FX MANAGERS FX Marc H. Malek
Managing Partner at Conquest Capital Group, Systematic Macro and FX Trading US Firm
Explains Conquest’s short-term systematic trading
approach with a trend-following bias, and how the use of several strategies and quantitative models can ensure disciplined investment decisions.
Interview by JW Partners for FX Trader Magazine
Manager Strategy Location
Assets Under Management Type Style
Instruments Currencies INTERVIEW
Conquest Capital Group Conquest Macro FX New York
660 mln Usd
Long Vol / Momentum Fundam Systematic ental OTC, FX Spot and Forwards
Australian Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, British Pound / Japanese Yen, Euro / Japanese Yen, Danish Krone,New Zealand Dollar, Norwegian Krone, Swedish Krona
JW: Is FX a unique market? In what
trading currencies is different than trading other financial instruments? MM: FX is unique in that it has
historically been a 24-hour market and is liquid at virtually any given point in time, including periods where exchanges are closed. Tis difference creates a level of gap risk that is not present in other markets. Although the advent of 24-hour
electronic trading has changed the landscape to some extent, other instruments are still keyed off of exchange trading hours and see liquidity deteriorate during off-hours periods. Moreover, because FX has historically been a 24-hour market, 24- hour models built on past data are more
reliable because they are trading FX as it has always been traded as opposed to the manner in which the market has evolved over the past few years.
JW:When and why did you decide
to create Conquest created? MM: Prior to launching Conquest I
ran Exotic Derivatives in FX at UBS as well as FX Proprietary Trading for the merged SBC/UBS bank in Europe and the U.S. I built and managed businesses in foreign exchange, derivatives in the U.S., Europe and Asia. While managing these businesses it became clear to me that emotions can end up playing a negative role in trading decisions. Most professional traders have clear trade- entry algorithms in mind. Certain
events have to occur before a trade is initiated. Typically, before the trade is put on, the trader sets pre-determined stop-loss and take-profit levels. In reality, however, most traders let losses run beyond their stop-loss and take profits too early. A system, however, will execute the same trade ideas without the risk of emotions coming into play. If the trader has a good strategy, a system will execute it more efficiently. Given our strategy however, we
were not just looking to create an absolute return portfolio, but rather a combination of absolute return and portfolio hedge product. We desired to create a product that would produce significant returns during systemic shocks such as 1998, 2002, and 2008.
FX TRADER MAGAZINE July - September 2010 47
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