Historical Perspective

The last three decades have seen dramatic events that have repeatedly challenged the resilience of the financial management industry. Over the 23+ years since the inception of Masters Capital Management, our Firm has responded by staying informed, being flexible in our thinking and adapting our approach as necessary. Here’s a look at some of the events that have had major impacts on our industry and business:

In the 1990s, we started with a trading-oriented approach. We dealt with many unprecedented and/or significant events:

• The internet technology stock bubble.
• A presidential impeachment.
• The Mexican peso, Russian ruble and IMF crises.
• The Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) hedge fund crisis.
• The year 2000 (Y2K) computer bug panic.

The 2000s presented even greater challenges to our fund strategies and forced us to adapt our approach to new market structure and significant new risks:

• The move to stock-trading decimalization.
• The demise of stock exchange specialists.
• The significant influx of hedge fund capital and associated volatility.
• The September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.
• The 2nd Iraq vs. USA war.
• Two recessions, including an unprecedented financial crisis near the decade's close.
• The Madoff and other financial industry scandals and resulting regulatory changes.
• The entry of new market participants that altered the market–High Frequency Traders (HFT) and Commodity Trading Advisors (CTA).

The 2010’s have also had their challenges:

• A flash crash.
• The 2011 European financial crisis.
• The collapse of prices of commodities and related asset classes in 2015 and 2016.
• The surprise outcome of Brexit, and the question of the survival of the European monetary
• union.
• An unpredictable US presidential administration.
• A steady decline in financial market liquidity.

As our industry has evolved in ways no one could anticipate, Masters Capital Management has evolved along with it, gaining valuable insight and experience with each new challenge.