Episode Details
Back to Episodes
SI419: What Happens When AI Starts Building the Portfolio ft. Nick Baltas
Description
Alan Dunne is joined by Nick Baltas to discuss a strong period for trend following and what the latest research says about adapting systematic strategies to changing markets. They examine whether volatility can help determine how quickly trend models should react, and why Nick remains skeptical of relying on regime triggers with limited statistical evidence. The conversation then turns to agentic AI and a new framework for using specialized AI agents in asset allocation. Nick explores how agents could analyze macro regimes, challenge competing portfolio approaches and help investment committees make decisions faster, while also confronting problems around look-ahead bias, reproducibility and human oversight.
-----
JOIN THE TREND FOLLOWING MANIFESTO BOOK LAUNCH LIST TO GET SPECIAL LOW PRICE ON OUR UPCOMING BOOK DURING THE FIRST WEEK!
-----
Follow Niels on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or via the TTU website.
IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.
And you can get a free copy of my latest book “Ten Reasons to Add Trend Following to Your Portfolio” here.
Learn more about the Trend Barometer here.
Send your questions to info@toptradersunplugged.com
And please share this episode with a like-minded friend and leave an honest Rating & Review on iTunes or Spotify so more people can discover the podcast.
Follow Nick on Twitter.
Episode TimeStamps:
00:00 - Introduction and what’s caught Nick’s attention
01:31 - The extraordinary concentration inside the S&P 500
04:12 - Why bond yields are rising around the world
08:28 - A strong month and year for trend following
12:08 - Why the bond move has happened without a volatility spike
15:12 - Can volatility make trend following more adaptive?
20:43 - What the latest research actually tells us
23:21 - How Nick uses volatility in portfolio construction
25:50 - Can investors identify trend regimes in advance?
27:04 - Why making trend models more complicated may not help
29:30 - V-shaped markets and the problem with regime trigge