Program · Commodity Trading Advisor · CFTC Regulation 4.7
Tactical Alpha Futures
Saratoga Capital Advisors advises Qualified Eligible Persons through separately managed accounts in liquid U.S. equity index futures — a systematic program designed to complement, not replace, traditional equity exposure.
Program terms
Strategy
Markets overshoot on fear.
Short-term moves in equity indices are shaped by fear, forced and risk-managed selling, and behavioral bias. When volatility rises, selling begets selling — producing temporary dislocations between price and value. The program is built to identify those dislocations and participate in their resolution with defined risk.
Exposure is expressed exclusively through long positions in deeply liquid U.S. equity index futures — the E-mini S&P 500 and E-mini Nasdaq-100 contracts and their micro counterparts. The program does not short, and it does not trade options.
Mean reversion — buying weakness
The program enters long when volatility spikes and technical conditions indicate oversold markets. Volatility-driven selling creates short-term mispricing that tends to revert.
Momentum continuation — buying pullbacks
The program enters on pullbacks within confirmed uptrends, participating in the resumption of trend with defined risk.
These two alpha sources are implemented through a library of more than thirty independent, rules-based sub-strategies. Each draws on a distinct combination of options-market volatility measures, technical indicators, and statistical metrics — some driven primarily by one input set, others combining several. Options-market data is an input only; the program trades long index futures exclusively.
The program acts only on pre-defined conditions — or it does not act.
Fear-driven overselling is a structural feature of markets — a product of human behavior and institutional risk mandates, not a temporary inefficiency that is arbitraged away. Rules-based execution removes discretion from the moment of decision: the program acts only on pre-defined conditions, or it does not act.
Investment process
One decision point. Every day.
The program concentrates its entire decision cycle at the close of the U.S. session, when index futures liquidity is deepest.
Signal generation
More than thirty independent algorithms evaluate market conditions daily across options-market volatility, technical, and statistical inputs.
Aggregation
Signals are netted into a single book of U.S. equity index futures under fixed risk-budget rules.
Entry validation
Every condition of an algorithm must be satisfied at or near the 4:00 p.m. ET close — otherwise no trade is taken.
Execution
Orders are executed at or near the close, capturing peak liquidity in the final minutes of the session.
Exits
Exits are end-of-day only — a hard stop, a profit target, or a time-based exit. There are no intraday exits.
Position scaling
Scale-ins are permitted within limits; each incremental entry carries its own exit condition.
Risk management
Risk is governed before the trade.
Defined position sizing
Each position is sized as a defined, single-digit percentage of account notional with a hard upper bound. Program leverage is moderate — up to approximately two times account value.
Automatic de-risking
Position sizes are computed from current net liquidation value, so sizing contracts automatically during drawdowns.
Hard stops, coded
Every position carries a hard stop enforced at the end of each session. Stops are written into the system — not applied at discretion.
Diversified signal risk
Risk is spread across the sub-strategy library so that no single signal drives a large share of exposure.
No discretionary override
The program is fully systematic. Principals cannot override a signal or force a position.
Portfolio role
A complement, not a replacement.
The program is designed as a diversifying complement to long-equity exposure. An honest description of what it is — and what it is not:
What it is
- A tactical, long-only program that takes exposure selectively rather than continuously
- Built to behave differently from buy-and-hold index exposure through timing, sizing, and end-of-day risk discipline
- A futures SMA with client-owned custody, daily liquidity mechanics, and full position transparency
What it is not
- Not a hedge, a short-volatility strategy, or a crisis-alpha CTA — when invested, it carries directional equity exposure
- Not market-neutral, and not an absolute-return guarantee in equity stress
- Not a replacement for an investor's core equity allocation
SMA structure
The separately managed account.
The program is offered exclusively through separately managed accounts. The structure is deliberate: the client's capital never leaves the client's own account.
Program materials are available to Qualified Eligible Persons.
Performance information and program documents are furnished on request following QEP qualification under CFTC Regulation 4.7. No performance information is presented on this website.
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