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Key Facts
Philosophy and Approach
Eupatrid Global Trends (EGT), our flagship trading program, shoots for aggressive returns utilizing a systematic trend-following approach on a vast portfolio of global futures markets and equities. EGT does not intend to mimic any benchmark or index, but to produce high absolute returns across all market environments and economic cycles.
The core tenets:
Predicting is unnecessary and dangerous. No one can predict the markets with any consistency, especially emotional investors. Markets simply do what they do. Patterns seldom repeat. Records are continuously broken. Historical correlations break down. Crazy is a constant. We believe a better approach is to leave our opinions and biases at the door; to let the markets do the hard work and just follow their lead.
Accept and embrace volatility. We can only capitalize on large trends by being willing to give back profits. This may seem counterintuitive, but to realize each trend’s full potential, we must ride it to its end. This means sitting through significant reversals from time to time. Many people equate volatility with risk. We do not. Risk, to us, is the probability of loss of capital. That is, when we risk a small fraction of our capital on a trade, we stand to lose it if the price hits our stop-loss. That is risk. Giving back profits is not risk, but volatility. Volatility is simply fluctuating profits.
Strict Risk Control. We do not shy away from risk. It’s what provides our profits, but we carefully monitor and control it. Every minute of every day we know what our risks are; from the business level to the portfolio on down to each individual position.
Be a generalist. We approach every market the same way. At the core, every market is driven by people. Trends develop as people react to changing fundamentals, risks and a myriad of other things. All of this gets distilled out in the price, so that’s what we focus on.
Perfect doesn’t exist. Recent performance reinforces beliefs about the markets that can become very dangerous when you tailor your investing strategy to these beliefs. There’s no way to capture the entire recent uptrends in cocoa or interest rates. We know we cannot profit every month, quarter or on each trade. Attempting to often leads to big trouble. We prefer sustainability, not perfection.
To view our complete Investor’s Guide, please make a formal request here.
EGT has a 14+ year continuous track record. To view the latest performance report, please click the EGT Factsheet box below.
February: -15.7%
YTD 2025: -16.4%
60-month Return: +33.5%
EGT’s returns reflect a composite of all investor accounts since inception, net of all fees and expenses. If you wish to view monthly net returns in spreadsheet form, please make a request here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | -0.79 | -15.70 | -16.37 | ||||||||||
| 2024 | 4.88 | 14.51 | 4.07 | -10.15 | 3.53 | -3.35 | -2.48 | -8.85 | 4.88 | -9.57 | 9.87 | 5.11 | 9.39 |
| 2023 | -0.64 | 1.12 | -2.84 | 5.94 | 2.17 | 0.76 | 0.53 | -2.70 | -1.23 | 0.52 | -8.80 | -6.42 | -11.77 |
| 2022 | 0.58 | 5.77 | 6.42 | 6.21 | -0.32 | -4.87 | -4.51 | 3.38 | 4.59 | 1.01 | -8.48 | -0.38 | 8.41 |
| 2021 | 4.01 | 17.65 | 0.90 | 9.06 | 1.64 | -3.50 | 1.92 | 2.15 | -2.02 | 7.38 | -7.01 | 4.28 | 40.29 |
Past performance does not guarantee future results. Before seeking our services, please review the investment documents. Data gathered from BarclayHedge, CSI Data and Melissinos Trading. *From Nov-Dec 2011, no trading takes place as Melissinos Trading transitions from managing SMAs to a fund.
Hypothetical NAV growth charts and monthly return tables aren’t enough to understand the characteristics or benefits of an investment, so we’d like to expand in this section.
It’s important not to equate aggression with recklessness. Risk-control is a foundational piece of our investing strategy. Volatility does not equal risk. Volatility, to us, is simply fluctuating profits. We manage the risk of losing capital, but we allow the profits to fluctuate. Sometimes this means sitting through uncomfortable reversals, but this is a feature not a bug of our approach.
We expect the rolling 60-month figure to average ~33% going forward.
An investment in EGT must be considered a long-term holding. We recommend at least five years. Without this commitment, the urge to buy into recent success and bail after recent losses might creep in — and will most assuredly degrade your performance.
The shorter the holding period, returns are less stable. Losing periods are more frequent. When expanding out to holding periods of at least 60 months, performance becomes much more consistent.
It’s no guarantee, but generally when equities struggle EGT performs well. Traditionally, bonds have anchored the hedging part of a portfolio but failed miserably in 2022 — leading many to re-think the 60/40 portfolio and whether strategies like ours deserve a permanent place in a portfolio.
On a more nuanced basis, EGT has managed risk well during major equity declines — even producing profits on two occasions. Traditionally, trend-following has produced stellar returns during major bear markets.
We trade the very markets that can hit us hard at the pump and the grocery store. Providing a risk-managed way to participate in these trends is one of the key benefits we offer.
A quick note on inflation: as long as governments continue stifling business via regulations, taxes and spending money they don’t have, I believe asset prices will continue rising over the long run.
Since inception, EGT has produced near zero correlation with equities. What makes EGT valuable is also what makes it difficult to hold, especially when other components perform better — it’s different.
The shotgun-like pattern illustrates the lack of correlation to equities.
Past performance does not necessarily guarantee future results.
Embrace Pareto’s Principle. Trend-following makes the majority of its money from a few very large trends. To reap the full benefits of this investment approach, this feature (not a bug) must be embraced. [Paper]
Trend-Following: Built for Instability, Chaos and the Unpredictable. What the world was like when Michael got started in 2007/08, the principles that guide our trading, capitalizing on poor investor behavior and the performance of “alternatives”. [Paper]
Conversations with Meb Faber and Michael Covel. [Podcast]
Investment vs. Exposure. Most people know what they hold. Few know how much risk they hold. [Essay]
The Curse of Survival. A lion’s life isn’t an envious one. Same goes for a trader. The longer you’re in the game, the more scars you accumulate. [Essay]
DISCLOSURES
Past Performance Does Not Necessarily Indicate Future Results.
* Performance through Feb-2025. Net of all fees and expenses (performance does not reflect the performance of any one account, but rather a combination of the historical performance of multiple accounts and portfolios). Asset Classes in Performance History section: MSCI World Index (equities) and BTOP 50 Index (managed futures). Alternative investments, including those Melissinos Trading offers, are speculative, involve substantial risk, and do not suit all investors. Before seeking our services, please thoroughly examine our investment documents.
Eupatrid Global Trends trades virtual currency derivatives, specifically CME Bitcoin and CME Ether which may experience significant price volatility and the initial margin for these products may be set as a percentage of the value of a particular contract. Margin requirements for long and short positions can increase if the price of the contract rises or falls. Some futures commission merchants, such as the ones Melissinos Trading uses to trade these products may pose restrictions on customer trading activity in these products, such as requiring additional margin, imposing position limits, prohibiting naked shorting or give-in transactions. The rules of certain designated contract markets impose trading halts that may restrict our ability to exit a position during a period of high volatility.
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