About Us

Firm History

Eckhardt Trading Company (“ETC”) is a systematic long-short global futures manager, founded by William Eckhardt as a laboratory for futures trading research and the development of asset management strategies for investors.

ETC introduced its first pooled investment fund (Eckhardt Futures LP) in 1993 to offer high net worth individuals, endowments, and institutions the opportunity to access our trading strategies in the same fund as ETC’s founders and principals. ETC formed a Cayman fund in 2001 to provide the same services to non-US investors. Our research, trading strategies, and infrastructure have undergone continuous evolution since the founding. ETC was a short-term to medium term trend-following manager in the early days; now non-trend strategies work along-side trend-following, orders are executed algorithmically, and the average trade duration is 9 days. Mr. Eckhardt managed client assets under his own name beginning in 1991 prior to incorporation and ETC took over the management of those accounts in June 1992.
  • 1991
    William Eckhardt registered what would become Eckhardt Trading Company as a laboratory for futures trading research and the development of asset management strategies for investors. He began managing assets for clients in August 1991.
  • 1992
    Eckhardt Trading Company (“ETC”) was incorporated in May 1992. In June 1992, ETC succeeded to the business formerly conducted by William Eckhardt individually.
  • 1993
    ETC introduced its first pooled investment fund (Eckhardt Futures LP) in 1993 to offer high net worth individuals, endowments, and institutions the opportunity to access our trading strategies in the same fund as ETC’s founders and principals.
  • 2001
    ETC formed a Cayman fund in 2001 to provide investment management services to non-US investors.
  • 2012
    ETC introduced our first short-term counter-trend systems, designed to capture profits when trends collapse.
  • 2016
    ETC introduced Trend Neutral systems, designed to be independent of clearly defined trends.

Approach

Our approach is risk first, capture second. That means our systems evaluate the risk of the markets as the most important consideration for trade generation and portfolio positioning.
1Risk
2Capture

Strategies

Evolution Strategies: Our Data-Driven Flagship Trading Program

Evolution Strategies is a diversified package of quantitative, systematic trading systems that leverage a data-driven evolutionary computing process to regularly adapt and reorient to changing markets. Currently, the program’s overall average trade length is 9 days. All systems are volatility 1st and capture 2nd. The capture components include short and medium-term Vol-Trend and short-term Non-Trend:

Our portfolio of systems includes short-term trend and non-trend strategies with an average trade duration of 9 days.

Since inception, the strategy seeks to distinguish the persistent trend (signal) components of the futures price series from the transient (noise) components and allocate risk appropriately in trending markets.

Short-Term: 5 day avg.

Since 2017, the strategy seeks to distinguish the persistent trend (signal) components unique to a select basket of commodities from the transient (noise) components and allocate risk appropriately in trending markets.

Since 2016, the strategy looks for patterns in volatility to seek short-term profit opportunities as markets reverse themselves and in markets without clearly defined trends.

Since 2019, the Volatility Select system groups look for long and short side opportunities in stock indices and bonds.

Evolutionary Optimizations Re-Orient and Adapt the Strategy to Markets Every Year

Average Trade Length (days)

*There were two optimizations in 2016

Exclusively (not dogmatically) Trend
Trend & Non-Trend
Shorter-Term Only
Short and Medium-Term
Majority
Medium-Term
Majority
Short-Term