Niels Kaastrup-Larsen
500 episodes listed below
Markets, risk, and uncertainty without shortcuts.
Top Traders Unplugged treats markets as complex systems rather than prediction games. Across series and long-form interviews, it follows investors and market thinkers through CTAs, commodities, AI, confidence, liquidity, and risk management.
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Top Traders Unplugged is a market conversation for people who care less about calls and more about how serious investors build judgment. It is not quick finance commentary. Recent episodes stretch across systematic trend following, CTA portfolios, global macro stress, alternative commodity markets, AI, confidence, and the social pressure created by powerlessness. The show’s center of gravity is risk. Guests and series participants return again and again to what can be measured, what cannot, and what changes when markets stop behaving like the old sample. A discussion of calm markets can turn into tedious but important questions about slippage, cost estimates, operational process, and overfitting. A conversation about Toby Crabel’s market work becomes a wider look at how trading environments evolve when products, participants, hours, options activity, and concentration all shift at once. With Andrew Beer, trend following is treated as a signal problem, a replication problem, and a practical portfolio problem. With Tom Babbedge, the question becomes which markets have structural reasons to trend, even when a short backtest says little. Katy Kaminski and Harry Moore bring the conversation toward objective functions, risk mitigation, cash efficiency, and the difference between return seeking and crisis alpha. The Global Macro Series widens the lens further, using Peter Atwater’s arguments about confidence and control to connect markets with politics and social strain. The Craig Mundie episode pushes beyond finance into AI’s possible effects on biology, economics, and human adaptation. Through all of it, the show keeps a measured pace. It lets specialists be specific. It is willing to sit with ambiguity, which is part of its usefulness. The result is a deep, technical, often sober program for listeners who want the reasoning behind portfolio construction, not just the trade.
Made for: For investors, allocators, systematic traders, and macro-minded listeners who are comfortable with technical language and patient conversations. It best suits people who want process, risk framing, and market structure rather than fast forecasts.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by treating systematic investing as a lived discipline of costs, constraints, models, behavior, and changing market ecology. It connects narrow trading details to broad macro and social questions without flattening either side.
Top Traders Unplugged is where the world’s best investors come to share how they think - not just what they trade. Hosted by Niels Kaastrup-Larsen, the show goes deep into systematic trend following, global macro, and the principles that drive long-term success. No forecasts. No fads. Just real conversations with hedge fund managers, economists, authors, and allocators - revealing the timeless ideas, mental models, and risk frameworks behind robust performance. If you're building resilient portfolios, allocating capital, or simply looking to cut through the noise - this is your edge. Clear thinking. Deep insights. Real experience. 🎧 New episodes weekly. Explo...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It makes investment practice legible by testing models, manager decisions, and market assumptions against changing conditions.
Top Traders Unplugged treats markets as systems to be examined from several angles, moving between Niels Kaastrup-Larsen's conversations, rules-based investing discussions, and Jem Carson's options-focused series.
Zero-day options meet food riots here, when your market curiosity refuses to stay inside finance.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A systematic-investing conversation that finds its edge in process, not prediction.
Rob Carver and Nils Kastblasen keep the focus on the less glamorous parts of systematic investing: slippage, cost estimation, diversification, trading speed, and the habit of avoiding overfitting.
Markets move in small, uneven steps, and the conversation shows why those shifts matter.
Toby Crabel treats markets as messy and probabilistic, not as something that can be pinned down by a neat story. The useful point is simple: small changes in behavior can matter, and charts only help if they are used to see what is happening, not to defend a prior belief.
A serious look at systematic investing, flows, spreads, and risk management when volatility spikes.
Top Traders Unplugged uses this Systematic Investor Series conversation to tackle a practical question: what systematic investors do when volatility jumps and trading gets expensive.
A detailed look at whether rising options activity should shape trend-following models.
The episode frames a deceptively simple question: as options markets keep expanding, especially in the zero-day corner, should systematic investors pay closer attention to options data rather than leaning mostly on futures price series?
A disciplined look at how asset owners judge managers, conviction, and too many moving parts.
The episode takes a careful look at asset owner thinking: how managers get judged, what matters in due diligence, and why conviction needs checking against consensus instead of ego. Its strongest thread is the long view.
A macro-options conversation that treats shifting market behavior as something worth taking seriously.
This episode ties generational politics to options trading and the market mechanics that can follow. It spends real time on how fairness or equality can reduce control and produce nonlinear outcomes, then moves into buffered outcome funds, gamma, and discontinuity to show how…
A sober macro discussion about debt, politics, and why apparent stability can still be fragile.
The episode takes a steady look at a market that looks orderly on the surface but feels less settled once politics, debt, productivity, and central banking are put in the same frame.
A measured look at how market stories can outrun the present.
It treats markets less like a scoreboard and more like a fight over stories. Jem Carson draws a clear line between what is happening now and what people expect to happen next, and the consumer angle gives the piece its shape: sentiment is badly negative, while the louder message…
Daily business news with Kai Ryssdal, tracking Fed policy, oil shocks, and private credit.
Kaiser Kuo interviews China specialists on trade, Taiwan, and economic reform.
Dry arguments for an unruly public square.
Summer is a moving target in the UK.
Toby Crabel traces his path from watching the ticker with his father to starting as a runner on the Mercantile Exchange at 25, then to building an opening range breakout book and trading business.
This episode features Andrew Beer discussing how to find investment opportunities (alpha) amid geopolitical chaos and uncertainty in global markets.
This episode features an interview with Tom Babbedge from Crescent Quant discussing systematic trading strategies in alternative and niche commodity markets.
This episode features an interview with Katy Kaminski and Harry Moore discussing a new paper on trend following in markets during a challenging quarter.
An interview with Peter Atwater discussing the tension between powerlessness and control in society and its implications for markets.
Niels Kastrup-Larsen opens the conversation with Yoav Git by checking in on a lively market backdrop and then moving straight to the ideas on his mind.
An interview with Kevin Koldine discussing new ideas to make better investors, hosted by veteran hedge fund manager Niels Kaastrup-Larsen.
Nick Baltas and Niels Kastrup-Larsen open with CTAs, Bloomberg headlines, and a correction in trend-following performance after eight positive months.
Allan Dunn hosts Dan Mikulskis, CIO of People's Partnership — a UK pension fund managing £40 billion for 7 million members — for a deep conversation on how large asset owners should structure their investment operations.
This episode features a discussion with Richard Brennan on the evidence and effectiveness of trend following as a systematic investment strategy.
An interview with a global macro expert discussing investment principles and market insights.
Niels Kaastrup-Larsen and Alan Don discuss recent market events and the impact of AI on inflation, focusing on systematic investing perspectives.
Change is the working frame here.
A discussion of recent managed futures performance and macro market themes with a guest in Chicago.
This episode discusses how short sellers analyze business models by conducting real-world research like talking to customers and competitors to understand market realities.
Hosts discuss recent market volatility, hedge fund conferences, and performance updates in systematic investing.
Something is grinding, even if nothing has clearly snapped.
A roundtable discussion among systematic investors on recent market developments and the shifting narrative around AI.
A global macro investor discusses a potential gray swan event involving a fracturing coalition and its impact on the dollar.
Niels Kaastrup-Larsen and Rob Carver discuss recent market events and preview topics including new research papers and listener questions in systematic investing.
Markets run on stories.
This episode features a discussion between Niels Kastrup-Larsen and Katy Kaminski on systematic investing, volatility as a market signal, and personal reflections on winter storms and infrastructure issues.
A discussion on how Europe's defense industry could drive economic growth, framed within a global macro investing perspective.
Niels Kaastrup-Larsen and Joachim Gitt discuss the start of 2026, recent trend performance, and inflation concerns highlighted by expert podcasts.
A law-of-one-price violation gives Alex his clean test case.
This episode features a conversation between Niels Kastrup-Larsen and Nick Baltas about systematic investing strategies and market insights, starting with personal updates on travel disruptions.
Great power conflict feels closer now.
Niels Kaastrup-Larsen and Richard Brennan discuss systematic investing and global market trends in the first episode of 2026.
A dangerous state feels close.
A roundtable discussion with ten systematic investors covering trend following, market selection, and model design.
An interview series where top hedge fund managers discuss their investment philosophies and strategies.
A roundtable discussion among systematic investors reviewing the 2023-2025 period and debating model designs.
An interview with a seasoned trader discussing the importance of staying in the market during volatile cycles and the principles of systematic trend following.
Niels Kaastrup-Larsen and Jim Kassang discuss geopolitical dynamics affecting oil tankers and embargoes, connecting them to systematic investing.
A geopolitical discussion analyzing a national security strategy that envisions a world order based on powerful regional hegemons, framed within a global macro investing podcast.
A conversation about trading drawdowns and the importance of risk management with a top hedge fund manager.