In episode 284, we welcome our guest, Michael Gayed, a Portfolio Manager at Toroso Investments, where he runs two tactical, risk-on, risk-off strategies. He’s also the publisher of the Lead-Lag Report.

In today’s episode we’re talking about how to use indicators to decide when to go risk-on, risk-off. Michael explains how he came to focus on risk management early in his career and has kept that mentality since. He walks us through how he uses the utilities sector as an indicator for when volatility is going to spike, which worked well in 2020, helping him return over 70% in his ATAC fund. Then he takes us through his award winning paper on lumber and gold, two seemingly uncorrelated commodities that actually work well together to serve as a strong indicator for inflationary or deflationary conditions.

As we wind down, he explains how often he assesses these signals and what they are showing as we start 2021.

Please enjoy this episode with Toroso Investment’s Michael Gayed.