Conservative Investing - Using Trend Following to Manage Risk and Drawdowns | James St. Aubin

Conservative Investing - Using Trend Following to Manage Risk and Drawdowns | James St. Aubin

In this episode, we talk trend following and conservative investing with Sierra Mutual Funds CIO James St. Aubin. We talk about their unique banded moving average approach to trend following and how they utilize it to manage risk in client portfolios. We also discuss the importance of educating investors, what makes a good investment manager, quantitative vs discretionary management and a lot more.

  • 1:58 – The most important characteristics of a good investment manager
  • 06:46 – James’ view on the current economic situation
  • 11:19 – Defining conservative investing
  • 13:14 – Sell stop discipline
  • 15:51 – Focusing on what you can control
  • 18:20 – A unique approach to trend following
  • 22:49 – Viewing sell signal differently than buy signals
  • 24:08 – Using trend following in multi-asset portfolios
  • 25:57 – The balance between discretionary and quantitative
  • 31:47 – Analyzing an investment process that stops working in the short-term
  • 35:06 – Understanding that not all trades will be winners
  • 37:40 – When momentum and trend following struggle
  • 41:00 – Attracting the right type of investors
  • 43:27 The one lesson James would teach the average investor