TopTradersUnplugged.com

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500

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Nov 2026

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About the show

Niels Kaastrup-Larsen | Trend Following Expert | 10-Year+ Podcast with 10M+ Downloads | Talks about Alternative Investments, Hedge Funds, Global Macro, Geo-Politics, Commodities, Quant Investing, Crypto, and Volatility. Join the conversation!

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60 recent

November 11, 20261 hr 6 min

TTU154: Why Trend Following Isn't Crash Insurance ft. Philippe Jordan

What if one of the biggest misconceptions about trend following is what investors expect it to do? Niels Kaastrup-Larsen and Alan Dunne are joined by Philippe Jordan, President of CFM, for a conversation that challenges conventional thinking about systematic investing. Drawing on 35 years of experience, Philippe explains why even the most sophisticated models sometimes need human judgment, how AI is transforming the search for alpha, and why diversification matters more than any single strategy. They also explore the limits of scientific approaches to markets, the importance of investment culture, and why trend following’s greatest value may have little to do with protecting investors from the next crash. IT's TRUE 👀 - most CIO's read 50+ books each year - get your copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/Ultimate And you can get a free copy of my latest book "Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio" here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/10-reasons-optin Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com Follow Niels & Alan on Twitter: @TopTradersLive & @AlanJDunne And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes, Spotify or Amazon so more people can discover the podcast.

November 7, 20261 hr 4 min

SI425: Passive Investing Is About to Face a Real Test ft. Cem Karsan

What happens when the system holding global markets together begins to reach its breaking point? In the wake of the US midterm elections, Niels Kaastrup-Larsen is joined by Cem Karsan for a conversation about the powerful forces converging beneath the surface of the global economy. Mounting debt, rising populism, geopolitical confrontation and the battle for control of the US dollar are creating pressures that Cem believes cannot be contained indefinitely. He lays out a provocative scenario in which a financial crisis becomes the catalyst for a historic transformation of economic policy. As the old rules begin to unravel, the conversation turns to a question every investor must confront: how do you prepare for a world that may look radically different from the one we've known? IT's TRUE 👀 - most CIO's read 50+ books each year - get your copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/Ultimate And you can get a free copy of my latest book "The Many Flavors of Trend Following" here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/book Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com Follow Niels & Cem on Twitter: @TopTradersLive & @jam_croissant And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes and Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

November 4, 202651 min

OI25: What If Lower Volatility Is the Wrong Goal ft. Suhaimi Zainul-Abidin

Moritz Seibert is joined by QuantEdge CEO Suhaimi Zainul-Abidin to explore how one of Singapore’s most successful systematic firms approaches risk, diversification and long-term compounding. Suhaimi explains why QuantEdge deliberately runs at a much higher volatility than most institutional portfolios, how the firm combines hundreds of independent risk premia across equities, bonds, commodities and insurance-linked securities, and why diversification should create room to take more risk rather than simply reduce it. They also discuss capacity, investor lockups, portfolio rebalancing and the lessons QuantEdge learned from surviving both the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID market shock. T's TRUE 👀 - most CIO's read 50+ books each year - get your copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/Ultimate And you can get a free copy of my latest book "Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio" here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/10-reasons-optin Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com Follow Niels & Moritz on Twitter: @TopTradersLive & @MoritzSeibert And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes, Spotify or Amazon so more people can discover the podcast.

October 31, 20261 hr 6 min

SI424: Can Your Portfolio Survive the AI Hangover? ft. Alan Dunne

How resilient is your portfolio if stocks and bonds fall together? Alan Dunne joins Niels Kaastrup-Larsen to examine what stock–bond correlations can conceal and why owning more assets may leave investors exposed to the same risks. They explore how an AI boom could unravel, what that might mean for debt and monetary policy, and how trend following can help portfolios adapt without forecasting the next crisis. The conversation also tackles the patience diversification demands when equities race ahead, and whether greater resilience can improve long-term compounding. IT's TRUE 👀 - most CIO's read 50+ books each year - get your copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/Ultimate And you can get a free copy of my latest book "Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio" here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/10-reasons-optin Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com Follow Niels & Alan on Twitter: @TopTradersLive & @AlanJDunne And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes, Spotify or Amazon so more people can discover the podcast.

October 28, 20261 hr 4 min

GM109: Why Buffett Finally Went All In on Japan ft. Andrew McDermott

Alan Dunne is joined by Mission Value Partners founder Andrew McDermott to challenge some of the conventional thinking around Japan. Andrew argues that Japan’s supposed “lost decades” look very different when viewed beyond GDP and stock market performance, and that its emphasis on manufacturing, engineering and long-term resilience may now be becoming a major advantage. They discuss the consequences of financialization in the US and Europe, Japan’s role in semiconductors, robotics and AI, and why Warren Buffett’s move into Japanese equities matters. The conversation also explores public debt, domestic capital flows and why Japan could play a much larger role in the global economy ahead. IT's TRUE 👀 - most CIO's read 50+ books each year - get your copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/Ultimate And you can get a free copy of my latest book "Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio" here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/10-reasons-optin Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com Follow Niels & Alan on Twitter: @TopTradersLive & @alanjdunne And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes and Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

October 24, 20261 hr 14 min

SI423: Why Trend Following Might Outlast the AI Arms Race ft. Mark Rzepczynski

Niels Kaastrup-Larsen and Mark Rzepczynski explore why the changing structure of global markets may be creating a very different environment for trend followers. They discuss why today’s bond selloff may represent a return to normal rather than an anomaly, how declining safe-haven benefits could reshape government debt, and why geopolitical fragmentation may increase divergence across markets. Mark also examines commodity shortages and the conditions that can produce explosive price moves. Finally, they turn to AI and machine learning, asking whether increasingly similar quantitative models are shortening the life of alpha and why trend following may prove unusually durable in an increasingly crowded investment landscape. IT's TRUE 👀 - most CIO's read 50+ books each year - get your copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/Ultimate And you can get a free copy of my latest book "Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio" here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/10-reasons-optin Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com Follow Niels & Mark on Twitter: @TopTradersLive & @MRzepczynski And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes and Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

October 21, 20261 hr 3 min

GM108: Maybe Japan Is Finally Changing for Real ft. Jesper Koll

Alan Dunne is joined by longtime Japan strategist Jesper Koll to explore why Japan may be entering one of its most important economic shifts in decades. Jesper explains why demographics and government debt are less threatening than many investors assume, and how labor scarcity, rising wages and corporate reform are reshaping the economy from within. They discuss the return of domestic capital, Bank of Japan normalization and the government’s push into semiconductors, defense and energy. Jesper also makes the case that Japan’s broad economic expansion, industrial strength and accelerating corporate consolidation could make it unusually resilient in a world increasingly dominated by the AI cycle. IT's TRUE 👀 - most CIO's read 50+ books each year - get your copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/Ultimate And you can get a free copy of my latest book "Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio" here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/10-reasons-optin Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com Follow Niels & Alan on Twitter: @TopTradersLive & @alanjdunne And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes and Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

October 17, 20261 hr 9 min

SI422: Why Trend Following Rewards Patience ft. Katy Kaminski

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. IT's TRUE 👀 - most CIO's read 50+ books each year - get your copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/Ultimate And you can get a free copy of my latest book "The Many Flavors of Trend Following" here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/book Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com Follow Niels & Katy on Twitter: @TopTradersLive & @katykam And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes and Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

October 14, 20261 hr 10 min

UGO13: How Much Longer Can AI Carry the Market ft. Christian Mueller-Glissmann

Cem Karsan is joined by Goldman Sachs’ Christian Mueller-Glissmann to ask how much longer the AI boom can keep supporting markets as the bond market becomes increasingly difficult to ignore. They discuss whether today’s extraordinary earnings growth is sustainable, why Christian sees more evidence of an earnings bubble than a valuation bubble, and how higher yields are beginning to pressure parts of the equity market. The conversation also explores unusually high dispersion, cheap equity volatility and the growing challenge of portfolio diversification before turning to geopolitical risk, gold, FX volatility and how investors might prepare for a more inflationary and less predictable market regime. This is a conversation about preparing, not predicting, when history starts to rhyme a little louder. IT's TRUE 👀 - most CIO's read 50+ books each year - get your copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/Ultimate And you can get a free copy of my latest book "The Many Flavors of Trend Following" here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/book Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com Follow Niels & Cem on Twitter: @TopTradersLive & @jam_croissant And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes and Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.

October 10, 20261 hr 18 min

SI421: Taking CTAs Mainstream ft. Andrew Beer

How reliable is 60/40 when stocks and bonds fall together? Andrew Beer joins Niels Kaastrup-Larsen to question the return forecasts and diversification assumptions behind traditional asset allocation. They explore how a systematic, non-emotional approach to tactical investing can help portfolios adapt as markets change. The conversation also sets out how to grow the CTA/managed futures pie by explaining the strategy’s value in language investors understand. They discuss why diversification across managers and realistic expectations for uneven returns matter for building investor confidence and encouraging lasting allocations. IT's TRUE 👀 - most CIO's read 50+ books each year - get your copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/Ultimate And you can get a free copy of my latest book "The Many Flavors of Trend Following" here: www.toptradersunplugged.com/book Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com Follow Niels & Andrew on Twitter: @TopTradersLive & @andrewdbeer1 And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest rating & review on iTunes and Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.