Publisher's Synopsis
"Understanding risk is important. Prior to 2008, as the yields on safe assets hit rock bottom, investors began to focus on an alphabet soup of more complex instruments. These complex securities were rated AAA and appeared as safe as U.S. Treasuries, but with much higher yields. The 2008 financial crisis revealed, however, that higher yields on these instruments came with higher risk, albeit too late for these investors. This study seeks to understand the risk-return tradeoff, managerial skill, and factor exposures on the risk-return tradeoff in two financial instruments that have been limitedly investigated: commodity trading advisors (CTAs) and managed futures funds (MFFs). This study begins by documenting the differences between CTAs/MFFs and hedge funds and mutual funds, starting with the legal and operational differences. Next, it conducts a performance analysis, which indicates that CTAs and MFFs, as standalone investment vehicles,
