Committed to Research and the Science of Trading
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
Celebrating its 30th year, ETC is a research driven manager with a systematic, technically based, evolutionary approach to global markets, employing trend and non-trend strategies with an average trade length of 9 days. Led by Bill Eckhardt and based on over 40 years of scientific system development and evolutionary computing, we manage a diversified portfolio of global exchange-traded financial and commodity futures over multiple time frames. ETC has low correlation to equity markets and offers diversification potential for traditional and alternative portfolios.
Core Values
Founder’s Story
William Eckhardt is a commodities and futures trader and fund manager. He began trading in 1974 after four years of doctoral research at the University of Chicago in mathematical logic.
In 1991 he founded Eckhardt Trading Company (“ETC”): an alternative investment management firm, specializing in the trading of global financial futures and commodities, which managed over $1 billion in managed accounts, domestic and offshore products. The firm’s international clientele includes “fund of funds”, corporate, private, and institutional investors.
Having a strong analytical and mathematical background, Mr. Eckhardt believes that the correct application of statistics and mathematical concepts is key for successful trading. However, he highlights the difficulties in using these concepts, mentioning that “the analysis of commodity markets is prone to pitfalls in statistical inference, and if one uses these tools without having a good foundational understanding, it’s easy to get in trouble”.
Turtle Trading Experiment
Prior to founding ETC, Mr. Eckhardt was also involved in the Turtle Trading experiment, set up by partner, friend and fellow trader Richard Dennis. The goal of that experiment was to settle a philosophical disagreement between the two partners, to determine whether the skills of a successful trader could be reduced to a set of rules (i.e., can trading be taught?). The experience was overwhelmingly successful with novice traders ending up making $100 million. Eckhardt, who believed trading could not be taught, had effectively lost his bet with Dennis.
Firm History
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.
Awards
Eckhardt Trading Company won Best Diversified CTA under $500 million.
Bill Eckhardt and Richard Dennis were joint recipients of the 2016 Managed Futures Pinnacle Achievement Award given by CME Group and Barclay Hedge.
A Commitment to the Scientific Community & Mathematical-Based Trading Solutions
Partnership with the University of Chicago that includes the William Eckhardt Research Center and Post-Graduate internship participants
The University of Chicago’s William Eckhardt Research Center brings together its first molecular engineering program and Nobel Prize-winning physical sciences research groups. Located on the university’s main campus south of downtown Chicago, the building houses the university’s Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, the Institute for Molecular Engineering and the Dean’s Office of Physical Sciences. It includes state-of-the-art laboratories, offices, and conference rooms. Conducting research here are world-leading research teams working across multiple disciplines in the fields of chemical, electrical, mechanical and biological engineering as well as the traditional materials and physical sciences.
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