“August marked the end of the second-quarter of US stock market earnings season, which surprised on the upside relative to weak expectations.Even though earnings per share were down 33% year-on-year, 84% of companies beat analyst expectations and a large number of firms also revised their guidance higher for the coming quarters.
Unsurprisingly, the healthcare and information technology sectors were particularly strong while the energy sector’s earnings were the hardest hit. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ rallied +7.2% and +9.7% respectively over the month.
While VSOPs overlay portfolio lost performance trading long volatility, it gained positive results on long treasury strategies. Overall, the overlay strategies gained +0.1%, while the balanced component moved with the market and contributed +1.73%, resulting in an overall performance in August of +1.83%.” Commenting on the performance, Michael Zeller, CIO
Quantumrock VSOP YTD Performance, as of August 31, 2020
About the Volatility Special Opportunities Program (VSOP)
VSOP entails a systematic multi-strategy approach in the S&P 500 index volatility market with a real-money track record dating back to July 2016. The program is composed of a Balanced Portfolio consisting of S&P 500 futures and treasuries with a duration risk of circa five years. It also trades overlay strategies on situational volatility patterns. In total the portfolio shows a lower risk profile than the S&P 500, hence VIX long strategies reduce the beta to the S&P 500 by hedging the tail risk.
About Quantumrock
Quantumrock is an AI-driven investment technology asset manager working to disrupt traditional asset management. Founded in 2012, our aim was to develop a systematic scientific investment process to generate sustainable risk adjusted returns for our proprietary trading activities. Now experts in machine learning and artificial intelligence methodologies, our clients turn to us to provide them with a competitive edge in today’s market.
