Robert Carver - Advanced Futures Trading Strategies

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Advanced Futures Trading Strategies

30 fully tested strategies for multiple trading styles and time frames

Robert Carver

Contents

Reviews of Systematic Trading by Robert Carver

A remarkable look inside systematic trading never seen before, spanning the range from small to institutional traders. Reading this will benefit all traders.

Perry Kaufman, legendary trader and author

Being a hedge fund manager myself and having personally read almost all major investment and trading books, this is by far one of the best books I have read in over 15 years on a tough subject for most.

Josh Hawes, hedge fund manager

Robert has had very valuable experience working for many years in a large quant hedge fund, which makes the book doubly worth reading Well worth a read for anyone who trades, in particular for systematic traders (whether youre a novice or more experienced)!

Saeed Amen, trader and author of Trading Thalesians

Reviews of Smart Portfolios by Robert Carver

In finance (like many other subjects) there is a large amount of research that is smart but impractical and an equally large amount of popular literature that is practical but dumb. This book is in that rare category of smart and practical it is also an entertaining read in its own right.

Francis Breedon, Professor of Finance Queen Mary, University of London and former global head of currency research at Lehman Brothers

The book is a solid piece of work so check it out Its about the process and there are some really practical ways, mathematical ways, to put a good process in motion for your life.

Michael Covel, author of several books on trading including the best selling Trend Following

Reviews of Leveraged Trading by Robert Carver

Like Roberts other books, Leveraged Trading is an excellent guide for traders. Robert does an excellent job of progressing from basic to complicated information, without losing the reader. This book will be one I refer to over and over again. Highly recommended.

Kevin Davey, champion full-time trader, author of numerous trading books

(Robs) latest book is not just the best coverage of the topic of leveraged trading of small portfolios Ive read, its actually the only good one Ive come across This is a great book. Go buy it.

Andreas Clenow, hedge fund manager and author

I wish I had read a book like this when I was starting my trading. It would have saved me a lot of time and money. Highly recommended!

Helder Palaro, hedge fund manager

Think big. Think positive. Never show any sign of weakness. Always go for the throat. Buy low. Sell high. Fear? Thats the other guys problem.

Nothing you have ever experienced can prepare you for the unbridled carnage you are about to witness. The Super Bowl, the World Series? They dont know what pressure is.

In this building its either kill or be killed. You make no friends in the pits and you take no prisoners. One minute youre up half a million in Soybeans and the next boom! Your kids dont go to college and theyve repossessed your Bentley.

Are you with me?

Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) giving strategic advice to Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) as they prepare to short orange juice futures in the film Trading Places

About the author

Robert Carver is an independent trader, investor and writer. He spent over a decade working in the City of London before retiring from the industry in 2013. Robert initially traded exotic derivative products for Barclays Investment Bank and then worked as a portfolio manager for AHL one of the worlds largest hedge funds before, during and after the global financial meltdown of 2008. He was responsible for the creation of AHLs fundamental macro trading strategy business, and subsequently managed the funds multi-billion-dollar fixed incom e portfolio.

Robert has a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree in Economics, and is currently a visiting lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of three previous books: Systematic Trading: A unique new method for designing trading and investing systems (Harriman House, 2015), Smart Portfolios: A practical guide to building and maintaining intelligent investment portfolios (Harriman House, 2017) and Leveraged Trading: A professional approach to trading FX, stocks on margin, CFDs, spread bets (Harriman H ouse, 2019).

Robert trades his own portfolio using the methods you can find i n his books.

Introduction

I traded my first futures contract on instinct.

It was September 2002, and I had just stepped onto a trading floor for the first time. The floor was in Canary Wharf, one of Londons two key financial districts, and belonged to Barclays Capital. Barcap, as I had learned to call it, ran a programme for fresh graduates on which I had recently started as one of just two newly recruited traders. We spent our first day in a classroom learning tedious theory that was mostly unrelated to our future jobs. At 4pm we were told to go and find our future teammates, who wed be joining properly in a couple of months after the gruelling course h ad finished.

With some trepidation I glanced at the map of the floor I had been given, and tried to locate the area where I would ultimately be working. Fortunately it didnt take long to find my allocated desk where I also found Richard the managing director of the team who had interviewed me earlier in the year.

After a few introductions and some chitchat, Richard asked me if Id like to do a trade. I nervously said I would. Although Id done some share trading on my personal account, this would be my first time trading with someone e lses money.

He showed me the dealing screen, and asked me to trade a single contract of the December Bund, which I had recently learned was the future for 10-year German government bonds (one of the few useful pieces of information wed been given in the classroom). I froze. Should I buy or sell? How could I possibly know what the right decision was? Id read somewhere that the ability to make quick decisions was prized amongst traders, and I certainly didnt want Richard to think I was too slow-witted for the job. Not wanting to hesitate any longer, I decided to buy and clicked the button on the screen to lif t the offer.

That was my first foray into the futures market, and it certainly wouldnt be my last, although I only lasted 18 months on that particular trading floor. After leaving Barcap I spent a couple of years working in economic research before joining a hedg e fund, AHL.

AHL was, and is, one of the largest futures traders in the world. My job was to develop and manage systematic futures trading strategies. Beginning with a relatively small portfolio, I was eventually promoted to manage the fixed income team, responsible for several billion dollars of client funds. The strategies we managed were a significant part of the global futures markets, holding tens of thousands of contracts on any given day, and trading hundreds of thousands of contracts every year.