SI246: The BIG CTA ETF Debate ft. Andrew Beer & Tim Pickering

Today, we are joined by Andrew Beer and Tim Pickering for a heated debate on some of the most important changes that we are seeing in the CTA industry. We discuss how ETFs can be used in the CTA industry and the pros and cons of using indices to represent manager performance, why Tim and Andrew are fundamentally different in how they approach the way retail investors can access CTA strategies and how they disagree on the definition of "pure alpha", the use of replication strategies and much more.-----EXCEPTIONAL RESOURCE: Find Out How to Build a Safer & Better Performing Portfolio using this FREE NEW Portfolio Builder Tool-----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 “The Many Flavors of Trend Following” here.Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.comAnd 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 Andrew on Twitter.Episode TimeStamps: 00:50 - The macro perspective03:56 - Industry performance update06:17 - First CTA to launch a ETF09:57 - The managed futures index - what and why?17:40 - Tim's experience with indices20:15 - Building an asset allocation bucket22:36 - A discussion on alpha30:58 - Getting exposure to CTA return streams37:10 - Why Tim would avoid replication strategies44:18 - The biggest positions drive performance?51:45 - Are ETFs reliable?55:47 - Getting the timing right01:00:49 - A terrible product?01:04:26 - Why did Tim's US ETF fail?01:08:07 - What is alpha?01:11:00 - Are lower fees better for investors?01:12:14 - Getting the correlation right01:13:21 - Question from Oliver01:15:59 - Teasing the next debate01:22:38 -...