Houston-based Attain team member Juan Carlos Herrera is representing us well across the pond this week as he attends the London CTA Expo. While the event kicks off tomorrow, Juan Carlos attended a special networking event today called Sungard City Days.

The topics of conversation today centered on “emerging” markets and financial regulation. The emerging markets talk given by Goldman Sachs’ Jim O’Neill talked about how the real potential for global growth lies in what he called the “next eleven”- a group of developing nations rich with investment opportunity. Unfortunately, the depth of those investments was not discussed, and in our experience, referencing emerging markets is simply a thinly veiled push for stocks in risky climates – not necessarily a true diversifier like managed futures.

Aside from emerging markets, Juan Carlos reports that the hot topic was financial regulation. As the U.S. struggles to implement the Dodd-Frank provisions and Europe comes to grips with its spiraling debt crisis, the tone of the event was one staunchly against any form of regulation. Providing the opposing perspective was Sir Howard Davies, former director of London School of Economics and expert on financial regulation. He argued that regulation, ultimately, was necessary to protect all parties involved, but that it should be simplified and centralized. It made us wonder how such a lofty plan would be implemented, but unfortunately, no one seems to have those answers.

We look forward to further updates from Juan Carlos tomorrow. Stay tuned!