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Resolve's Gestalt University


Jun 15, 2022

We had the pleasure this week of speaking with Cem Karsan (the pronunciation can be a bit challenging, bit the hint is in his Twitter handle - @jam_croissant), founder of Kai Volatility Advisors. His deep knowledge of market structures and investment flows took us on a fascinating conversation that included:

  • Joining a team early in his career that would become one of the Street’s largest options market makers
  • Developing a profound understanding of the reflexive game of dealer positioning and its feedback effects on asset prices
  • Launching Kai Volatility Advisors and three uncorrelated strategies
  • A quantitative approach with a discretionary overlay
  • The circumstances under which dealer flow becomes most relevant
  • The upcoming June expiration and the ‘massive delta’ hovering over the market
  • Distributions vs expectations
  • The remarkable advances in the options market over the last two decades
  • The ‘dramatic oversupply’ of volatility and its underperformance as an asset-class
  • The JP Morgan Equity Hedge giant and its impact on the market
  • Efficiency, transparency and performance – the trade-offs between ETFs and private pools
  • Cem’s global macro perspective and his take on the current environment
  • The explosive combination of cheap capital and technological innovation
  • The road to inflation – inequality, populism and a pandemic-induced fiscal trigger of titanic proportions
  • And much more

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management Inc.

 

*ReSolve Global Inc. refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global Inc. is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.