Katy Kaminski joins us to assess the early signals shaping markets in 2026. The conversation explores the resurgence of commodity trends, the role of volatility estimation, and why diversification across markets and speeds matters more than ever. Drawing on new research, they examine dispersion within the CTA universe, the limits of replication, and how volatility targeting quietly determines outcomes. From precious metals to currencies, from crisis alpha to geopolitical risk, this episode offers a grounded look at why trend following thrives during disruption and why regime change remains its natural habitat.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

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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 “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And 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 Katy on LinkedIn.

Episode TimeStamps:

00:00 - Introduction to the Systematic Investor Series

00:39 - Weather disruptions and market perspective

02:31 - Precious metals and extreme commodity moves

04:28 - Gold, central banks, and monetary regime shifts

07:43 - Replication versus full CTA diversification

09:47 - Liquidity differences across metals

12:03 - Metals leading trend performance in 2026

15:01 - Multi-sector trends and diversification benefits

20:13 - Media attention and the return of trend following

23:29 - Research insights on speed and dispersion

31:44 - Trend speed and timing tradeoffs

40:59 - Market concentration and narrow universes

43:19 - Volatility estimation as a hidden...

In this episode, Alan Dunne is joined by Dario Perkins to examine why the global macro consensus may be fundamentally misreading the current cycle. The conversation moves from US fiscal stimulus and Federal Reserve credibility to the limits of the K-shaped economy narrative. Perkins challenges prevailing assumptions around AI-driven productivity, labor market weakness, and falling inflation, arguing that policy choices are pushing economies toward overheating rather than stagnation. The discussion extends to bond markets, term premia, Japan’s normalization, Europe’s fiscal pivot, and China’s rebalancing dilemma. What emerges is a picture of renewed growth, rising risks, and a cycle whose ending is now becoming visible.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

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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 “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And 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 Alan on LinkedIn.

Follow Dario on Twitter.

Episode TimeStamps:

00:00 - Opening remarks and context

02:25 - Global uncertainty and growth expectations

05:00 - The K-shaped economy under scrutiny

08:12 - Fiscal stimulus, tariffs, and timing effects

11:07 - Fed independence and political pressure

17:06 - The race to appoint the next Fed chair

26:35 - Productivity data and the AI narrative

35:51 - Labor market stall speed debate

39:56 - Bond markets, term premia, and inflation risk

46:03 - Japan’s normalization and demographic...

In this episode, Niels hosts Yoav Git to explore inflation risk, bond fragility, and the changing role of trend following in a world defined by supply shocks and declining trust. Drawing on recent research and market behavior, the conversation examines why traditional bond allocations struggle during inflationary regimes and how commodity trend strategies may offer structural resilience. The discussion spans geopolitics, deglobalization, energy markets, fixed income autocorrelation, and the limits of forecasting macro outcomes. Rather than predicting inflation’s path, the episode focuses on portfolio construction that can endure multiple regimes. What emerges is a disciplined argument for robustness over precision in an increasingly unstable global system.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

-----

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 “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And 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 Yoav on LinkedIn.

Episode TimeStamps:

00:00 - Introduction and series context

01:08 - Inflation back on the radar

02:38 - Recent podcast influences and inflation narratives

06:56 - Geopolitics, trust, and market fragmentation

08:52 - Commodities, volatility, and supply driven moves

10:48 - Trend performance and early 2026 conditions

11:30 - Fixed income, FX, and emerging market trends

17:26 - The all weather portfolio problem

18:18 - Bonds, inflation regimes, and correlation breakdowns

22:39 - Commodity trend as a defensive building block

27:01 - Are markets signaling higher inflation ahead

30:04 - What...

Today we discuss one of the most popular and influential economic books of the last few decades - The Winner’s Curse. Originally published in 1994, a new version has just been released and we are joined by co-author Alex Imas who wrote the new edition alongside Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler. When are we likely to spend a windfall and when are we likely to save it? When is it most dangerous to bid for business against competitors? And are ‘arbitrage’ opportunities in markets really a free lunch?

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

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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 “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And 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 Kevin on SubStack & read his Book.

Follow Alex on X.

Episode TimeStamps:

00:00 - Opening remarks and framing the law of one price

01:42 - Introducing the Ideas Lab series and Alex Imas

03:44 - From pre med to behavioral economics

08:15 - Mental accounting and how people really treat money

10:45 - Housing wealth, illiquidity, and self control

15:39 - Savings behavior, capital gains, and inequality

17:11 - Attention, salience, and why nudges work or fail

22:07 - Nudges versus incentives and policy confusion

25:18 - The winner’s curse and common value auctions

30:01 - Auctions, IPOs, and competitive overbidding

33:44 - The law of one price and market mispricing

36:50...

Today, we are joined by Nick Baltas to examine how narratives, signals, and structural design are reshaping trend following at the start of 2026. The conversation moves from investor storytelling and information digestion to a sober review of what truly drove dispersion in 2025. We explore why speed and universe choice mattered more than expected, why recent outcomes may be misleading, and why reacting to performance is often a mistake. The discussion then turns technical, unpacking new academic research on nonlinear momentum, signal construction, and the deeper mechanics behind trend following’s defensive behavior during stress. The episode closes with a reminder that discipline, not prediction, remains the strategy’s core advantage.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

-----

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 “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And 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 Nick on Twitter.

Episode TimeStamps:

00:00 - Introduction and welcome

01:05 - A disrupted start to 2026

03:10 - Narratives, information, and price formation

07:06 - Why stories often fail to move markets

09:31 - Recurring themes and market attention

10:59 - Strong early conditions for trend following

12:01 - Dispersion across strategies in 2025

15:06 - Familiar patterns in an unfamiliar year

18:42 - Speed versus universe in trend design

23:17 - Why recent outperformance can mislead

31:08 - Institutional views on trend following

40:21 - Nonlinear time series momentum research

50:30 - Autonomy of trend and crisis...

As the long era of neoliberal certainty frays, Mark Blyth argues that we are drifting back toward a 19th century world of rival blocs, imperial habits and dangerous illusions. In this conversation, he traces how repeated “software crashes” of capitalism produced inflation, austerity, populism and now a return to industrial policy and great power confrontation. He connects deficits, demographics, migration, and housing with the lived reality of stagnant wages and rising prices. Along the way, he questions central bank mythology, challenges deficit obsession, and asks whether politics can adapt before events force a far harsher reset.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

-----

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 “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And 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 Alan on LinkedIn.

Follow Mark on Twitter.

Episode TimeStamps:

00:00 - Cold open and warning on a return to 19th century style imperialism

00:23 - Niels and Alan introduce Mark Blyth and set the macro context

02:24 - From Scottish childhood to monetarism and the politics of macro ideas

08:33 - Capitalism as hardware and software and the recurring crashes of each regime

15:32 - The slow death of neoliberalism and the rise of populist reactions

18:57 - Deficits, austerity, bond vigilantes and why the house is on fire anyway

23:49 - Affordability, grocery prices, housing and the disconnect in elite dashboards

29:02 - Generational conflict, asset concentration and the missing left...

The new year opens with a shift hiding in plain sight. As globalization recedes and the world fractures into spheres of influence, Rich argues this isn’t just a political story - it’s a structural shift that favors trend following. In this episode, he challenges the illusion of control baked into most trading systems: why backtests offer comfort, not readiness; why precision breeds fragility; and why the future isn’t something to predict, but something being built in real time. This is a conversation about trading with humility, designing for persistence, and letting go of the need to know. The signal is now.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

-----

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 “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And 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 Rich on Twitter.

Episode TimeStamps:

00:00 - Opening and the start of 2026

03:21 - A fragmented global order and what it means for trend following

08:55 - Why coordination fades and imbalances persist

12:41 - Early market signals and unusual positioning

14:34 - 2025 in review, concentration and recovery

17:36 - Familiar pain and familiar payoffs in trend following

23:00 - Timeframes, diversification, and ensemble thinking

28:37 - Brakes and acceleration, trading the now

40:58 - The future as unfinished, not hidden

49:54 - Prediction versus participation

53:53 - Optimization, comfort, and hidden fragility

01:02:49 - Predetermined response and process control

01:05:30 - Closing reflections and looking ahead

Copyright © 2025

William White returns to assess a world edging closer to systemic stress. Drawing on decades advising central banks, he describes a macro regime defined not by temporary shocks, but by a deep reversal of the forces that once kept inflation low and debt manageable. From de-globalization and demographic decline to energy constraints and fragile supply chains, the conversation traces how rising costs collide with record public and private leverage. White warns that policy makers are trapped between inflationary pressures and debt sustainability, with no clean exit in sight. The discussion closes on AI, currency fragmentation, and the uncomfortable possibility that today’s stability masks a far more dangerous future.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

-----

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 “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.

Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.

Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com

And 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 Alan on Twitter.

Follow William on LinkedIn.

Episode TimeStamps:

00:00 - Why unchecked booms become more dangerous over time

01:37 - Setting the stage for a new global macro regime

03:53 - From disinflation to persistent inflation pressure

07:10 - Supply side forces reversing after decades of support

12:07 - Debt accumulation and unintended policy consequences

13:03 - Why higher rates did not trigger an immediate crisis

18:53 - Debt dynamics and the problem of sustainability

19:57 - Tipping points and the psychology of market breaks

26:40 - What happens when...