Logica's Wayne Himelsein on “Skew Baby”

Nov 24, 2020

This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day.

The year that saw the fastest decline, followed by the steepest recovery in market history has left one topic top of mind for most investors – volatility. Though down from its eye-watering spike in the first quarter, the VIX (CBOE Volatility Index) has remained significantly higher than in previous years, and not without good reason. The ongoing pandemic, a bifurcated and fragile economic recovery, the most polarized US presidential election in living memory, continued geopolitical saber-rattling between China and the US, and the list goes on…

We had the pleasure of hosting one of the foremost volatility experts in the industry – Wayne Himelsein (President and CIO of Logica Advisors) – for a deeply insightful conversation that covered:

• His background in the industry, and how he met and partnered with Mike Green
• Why “absolute” doesn’t mean steady returns – the lumpy nature of positive convexity
• Why Logica loves gamma and how to “scalp” it
• Unknown unknowns, unrealized vol and protecting against events that are by definition, outside of your sample distribution
• The difficulty in sizing a long-volatility strategy within a broader portfolio

Wayne also delved into his investment process in some detail, including how Logica measures and adapts to market phase-shifts. You should probably just stop what you’re doing and press play.

Thank you for watching and listening. See you next week.