Haar Capital Management haar.altavra.com

The Discretionary Commodity Trading Program is designed primarily for sophisticated investors.  The primary objective of the Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) is the capital appreciation of its client’s assets through the speculation in financial and commodity futures and options contracts. No assurance can be given that this objective will be met, and an investment in an account to be traded by Haar Capital Management should only be considered by investors that can assume the significant risk of commodity futures trading, including losses in excess of their initial investment. Haar Capital Management will attempt to meet the objective of capital appreciation by making trading decisions based upon a proprietary trading method.

Since the trading methods to be utilized by Haar Capital Management are proprietary and confidential, the discussion that follows is of a general nature and not intended to be exhaustive. In addition, Haar Capital Management may refine or change the implementation of its strategy (including but not limited to technical factors, markets traded and or money management principles). As a result, Haar Capital Management reserves the right to utilize, implement or modify any strategy available to it at any time, and to trade any exchange traded contract deemed appropriate. There can be no assurance that Haar Capital Management’s approach to trading will yield the same results as it has in the past.

Commodity traders generally rely on either fundamental or technical analysis, or a combination of both, in making trading decisions. Technical analysis is based upon the theory that a study of the markets themselves will provide a means of anticipating external factors, which affect the supply and demand of a particular commodity in order to predict future prices. Technical analysis of the markets generally includes a study of, among other things, the actual daily, weekly and monthly price fluctuations, volume variations and changes in open interest. Fundamental analysis, on the other hand, relies on a study of factors external to the trading market such as general economic factors, anticipated world events, and supply and demand factors in order to predict future prices. Fundamental analysis is premised on the concept that market prices frequently may not reflect the real value of a futures contract, although such value will eventually determine price levels. By analyzing underlying economic factors, a fundamental trader hopes to predict future market trends as price levels and actual value move into parity.

In managing the accounts of customers, Haar Capital Management uses a primarily fundamental strategy although technical analysis may also be employed to help determine specific entry and exit points and the placement of stop-loss orders. The advisor believes that commodity price changes occur due to changing fundamental factors; Haar Capital Management seeks to profit from longer-term trends that develop due to those changing factors. Among the fundamental factors to be analyzed will be product supply and demand outlook, projected carryout stocks as a percentage of consumption, weather developments and forecasts, economic trends, and government policies. Based on his extensive experience in managing commercial and speculative trading positions, and recognizing that future states of the world cannot be known with certainty, Haar Capital Management seeks to identify skewed risk-reward opportunities; i.e., situations in which the probability of a large gain is seen as being approximately equal to the probability of a small loss. Haar Capital Management may refrain from trading most markets at any given time, based on his assessment of neutral or unattractive risk-reward conditions. In addition to outright long and short positions, trading strategies may include inter and intra-market spread positions and the use of commodity options.

The trading strategies utilized by Haar Capital Management may be revised from time to time by Haar Capital Management as a result of ongoing research and development, which seeks to devise new trading strategies, as well as test methods currently employed. The trading strategies used by Haar Capital Management in the future may differ significantly from those presently used, due to the changes, which may result from this research. Haar Capital Management reserves the right to utilize, implement or modify any trading strategy available to it from time to time.

Haar Capital Management trades three separate trading programs: the Discretionary Commodity Trading Program, the Discretionary Ag-Only Program and the Discretionary Tangible Commodity Program. All are managed using the same fundamental trading approach and research methodology. Although the programs may at times be positioned in the same markets, they will never trade against each other (i.e. one program long and the other short in the same product). Bulk trading orders may be combined or handled separately at the discretion of Haar Capital Management based on market liquidity and the opportunity for balanced order entry and price allocations. Position sizing may vary between programs.

Discretionary Commodity Trading Program
The markets traded in the Discretionary Commodity Trading Program include, without limitation, Currencies, Metals, Financials, Energies, Softs, Livestock, Grains, and Equity Indices.

Discretionary Ag-Only Program
The Discretionary Ag-Only Program is a diversified Agriculture-only trading program, focusing on the global Grains, Tropicals, Fibers and Meats markets. The markets traded in this program may include, without limitation, Corn, Wheat, Oats, Soybeans, Soybean Products, Livestock, Coffee, Sugar, Cocoa and Cotton.
 

Discretionary Tangible Commodity Program
The Discretionary Tangible Commodity Program is a diversified tangible commodity trading program, focusing on the global Grains, Tropicals, Fibers, Metals, Energy and Meats markets. The markets traded in this program may include, without limitation, Corn, Wheat, Oats, Soybeans, Soybean Products, Livestock, Coffee, Sugar, Cocoa, Cotton, Gold, Silver, Copper, Crude Oil, RBOB Gasoline, Heating Oil and Natural Gas.

Exchanges on which transactions will take place will include, but are not limited to, all exchanges in the United States, Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT), the Financial Division of the New York Board of Trade (FINEX) as well as non-U.S. exchanges which include, but are not limited to the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange Ltd. (LIFFE), the Eurex Deutschland (EUREX), The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX), and Brazilian Mercantile & Futures Exchange (BM&F).

Currency markets may experience trading disruptions due to government intervention or other factors. The imposition of exchange and credit controls or the fixing of currency exchange rates by governmental authorities might eliminate or substantially reduce trading in certain currencies, and might limit such trading to less than that which Haar Capital Management would otherwise recommend, to the possible detriment of the trading program’s performance. Trading may also occur in a number of emerging currency markets. The emerging currency markets tend to be less liquid than the “major” currency markets. The illiquidity in the emerging currency may make it difficult for Haar Capital Management to liquidate positions without substantial losses.

The exercise of judgment by Haar Capital Management is used in connection with decisions concerning the liquidation of positions, the futures interests contracts to be traded, and the size of positions to be taken or maintained. A decision not to trade certain futures interest contracts due to lack of liquidity or excessive volatility or for any other reason may result at times in clients missing significant profit opportunities which might otherwise have been captured by Haar Capital Management.

Stanley Haar began organizing Haar Capital Management LLC on August 1, 2005, after resigning from his position as a financial consultant at Smith Barney (Citigroup), a global financial services firm, where he had been employed since May 2002. Stanley Haar has been registered as an associated person and listed as a principal of Haar Capital Management, LLC since September 21, 2005. Stanley Haar was registered from February 2003 to August 2005 as an associated person of Citigroup Capital Markets, a broker dealer and futures commission merchant providing securities and futures brokerage services. At Citigroup Capital Markets Stanley Haar focused on providing commodity trading advice to retail futures clients. Before joining Smith Barney, Stanley Haar spent three months (February 2002-May 2002) focused on proprietary commodity trading and investments. From November 1997 to February 2002, Stanley Haar was manager of international business development for Franklin Templeton Investments, a global investment money management organization. He provided legal, administrative and marketing support for the successful start-up of Bradesco Templeton Asset Management Ltda., a joint venture money management firm with one of Brazil’s largest banks. Mr. Haar also served on the investment committee of the Fundo Bradesco Templeton de Valor e Liquidez, a corporate governance equity fund, with portfolio management responsibility for the agribusiness and textile holdings in the fund.

From June 1996 to October 1997, Stanley Haar was vice president of Camas International, an agricultural technology company located in Pocatello, Idaho. From July 1993 to June 1996, he was employed as an agribusiness and marketing consultant for Olivia Foods and Peaceworks LLC, which are both engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of food products, and other Israeli clients. From September 1989 to June 1993, Stanley Haar was a graduate student at Stanford University.

Earlier in his career, Stanley Haar spent a total of 8 years with Continental Grain Company (from June 1977 to October 1980 and from November 1984 to August 1989), a commodity trading corporation, holding various trading and management positions in the United States and Latin America. For 3 years he was the commercial director of Brazilian operations, with trading and risk management responsibilities for a soybean processing plant, country elevator network, vegetable oil refinery, feed mill, integrated poultry division, and grain export terminals.

Stanley Haar also worked as an associated person from November 1980 to June 1982 for Shearson/American Express a registered futures commissions merchant, and from June 1982 to December 1983 for Ace America, Inc., a registered futures commission merchant and from December 1983 to October 1984 at Prudential Equity Group, LLC, a futures commission merchant providing retail futures and options trading services. At all three firms, Stanley Haar was involved in commodity futures trading and providing brokerage services to retail clients.

Stanley Haar received a BA degree in Economics and International Studies from the School of International Service at American University (1971). He earned his degree in two calendar years with the highest GPA in university history, and was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship for graduate study in economics.

In 1971-72, Stanley Haar was a Fulbright Scholar in Brazil, where his research focused on the International Coffee Agreement.

Stanley Haar holds three graduate degrees from Stanford University: MBA (1977) from the Graduate School of Business, MA (1990) from the Food Research Institute (concentration in futures markets and international trade), and JD (1993) from Stanford Law School. He has written articles on futures markets and international investments for publications such as Commodities Magazine and the Global Finance Journal.

In addition to managing Haar Capital Management, since September 1995, Stanley Haar spends approximately 5 hours per week serving as a consultant to Gould Asset Management, LLC, a registered investment advisor based in Claremont, California. Gould Asset Management, LLC manages equity and fixed income portfolios and does not engage in futures trading.

The descriptions above are from the manager's disclosure document.

THE RISK OF LOSS IN TRADING FUTURES, OPTIONS AND OFF-EXCHANGE FOREX CAN BE SUBSTANTIAL.  PAST RESULTS ARE NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS.  PLEASE READ THE CTA'S RISK DISCLOSURE DOCUMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE INVESTING MONEY.