Managed Futures
Whether you currently offer managed futures, or are a broker looking to add managed futures to your product offering, StoneX works with you to build your understanding, gain product knowledge, and optimize your opportunities to reach your goals.
Once an understanding of the benefits and operations of a managed futures account has been established, StoneX works with you and your client to understand your client's objectives and recommend the appropriate products to meet the client's goals.
At StoneX, our Managed Futures mission is based on two underlying principles:
- Managed Futures is a growing asset class that merits an allocation in most portfolios.
- Education is essential to including managed futures in your offering.
Because managed futures is new to so many brokers and investors, initial consultations might include discussions of:
- Non-correlation
- Portfolio Diversification
- Liquidity and Transparency
Advantages to Your Clients
Passive Participation
Clients are able to meaningfully participate in the futures markets without the time commitment of a self-directed or broker-assisted account.
CTA Selection
Full access to the CTA database of more than 170 CTAs is offered free of charge to our brokers. StoneX strives to enable the broker to match clients with the appropriate product and monitor CTA performance.
Liquidity
With very few exceptions, the database offers products providing daily liquidity, enabling the client to make time-sensitive account changes with precision.
Transparency, big picture of performance
Our clients are offered unlimited live access to account activity at the account, individual trader, and portfolio levels.
Portfolio Diversification
The non-correlated exposure to managed futures tends to enhance the risk-adjusted performance of a typical client's more traditional, security-oriented portfolio. Managed futures clients gain access to a wide, often international, array of markets not normally accessible in a traditional portfolio. This diversification can provide respite in crisis periods.
Costs
Our goal is to create long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with our brokers, investors, and CTAs. Success in our goal is dependent upon structuring costs in such a way as to benefit all parties involved.
Advantages to Brokers
New Complimentary Product Line
In offering these Managed Futures options to our network of brokers, StoneX broadens the spectrum of what our partners are able to offer clients. For example, a wide cross-section of potential investors lack the time, inclination, or talent to trade for themselves. Managed futures is often an attractive solution for those clients, particularly those that recognize the importance of portfolio diversification.
Stabilized Income Stream
Managed futures accounts generate commission outside of traditional transactional business. As it creates a more diversified, less time-consuming opportunity, managed futures present additional volume streams, while not diverting you from your core business.
Client Longevity
Managed futures investors tend to remain clients for significantly longer periods.
Historical Perspective
In the past, many brokers have resisted participation in the managed futures sector for two reasons- the long learning curve and lower commissions relative to retail accounts. These two factors tend to extend the time it takes to achieve critical mass.
StoneX addresses these factors in an effort to ease the broker's move into this sector. The more effectively we can ease the research burden, the more time our brokers are able to spend marketing to clients. Increased marketing time allows the broker to serve current, non-managed clients, while building their managed volume more quickly- increasing the likelihood of success.
Low Maintenance
Assuming the CTA's trading remains consistent with expectations, managed futures accounts are far less labor-intensive (for the broker) than accounts directed by the client or broker.