The Books

About the Books

Most of the analytics on this site are based on concepts outlined in the books by Andreas Clenow. If you would like to go deeper into these subjects, you may want to read these books. There are three of them so far. The first one covering trend following on futures, the second outlining equity momentum trading while the third book is a practical guide to Python based backtesting and analysis.

Following the Trend

During bull and bear markets, there is a group of hedge funds and professional traders which have been consistently outperforming traditional investment strategies for the past 30 odd years. They have shown remarkable uncorrelated performance and in the great bear market of 2008 they had record gains. These traders are highly secretive about their proprietary trading algorithms and often employ top PhDs in their research teams. Yet, it is possible to replicate their trading performance with relatively simplistic models. These traders are trend following cross asset futures managers, also known as CTAs. Many books are written about them but none explain their strategies in such detail as to enable the reader to emulate their success and create their own trend following trading business, until now.

Following the Trend explains why most hopefuls fail by focusing on the wrong things, such as buy and sell rules, and teaches the truly important parts of trend following. Trading everything from the Nasdaq index and T-bills to currency crosses, platinum and lean hogs, there are large gains to be made regardless of the state of the economy or stock markets. By analysing year by year trend following performance and attribution the reader will be able to build a deep understanding of what it is like to trade futures in large scale and where the real problems and opportunities lay.

Written by experienced hedge fund manager Andreas Clenow, this book provides a comprehensive insight into the strategies behind the booming trend following futures industry from the perspective of a market participant. The strategies behind the success of this industry are explained in great detail, including complete trading rules and instructions for how to replicate the performance of successful hedge funds. You are in for a potentially highly profitable roller coaster ride with this hard and honest look at the positive as well as the negative sides of trend following.

Stocks on the Move

Beating the stock market isn’t very difficult. Yet almost all mutual funds consistently fail. Hedge fund manager Andreas F. Clenow takes you behind the scenes to show you why this is the case and how anyone can beat the mutual funds. Momentum investing has been one of very few ways of consistently beating the markets. This book offers you a unique back stage pass, guiding you through how established hedge funds achieve their results.

The stock markets are widely misunderstood. Buying and selling stocks seems so simple. We all know what stocks are and what the companies produce. We’re told that stocks always go up in the long run and that everyone should be in the stock markets. Oversimplifications like that can end up costing you.

In the long run, the major stock indexes show a performance of five to six percent per year. For that return, you will have to bear occasional losses of over half your capital and be forced to wait many years to recover your money. Yes, in the long run stocks do go up. But the story isn’t that simple.

Stocks on the Move outlines a rational way to invest in the markets for the long term. It will walk you through the problems of the stock markets and how to address them. It will explain how to achieve twice the return of the stock markets at considerably lower risk. All rules and all details will be explained in this book, allowing anyone to replicate the strategies and research.

Andreas F. Clenow is the chief investment officer and partner of ACIES Asset Management, based in Zurich, Switzerland. Starting out as a successful IT entrepreneur in the 90s boom, he enjoyed a stellar career as global head of equity and commodity quant modeling for Reuters before leaving for the hedge fund world. Having founded and managed multiple hedge funds, Mr. Clenow is now overseeing asset management and trading across all asset classes.

Trading Evolved

Systematic trading allows you to test and evaluate your trading ideas before risking your money. By formulating trading ideas as concrete rules, you can evaluate past performance and draw conclusions about the viability of your trading plan.

Following systematic rules provides a consistent approach where you will have some degree of predictability of returns, and perhaps more importantly, it takes emotions and second guessing out of the equation.

From the onset, getting started with professional grade development and backtesting of systematic strategies can seem daunting. Many resort to simplified software which will limit your potential.

Trading Evolved will guide you all the way, from getting started with the industry standard Python language, to setting up a professional backtesting environment of your own. The book will explain multiple trading strategies in detail, with full source code, to get you well on the path to becoming a professional systematic trader.

This is a highly practical book, where every aspect is explained, all source code shown and no holds barred.

Written by Andreas F. Clenow, author of the international best sellers Following the Trend and Stocks on the Move, Trading Evolved goes into greater depth and covers strategies for trading both futures and equities.