FX FX MANAGERS
AB Many currencies (the majors and the dollar block especially) are among the most liquid of financial instruments, trading with high volumes and narrow spreads between bids and offers around the clock. Tis helps both to keep down transactions costs and to enhance risk control by minimizing gaps in price movement.
In addition, currencies
oſten march to their own drummer, with the asset class as a whole sometimes exhibiting little correlation with other asset classes. Also, individual currencies frequently trade independently relative to one another. Over the past six months, for instance, country-specific drivers have led the Japanese yen, the Brazilian real and the British pound to move independently of other currencies and asset classes. Of course, there are times when financial markets become riveted on a single event, such as the European sovereign debt crisis, and correlations rise very sharply. But during normal times, currencies oſten trade with some independence.
FXTM When and how was the company born?
AB Trigon was established in 2002 by me and my partner, Paul Mastroddi. Paul and I first met about 2 years before that when we co-managed a portfolio for a family office. Paul is an economist by training with a PhD in economics from Yale and was a Managing Director and Chief U.S. Economist for JPMorgan for over 10 years. Paul was ranked as one of the top economists on Wall
54 FX TRADER MAGAZINE April - June 2013
Street by both Institutional Investor and Greenwich Associates during his years at JPMorgan. Prior to meeting me, Paul managed money at both Omega Advisors and Moore Capital. Paul and I each brought unique skills to the family office which later enabled us to launch Trigon. Our time at the family office was rewarding and valuable. Our experience there helped us launch Trigon in 2002 with seed capital from the family. We chose the company’s name to highlight the three strategies that we trade: a systematic strategy that is used in our FX Program and two discretionary strategies that we offer in our Discretionary Macro Program. Today we manage approximately $127 million in our FX Program and approximately $450 million in our Discretionary Macro Program.
FXTM How is the company structured today in terms of headcounts and offices?
AB We have a relatively small, tight knit organization of 7 people
located in
downtown New York. In addition to my partner and me, who are the Portfolio Managers, we have one trader, a three- person operations and accounting staff, and one business development person. We also use technology consultants and third party service providers in the areas of legal, accounting, audit and administration.
FXTM What do you consider as being the key positions in an FX Management company?
AB You may think that my answer is too simple but I would say that all positions are key. While it all starts with my partner and me as the Portfolio Managers, trade execution, compliance and operations personnel are critical in the success of our organization while Marketing & Business Development is important in communicating with our clients.
FXTM Which authorities regulate the company?
AB Trigon is a member of the National Futures
Association and registered
with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a Commodity Trading Advisor and a Commodity Pool Operator.
FXTM You are in charge of the currency program. How do you describe your investment strategy?
AB
Te Trigon FX Program (FXP) allocates 100% of capital to Trigon’s Foreign Exchange Strategy, a systematic strategy that aims to profit from volatility in selected major, dollar-block and emerging market currency pairs. Te model we employ in the strategy includes two modules, a short-term one with average trade duration of about three days and a medium-term one with average trade duration of about three weeks. Tis allows the model to potentially profit from both trend and countertrend price action. In both modules, the model
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