While we commonly talk in this space about what to do when staring losses in the face, less time is spent here and elsewhere talking about what to do when you have had success with a program. Perhaps this is something to do with the human condition and focusing on that which causes us pain before considering that which brings us pleasure, or perhaps it is just a simple case of most investors thinking the upside is easy to manage when compared to the downside.

Whatever the case, there have been some questions from Attain clients recently asking what they should do with gains in some programs, and, specifically, what their options are for scaling up the trading of the successful programs in their portfolios.

Now, many futures traders and commodity market investors have no doubt heard of the various money management techniques out there which, in one way or another, add to a position when that position is profitable. This technique is sometimes called pyramiding, pillaring, or margin scaling/trading. The basic idea behind it is to use the “market’s money” to add to positions. What happens when this gets applied as a managed futures allocation strategy? You’ll have to click through to find out.