Trends Watch: October 11, 2018

EisnerAmper’s Trends Watch is a weekly entry to our Alternative Investments Intelligence blog, featuring the views and insights of executives from alternative investment firms. If you’re interested in being featured, please contact Elana Margulies-Snyderman.

This week, Elana talks with John Floyd, Chief Investment Officer, Floyd Capital Management.

What is your outlook for alternatives?

 The outlook for alternatives is incredibly bright over the next several years. The past decade has seen the rise of passive strategies, fee compression and high correlations across many investment strategies. The reasons for such evolution are manifold, but one in particular has been Central Bank and government policies since 2008. The rise of populism and changes in official policy measure will likely cause tectonic shifts across financial markets. Alternative investment strategies are best suited to capitalize on that type of financial market environment.

What is your outlook for the economy?

It is often said that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The applicability of that statement has never been more true than today. The combination of current U.S. economic policy and global imbalances is likely to lead to a major fallout across world markets. As the world’s major centrals begin to unwind years of ultra-easy monetary policy, global fault lines rapidly worsen in places like Italy, China, Brazil and other emerging markets. Beyond that one has to wonder if global asset and credit markets are perhaps a little too buoyant.

What keeps you up at night?

I generally wake up two or three times a night to check the markets, despite exercising two hours and taking a 15-minute nap every day!