

SPECIAL ETF ISSUE

Featured Trades: (ETF's), (EEM), (EEG), (VWO), (GLD), (SLV), (QQQQ), (XLK), (PPLT), (PALL)

1) Exchange traded funds (ETF's) could soon replace traditional mutual funds as the primary investment vehicle for individuals because of the huge cost, tax, and liquidity advantages they offer. That's the opinion of Tom Lydon, publisher of www.ETFTrends.com , a snappily designed site that I constantly refer to on all things related to this highly efficient trading instrument. Tom's site offers updates on new ETF launches, research tools, and a free newsletter presenting a half dozen investment ideas a day. He finds ETF's so attractive that he has converted his own management practice for high net worth individuals at www.globaltrend.com from one focused on mutual funds, to an ETF orientation. ETF's enable rifle shots at specific, countries, industries, currencies and commodities on the cheap without having to wade through a morass of complicated settlement details. You can buy ETF's on 50% margin, go short, and with the larger ones, like the S&P 500 (SPY), deal with only a penny spread, plus a token commission.

2) The ETF industry has exploded since the March bounce, and there are now 836 such instruments issued by 35 providers with a total market capitalization of $782 billion. Just last Friday, the first ETF's for platinum (PPLT) and palladium (PALL) were launched. Some have grown so large they have become major influences on the market for their underlying commodities, as with the one for gold (GLD), which has $40 billion in assets, making it the world's fifth largest holder of the yellow metal. The bigger ETF's are now resorting to swaps to sidestep CFTC position limits on options and futures contracts. Since most of the current ETF's mimic indexes, daily buying and selling is minimized, creating fewer taxable events for American investors. Low turnover also helps keep operating expenses down. These quasi index funds confined to narrow groups of stocks can offer better liquidity than any single security. Individual investors can't put ETF's into their 401k yet, but that is expected to change soon. More controversial are the leveraged ETF's offering 200% and 300% long and short exposure, which because of their heavy cost of carry, can diverge substantially from their underlying markets. Better to use these only as short term trading vehicles. Other strategies generating debate are funds of funds holding ETF's with much higher cost structures, and actively managed ETF's, which cede their index qualities, for better or for worse. Hedge fund ETF's can't be far behind.

3) ETF's are much more attractive than mutual fund competitors, with their notoriously bloated expenses and spendthrift marketing costs. You can't miss those glitzy, overproduced, big budget ads on TV for a multitude of mutual fund families. You know, the ones with the senior couple holding hands walking down the beach into the sunset, the raging bulls, etc. You are the sucker who is paying for these. Sometimes I confuse them for Viagra commercials. I once did a comprehensive audit on a mutual fund, and a blacker hole you never saw. There were so many conflicts of interest it would have done Bernie Madoff proud. Any trainee assistant trader can tell you that more 90% of all mutual fund managers reliably underperform the indexes, some grotesquely so.?? Published performance is bogus, they show a huge survivor bias, not including the hundreds of mutual funds that close each year. And there's always that surprise tax bill at the end of the year. If there was every an industry crying out for restructuring, consolidation, and price competition, and ultimately a whopping great downsizing, it is the US mutual fund industry. ETF's may be the accelerant that ignited this epochal sea change, with the number of mutual funds recently having shrunk from 10,000 to 8,000. It's still early days, with ETF's only accounting for 5-6% of trading volume, even though they have been around for a decade.

4) ETF maven Tom Lydon's favorite ETF's include the ones for emerging markets (EEM), (VWO) and (EEG), gold (GLD), silver (SLV), and technology (QQQQ) and (XLK). No great surprise that these are the funds seeing the biggest investor cash inflows. They also happen to nicely mesh my own view of the world.?? I wish they had invented these things 40 years ago. It would have made my life so much easier. The potential performance of a Japanese small cap ETF bought in 1969, a gold ETF launched in 1971, or a Chinese technology ETF investment in 1978 would have been positively exponential.

Hedge Fund Radio is a weekly program featuring one-on-one interviews with the titans of the hedge fund industry. The show is hosted by legendary hedge fund manager John Thomas, one of the most seasoned players in the industry. It is broadcast live on station KGOL 1180 AM in Houston, Texas as part of the BizRadio?? network to 100,000 local listeners, and will be streamed online to a further 100,000 national and international listeners.

The show is broadcast every Saturday morning at 12:00 pm Eastern time, 11:00 am Central time, 9:00 am Pacific Coast Time, and 5:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time. For pilots and the military, that is 17:00 Zulu time. For the online link to the show, please go to www.bizradio.com or click here , click on 'Listen Live!', and click on 'Houston 1110 AM KTEK.' For that added insight into the future of the markets tune in, or catch the show in my Hedge Fund Radio archives.

January 9, 2010/by John Thomas

The Mad Hedge Fund Trader Interviews Adam Rochlin from MF Global on Hedge Fund Radio

Podcasts

Managed futures accounts run by commodity trading advisors (CTA?s) are increasingly becoming an important investment alternative for both individuals and institutions, says Adam Rochlin, the head of MF Global?s alternative investment strategies business in New York.

They give access to sophisticated strategies like global macro and high frequency trading to individuals and smaller institutions that can?t afford the astronomical cost of running their own high tech 24 hour global trading desks. They can also give you a convenient vehicle for pure commodity exposure, like in energy and the grains, without having to endure the management risk of indirect stock plays. The managed futures industry certainly delivered the goods in 2008, the year from Hell, when they brought in double digit returns, while every global stock index was crashing.

The big new issue is transparency, which CTA?s deal with handily by executing trades in accounts still under the investor?s direct control, instead of asking for funds to be wired to a distant unknown custodian. As the futures markets never shut down throughout the financial crisis, liquidity was never a concern.

You can learn more about managed futures accounts by contacting Adam directly at 212-319-1375, or by e-mailing him at alternativeinvestments@mfglobal.com

Hedge Fund Radio is a weekly program featuring one-on-one interviews with the titans of the hedge fund industry. The show is hosted by legendary hedge fund manager John Thomas, one of the most seasoned players in the industry. It is broadcast live on station KGOL 1180 AM in Houston, Texas as part of the BizRadio network to 100,000 local listeners, and will be streamed online to a further 100,000 national and international listeners.

The show is broadcast every Saturday morning at 12:00 pm Eastern time, 11:00 am Central time, 9:00 am Pacific Coast Time, and 5:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time. For pilots and the military, that is 17:00 Zulu time. For the online link to the show, please go to www.bizradio.com or click here , click on ?Listen Live!?, and click on ?Houston 1110 AM KTEK.? For that added insight into the future of the markets tune in, or catch the show in my Hedge Fund Radio archives.

January 2, 2010/by John Thomas

The Mad Hedge Fund Trader Interviews David Gurwitz on Hedge Fund Radio

Podcasts

David Gurwitz sees strong markets for oil, the grains, and the Australian and Canadian dollars in 2010. He bases these views on multiple algorithm overlays on a basic Elliot Wave analysis generated by Charles Nenner Research, where he is the managing director. Among single stocks, he likes the agricultural derivative plays of Potash, (POT), Monsanto (MON), and Mosaic (MOS).The wealth of the world is still looking to reduce risk, major reasons why stock, US Treasuries, and gold will perform poorly.

David, who is also a world class concert pianist in addition to toiling as a market analyst, sees the hedge fund industry reforming and growing dramatically from here. Lock up times have shrunk from three years to one month, and due diligence is getting much tougher. The biggest mistake hedge fund traders make is mixing strategies and bailing on winners too soon.

Hedge Fund Radio is a weekly program featuring one-on-one interviews with the titans of the hedge fund industry. The show is hosted by legendary hedge fund manager John Thomas, one of the most seasoned players in the industry. It is broadcast live on station KGOL 1180 AM in Houston, Texas as part of the BizRadio?? network to 100,000 local listeners, and will be streamed online to a further 100,000 national and international listeners.

The show is broadcast every Saturday morning at 12:00 pm Eastern time, 11:00 am Central time, 9:00 am Pacific Coast Time, and 5:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time. For pilots and the military, that is 17:00 Zulu time. For the online link to the show, please go to www.bizradio.com or click here, click on ?Listen Live!?, and click on ?Houston 1110 AM KTEK.? For that added insight into the future of the markets tune in, or catch the show in my Hedge Fund Radio archives.

December 26, 2009/by John Thomas

John Brady, MF Global's strategist for interest rate products

Podcasts

MF Global's strategist for interest rate products, John Brady, sees the S&P 500 rocketing 18% to 1,300 during the first half of 2010, driven by enormous productivity gains that are creating historic profit margins. A flood of money should hit the market just after the New Year.

Let there be no doubt that the world is in risk accumulation mode. However, while monetary policy will stay on hold for possibly all of next year, long rates will start to rise because of the sheer volume of Treasury issuance. Think the (TBT). Investors will then start taking profits into June, prompted by the uncertainties of the midterm congressional elections and a possible 'W' recession.

John thinks that emerging markets will keep devaluating their currencies to keep exports competitive and stock markets flying, but watch out for the volatility. China is a special situation. By tying the Yuan to the dollar, they are letting Washington set their monetary policy, and guess what? Bubbles are contagious.

Like the rest of the planet, John loves Brazil (EWZ), and also South Africa (EZA), where gold, a rising middle class, and an international trade hub are the motivating stories. We are in a secular bull market for the barbaric relic, with a rise to $2,200 feasible, but don't be surprised if we tick at $800 first. Commodities look great long term as a synthetic short dollar trade. But the buck could rally until mid year before a new big down leg renews. He is also a peak oil believer, and thinks the recent Exxon/XTO Energy deal speaks volumes about the shortage of supplies. It's cheaper to drill on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange than 30,000 feet down in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hedge Fund Radio is a weekly program featuring one-on-one interviews with the titans of the hedge fund industry. The show is hosted by legendary hedge fund manager John Thomas, one of the most seasoned players in the industry. It is broadcast live on station KGOL 1180 AM in Houston, Texas as part of the BizRadio?? network to 100,000 local listeners, and will be streamed online to a further 100,000 national and international listeners.

The show is broadcast every Saturday morning at 12:00 pm Eastern time, 11:00 am Central time, 9:00 am Pacific Coast Time, and 5:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time. For pilots and the military, that is 17:00 Zulu time. For the online link to the show, please go to www.bizradio.com or click here , click on 'Listen Live!', and click on 'Houston 1110 AM KTEK.' For that added insight into the future of the markets tune in, or catch the show in my Hedge Fund Radio archives.

December 19, 2009/by John Thomas

The Mad Hedge Fund Trader Interviews Charles Nenner About the Cycle Analysis System on Hedge Fund Radio

Podcasts

Technical analyst to the hedge fund stars, Charles Nenner, believes we are close to a top in the S&P 500. From hear you sell into the rallies. The SPX is going to plunge 10-20%, Treasury bond interest rates are going to soar (TBT), and gold (GLD) has peaked out. There are tradable shorts setting up in all three of these markets that will run for the first half of 2010.

These calls are the product of Nenner's proprietary Cycle Analysis System, which he has spent three decades developing, and generates calls of tops and bottoms for every major market in the world. I have diligently analyzed Nenner's approach for a couple of years now. It appears to consist of multiple overlays' of traditional technical analysis, some mathematically derived time and momentum indicators, and a dash of Elliot Wave for good measure. The result is reliable enough to make a living, as long as you learn how to read him and don't bet the ranch (or the windmill?) on any single trade.

Nenner sees a trading rally in the dollar setting up which could deliver a strong greenback until May, when we should then re-establish shorts, especially in his favorite, the Australian dollar (FXA). The scientist turned technical analyst argues that major bull markets in wheat, corn, and soybeans will begin this year, sectors for which I am also hugely bullish long term. He sees natural gas (UNG) retesting the old lows at $2.40. Farther out, Nenner sees a new major bear market beginning in 2013 that will take both stocks and bonds to new lows.

Nenner has a long career that includes stints at medical school, Merrill Lynch, Rabobank, and ten years as a technical analyst at the notorious vampire squid, Goldman Sachs. To learn more about the approach of his firm, the Charles Nenner Research Center in Amsterdam, please visit his site at www.charlesnenner.com.

Hedge Fund Radio is a weekly program featuring one-on-one interviews with the titans of the hedge fund industry. The show is hosted by legendary hedge fund manager John Thomas, one of the most seasoned players in the industry. It is broadcast live on station KGOL 1180 AM in Houston, Texas as part of the BizRadio?? network to 100,000 local listeners, and will be streamed online to a further 100,000 national and international listeners.

The show is broadcast every Saturday morning at 12:00 pm Eastern time, 11:00 am Central time, 9:00 am Pacific Coast Time, and 5:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time. For pilots and the military, that is 17:00 Zulu time. For the online link to the show, please go to www.bizradio.com or click here, click on 'Listen Live!', and click on 'Houston 1110 AM KTEK.' For that added insight into the future of the markets tune in, or catch the show in my Hedge Fund Radio archives.

December 12, 2009/by John Thomas

The Mad Hedge Fund Trader Interviews Ed Merner of the Atlantis Japan Growth Fund on Hedge Fund Radio

Podcasts

My guest on Hedge Fund Radio this week is Ed Merner, CEO of the Atlantis Japan Growth Fund (LSE-AJG), who has long been rated the number one stock picker in the Land of the Rising Sun. Ed?s fund, which trades on the London Stock Exchange, is up a stunning 54% from the March bottom.

When the ink was barely dry on the US Japan peace treaty in 1950, Ed?s father uprooted his family from rural Truckee, California, and moved them to Tokyo Japan. That gave him a front row seat to the economic miracle that followed in the fifties and sixties.

Ed started managing money in Japan just a few years before me, in 1970. He toiled away as a portfolio manager at Schroeder?s & Co. in Tokyo for 25 years and then launched his own firm in 1995. Ed, who is a fascinating individual and a genuine nice guy, will discuss the long term opportunities for investing in Japan and Korea.

Hedge Fund Radio is a weekly program featuring one-on-one interviews with the titans of the hedge fund industry. The show is hosted by legendary hedge fund manager John Thomas, one of the most seasoned players in the industry. It is broadcast live on station KGOL 1180 AM in Houston, Texas as part of the BizRadio?? network to 100,000 local listeners, and will be streamed online to a further 100,000 national and international listeners.

The show is broadcast every Saturday morning at 12:00 pm Eastern time, 11:00 am Central time, 9:00 am Pacific Coast Time, and 5:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time. For pilots and the military, that is 17:00 Zulu time. For the online link to the show, please go to www.bizradio.com or click here, click on ?Listen Live!?, and click on ?Houston 1110 AM KTEK.? For that added insight into the future of the markets tune in, or catch the show in my Hedge Fund Radio archives.

December 5, 2009/by John Thomas

The Mad Hedge Fund Trader Interviews Bill Fleckenstein about 2010 on Hedge Fund Radio

Podcasts

I have worshipped legendary hedge fund manager, Bill Fleckenstein, as the trading God that he is, for decades. So I thought it was time to catch up with the noted bear to get his take on the New Year.

The sky high expectations for 2010 now endemic will disappoint, with the year ending substantially lower than we are now. In a stroke of genius, Fleck, as he is known to his friends, closed his short-only fund in March ahead of the coming onslaught of stimulus he saw.

When the Dow popped above 10,000, Fleck took out his ?Dow 10,000? hat and symbolically placed it on top of the six foot tall stuffed grizzly he keeps in his office. The same idiots who sold the bottom in March are now buying the top, and some fantastic short selling opportunities are setting up. He is in no rush, though, as it is tough to short against zero interest rates.

This could be the year when serious money is once again made on the short side. His favorite targets will be technology companies, where double ordering of components is now rampant, as Kool-Aid drinking managers rush to replenish depleted inventories. Research in Motion (RIMM) is a train wreck where he already has a big, successful short position. Retailers like high end department stores with weak balance sheets, such as Nordstrom (JWN), are also in his cross hairs, as are restaurant chains like IHOP (DIN).

?Anything with a bad balance sheet will get clubbed,? said Bill, with the subtlety of a 20 pound sledge hammer.

Big banks are one big fantasy in a world of make believe, but are really more of a macro call here. With the government changing the rules every day, he?ll stay away.

Long Treasury bonds are a bubble waiting to burst, and the TBT is a home run staring you in the face.

He can understand why the low end in residential real estate is holding up, since the government is offering a tax free bribe of $8,000 to all comers. But the high end is in serious trouble, and it is raining McMansions in tony neighborhoods everywhere. The nightmare won?t end until the banks foreclose on everything and then puke it all out, putting in the real bottom. This could be a long time off. He doesn?t see any way commercial real estate can avoid disaster. Commercial REITS are a screaming sell, which are falling off a cliff but haven?t felt any pain because they haven?t hit bottom yet.

The current stock market bubble could continue for a few months, with Congress passing more stimulus projects to save their own skins in November. The bell will ring that the top is in when foreigners take away our printing presses by boycotting Treasury auctions, sending stocks, bonds, and the buck into a simultaneous tailspin. That will be the time to get aggressive.

What Fleck does like is gold and silver. To meet the big increase in demand, either production or prices have to go up, and he votes for the latter. Fleck congenitally despises all fiat paper currencies, but hold a gun to his head and he?ll tell you to buy the Canadian dollar (FCX), where a wealth of energy, metal, and food exports will enable the looney to outperform the others.

Buy wheat. Traders were transfixed by last year?s huge American crop and cratered prices, when in reality, 40% of the wheat producing areas of the world are suffering prolonged droughts, and $8/bushel is not out of the question. Heavy autumn rains caused much of that to rot in the field, and now a horrific winter auguring for even higher prices.

For more on Fleck?s views, go to his insightful and informative blog called the ?Daily Rap? by clicking here at https://www.fleckensteincapital.com/index.aspx , which is literally worth its weight in gold. You can also catch Bill?s weekly multi market review at MSN by clicking here at http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Commentary/ByAuthor/BillFleckenstein.aspx .

Hedge Fund Radio is a weekly program featuring one-on-one interviews with the titans of the hedge fund industry. The show is hosted by legendary hedge fund manager John Thomas, one of the most seasoned players in the industry. It is broadcast live on station KGOL 1180 AM in Houston, Texas as part of the BizRadio? network to 100,000 local listeners, and will be streamed online to a further 100,000 national and international listeners.

The show is broadcast every Saturday morning at 12:00 pm Eastern time, 11:00 am Central time, 9:00 am Pacific Coast Time, and 5:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time. For pilots and the military, that is 17:00 Zulu time. For the online link to the show, please go to www.bizradio.com or? click here, click on ?Listen Live!?, and click on ?Houston 1110 AM KTEK.? For that added insight into the future of the markets tune in, or catch the show in my Hedge Fund Radio archives.

November 28, 2009/by John Thomas

The Mad Hedge Fund Trader Interviews Rick Renard of Millennium Metals on Hedge Fund Radio

Podcasts

This show features noted precious metal coin and bullion collector and dealer, Rick Renard, of Millennium Metals.

Hedge Fund Radio is a weekly program featuring one-on-one interviews with the titans of the hedge fund industry. The show is hosted by legendary hedge fund manager John Thomas, one of the most seasoned players in the industry. It is broadcast live on station KGOL 1180 AM in Houston, Texas as part of the BizRadio?? network to 100,000 local listeners, and will be streamed online to a further 100,000 national and international listeners.

The show is broadcast every Saturday morning at 12:00 pm Eastern time, 11:00 am Central time, 9:00 am Pacific Coast Time, and 5:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time. For pilots and the military, that is 17:00 Zulu time. For the online link to the show, please go to www.bizradio.com or click here, click on ?Listen Live!?, and click on ?Houston 1110 AM KTEK.? For that added insight into the future of the markets tune in, or catch the show in my Hedge Fund Radio archives.

November 21, 2009/by John Thomas

SPECIAL ETF ISSUE

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