Wealth & Finance International - Fund Awards 2015

www.wealthandfinance-intl.com 47 GNE Management Best Trading Program - S&P Futures and Options Strategies & Best for Actively Managed Futures Accounts - USA GNE Management, LLC is a commodities trading advisor (CTA) specializing in trading S&P futures and options contracts on behalf of clients in managed futures accounts or a commodities pool. They are registered with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a CTA and is a member of the National Futures Association (NFA). We got in touch with Michael Reznick, Founder and Managing Member of GNE Management, to find out more. Company: GNE Management Email: [email protected] Web Address: www.gnemanagement.com Address: 9 Bennett Ct, Marlboro, NJ 07746 Telephone: 732-851-3525 From our experience, a client would normally open an account with a futures broker of their choice and allow GNE to trade on this account on their behalf. Since all accounts are separate, a perspective client has an opportunity to tailor the leverage, risk parameter and even some aspects of the trading strategy to their individual investment goals, risk tolerance or diversification strategy. The manage futures industry is very similar to hedge fund industry where sea- soned professionals manage funds on behalf of customers trying to earn above average returns or achieve specific diversification goals. The main difference is that unlike a hedge funds, managed futures accounts are independently owned by each customer. As such there many advantages in opening a managed futures account vs partici- pation in a hedge fund. They include: • The managed futures industry is regulated by CFTC and participants have to pass proficiency certification and comply with various rules designed to protect an investor. • The trading is done in predefined (in a disclosure document) extremely liq- uid instruments traded on the commodities or futures exchanges (we trade on Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)) with daily settlements. • Clients have full access to daily records provided by their broker, as such these accounts offer full transparency. Clients can review advisor’s trades daily to ensure that trading on their account does not deviate from advisor’s trading approach documented in the disclosure document and agreed on by the client. • Clients can enjoy daily liquidity, the ability to add / withdraw funds and even close their account with limited notice to an advisor (we offer ability to close an account with 24 hour notice). There are no lock outs. • Transfer of funds is limited between the client and the broker. Advisors do not have access to a client’s funds on the account for any purpose other than trading of those funds using predefined trading instruments. From our perspective, getting a fund to perform to its full potential is all about risk management. We strongly believe that we can frequently achieve above average risk adjusted returns providing that an impact from a once in a while statistical outlier event does not cause irreparable damage. We manage risk in a variety of ways, and they include: • Limiting entry parameters to filter out trades with lower probability of success. • Position sizing. We enter every trade with the end in mind. Our position is sized such that providing the worst possible outcome the loss sustained on the position will not exceed a predefined loss parameter. • Max loss exit parameters. • Perfectly negatively correlated trading strategies. At GNE Management, client service is of the utmost importance to us. We want our customers to be able to sleep well knowing that their money is well managed. Unlike hedge funds, customers in managed futures accounts have full visibility into daily trading activity. As such we have to be a lot more engaged with our customers, especially when markets are volatile. We have to understand their goals, fears and frequently be their trusted advisor to ensure that they don’t get hurt jumping off the train before it arrives at its destination. Client service is not just something we do, it is the reason why we exist. Our primary goal is to manage our client’s funds the way we would have liked our own money to be managed. Trading performance is irrelevant if one is so stressed out by the process that it becomes impossible to enjoy it. We strongly believe that an educated customer is a happy customer. We ensure that they understand how our strategy works, where the pitfalls are and how it fits with their overall financial goals. Catering to our clients’’ needs is something we constantly work on, and because markets are changing all the time, trading futures and options on futures is an on-going learning process. Nevertheless, our underlining trading and risk man- agement philosophy does not change, and it is rather the tools and techniques that change continuously as we learn new things and better technology becomes available. We constantly collaborate with other professionals in our field to ensure that we can test many new ideas as they become available, even though most of them are not adopted into our strategy. As for the award, we are honoured to be recognized, and we believe the reason behind our successes is our trading approach. Investing my own funds and work- ing on a hedge fund in 2008 has taught me an expensive, but valuable lesson that diversification across asset classes does not work in a market crash environment. This is something I experienced personally, when all asset classes collapsed at the same time during the fall of 2008. I spent the next two years studying market behaviour during significantly volatile conditions to identify trading approach that will first withstand significant volatility spikes, and second benefit from them. With this unpredictability of the markets in mind, we never pretend to know what the future holds. As traders, we build the strategy for the long term and then con- centrate on day-to-day implementation. Our client focus ensures that we continue to improve our trading techniques. In the long run successes of our customers will build and maintain our own success.