Niels Kaastrup-Larsen and Katy Kaminski explore why geopolitical risk and structural inflation may be changing some of the assumptions behind traditional portfolios. Katy revisits her recent Copenhagen presentation on crisis alpha, explaining why bonds can lose their diversification benefits when inflation becomes the dominant risk and why rules-based strategies can adapt more easily. They discuss research on preparing for different inflation regimes, the trade-offs between commodities and trend following, and new work from Quantica on why investors not always get the full benefit of investing in trend following. The episode closes with an important lesson: a small number of months drive much of trend’s long-term return, making patience and portfolio design critical.
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Episode TimeStamps:
00:00 - Introduction and what’s on Katy's radar
06:16 - Why 2026 looks very different from 2022 for trend followers
11:12 - Geopolitical risk, inflation and Katie’s Copenhagen presentation
17:50 - Why today’s environment could challenge traditional portfolios
21:55 - What happens when bonds start behaving badly
28:46 - Why rules-based strategies can adapt when markets change
31:46 - Rethinking crisis alpha for an inflationary world
41:56 - Commodities versus trend following as inflation protection
47:40 - Why a handful of months drive so much of trend’s return
52:38 - How investors end up timing liquid alternatives badly
58:12 - How institutions can make it easier to stay invested
01:02:50 - Can packaging trend with other assets solve the problem?
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