This article originally ran in Proactive Advisor Magazine February 13, 2019

Hint: It’s not the outcome.

An active focus on implementing an investment strategy tends to keep managers from focusing on the potential drag on performance inherent to their investment decision process. Overcoming that drag could amount to gaining behavioral alpha without making any change to their strategy at all.

During the last 30 years or so, psychologists have developed an entirely new take on how we make decisions. As a new wave of decision scientists carry this gospel out to industries across the globe, few may be impacted as much as those in financial services and investment management. The reasons for this lie in the nature of an industry that relies on a constant stream of decisions where the stakes can be high, and where even a few of the wrong decisions can turn success into failure.

Recognizing this, the financial industry uses

This is part 3 of a four-part series.

 Public Domain

In the previous two articles in this series, we identified two categories of uses that don’t require copyright clearance. The first category, Fair Use, was discussed in Part 2. The second of those categories is public domain. Factors that determine public domain are more clearly defined in copyright law than those that guide a determination of fair use. 

Content is in the public domain in the U.S. if it can be described in one of the following ways.

1. Its copyright has expired.
2. It does not qualify as a copyrightable work.
3. It has been placed in the public domain by its copyright owner.

Let’s look at each of these three ways a work may fall into the public domain.

The copyright has expired

The expiration date of a work’s copyright is determined by the copyright law in effect at the time the work was first published. Up until 2019, only works

The Minnesota Chapter of the TAN Association welcomed Natasha Crane and Phillip Claussen, both risk management consultants for commodities brokerage and clearing firm FC Stone, on May 21, 2019. The topic was, “Top Indicators for Commodity Trading, Commodity Indexes and Money Flow Analysis.” There were 18 attendees.

Both speakers have significant client facing interactions in the grain markets: corn, soybeans, and wheat.  The CRB index has been in a decline since the financial crisis, but Natasha feels bullish as she feels the downside is limited from current levels.  The CRB has been consolidating in a narrow range for the last 3 years. 

Natasha’s Black Sea clients are sensitive to the value of the U.S. dollar, as strong dollar is generally bearish for commodities.  Grain prices have been weak for several years as the U.S. has had record crop yields year after year.  Natasha and Phillip highlighted funds have positioned very bearish and

As this goes to print, the Spring 2019 administration of the TAN exams will be coming to a close.  We all know from our own experience how much time and effort are required of the candidates as they prepare to sit for an exam.

There is also quite a bit of time and effort put in by a select group of CMT charterholders before and after the exams are administered.  Exam questions must be written, edited, referenced and vetted.  The exams must be reviewed carefully for balance, for accuracy of the questions and answers, and for relevance.  After the tests are administered, the Level I and II questions are reviewed yet again to be sure that nothing unfair or misleading made it past the pre-exam reviews.  And, of course, the Level III exams must be graded and verified before the results are finalized and reported.

All that work is done by the

Membership

The TAN Association would like to congratulate the following member on his new position: Daniel Panzer, Managing Director at Lowfields LLC

Updating Your Profile

Have you moved recently or changed jobs? Now is the time to update your profile!  Updated profiles guarantee continued and accurate communication with the TAN Association and its members.

To update your profile, login to the CMTA website and under My CMT select My Account.  On the following page, under My Account select Edit My Information.

Your cooperation is greatly appreciated!

New Members/CMT Candidates

The TAN Association extends a warm welcome to the new members and CMT candidates who joined and/or registered for the CMT exam this past month.  If you have any questions or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@tanassociation.org. 

CMT

Registration for the December 2019 test administration, which will take place December 6 to the 15, will officially open on July 1, 2019.  Early Registration is from