Top Traders Unplugged

In this special episode of the Systematic Investor series, a panel of ten top systematic managers dissects the 2023‑2025 return dispersion among trend‑following strategies, highlighting how market selection, speed of signals and volatility‑adjusted sizing drove wildly different outcomes during the April “Liberation Day” shock. The conversation then pivots to the massive inflows into non‑correlated assets—precious metals, crypto, structured products, and hedge funds—exploring the implications for capacity, liquidity, and future portfolio construction in a world of rising interest rates.

In this episode, economist Mark Blyth argues that the global macroeconomic order is undergoing a reset akin to the post‑World‑I era, as the collapse of neoliberalism, soaring inequality and a resurgence of 19th‑century imperialist tensions signal a looming crash of capitalism. He warns that policymakers are ill‑prepared for the imminent great‑power conflict and climate‑driven resource scramble, and calls for bold fiscal, political and institutional reforms to avert a repeat of past economic catastrophes.

In this episode of The Systematic Investor, hosts Neil Krup and Richard Brennan examine how a de‑globalized, region‑focused world creates new, persistent imbalances that favor trend‑following strategies, while reviewing the concentrated metal‑driven performance of 2025 and early 2026 data. They also explore trader psychology, the pitfalls of back‑tested averages, and the value of diversified, rules‑based models for navigating uncertainty in fragmented markets.

In this episode, senior economist Bill White warns that the post‑pandemic era has reversed decades of disinflationary forces—globalization, favorable demographics, abundant energy and efficiency—creating a new inflationary supply‑side regime and record public and private debt that could trigger a systemic shock. He argues that without decisive fiscal tightening, structural reforms and realistic debt‑reduction strategies, the world faces heightened volatility, rising yields and the risk of a debt‑driven crisis, with AI touted as a potential but long‑term remedy.