Frequently Asked Questions
- Who is ECAM?
- Why should I subscribe to your Retirement Fund Analysis Service?
- How does your Retirement Fund Analysis Service work?
- What benefit can you provide an Emirates Airlines employee over other advisory services?
- What is the cost of your ECAM Retirement Fund Analysis Service?
- Can you provide specific investment advice?
- What is your Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account service and how does it work?
- What is the minimum account size you will accept for your IB Linked Trading Account service?
- Can I increase/decrease the size of my Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account?
- What are the fees associated with your Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account Service?
- What is your ECAM ETF Trading Strategy Service?
- What is the cost for your ETF Trading Strategy Service?
Question:
Who is ECAM?
Answer:
ECAM is a market analysis & informational investment service started in 2006. Using a unique combination of Fundamental, Technical, Economic and Sentiment analysis; ECAM endeavors to provide absolute return analysis and strategies to assist individuals with the management of their investment accounts.
ECAM initially began as a blog service dedicated to providing analysis to readers to assist with their investment decisions. Over the years the ECAM service grew to over 1000 subscribers; many of whom requested a more formal service be established to provide expanded investment information to assist them in managing their portfolios.
As a result of these requests, a decision was made to expand the ECAM service to its present form.
Question:
Why should I subscribe to your Retirement Fund Analysis Service?
Answer:
The Retirement Fund Analysis Service is a comprehensive analysis tool to assist with delivering absolute returns within retirement accounts. It is designed to provide optimal exposure to growth assets based upon each individual's unique investment profile adjusted for varying market conditions.
If you are a highly accomplished investor capable of using the variety of skills necessary to analyze today’s rapidly changing market conditions (economic, fundamental and technical) on a continual basis in a systematic and unbiased manner, then it is possible you may not need our services. However, if you are not a highly accomplished and experienced investor or you do not have time in your busy life to keep up with ongoing changes in market conditions; our services will assist you (as we have done with many others over the years) in helping you to steer your portfolio in the right direction irrespective of future market conditions.
Question:
How does your Retirement Fund Analysis Service work?
Answer:
The Retirement Fund Analysis Service assists an individual in the construction and maintenance of their own retirement portfolios based upon the concept of Absolute Return. It does so by having each individual complete a psychometric investment risk tolerance questionnaire to determine his/her specific tolerance to investing risk.
Following that, seven risk-adjusted portfolios are suggested based upon various risk profiles. Using your unique risk tolerance score determined by the psychometric questionnaire, you will be able to choose your "ideal" risk adjusted portfolio (ideal meaning a "perfect-world" investing climate) ideally suited to your unique personal investment characteristics.
However, as we all know, the investment world is not "perfect" very often. Given this is the case, ECAM then runs the seven portfolios through their proprietary 5-Factor model to adjust for actual market conditions. The 5-Factor models have a large number of inputs so no one unique piece of data unusually skews the resulting signal. The 5-Factor models are as follows:
Each model gives a factored score based upon its historical impact upon future absolute returns. The 5-Factor model is then compiled into a single 5-Factor Composite Signal used to "tilt" the above mentioned suggested risk-adjusted portfolios to the upper or lower end of their respective ranges (overweighting growth assets when the risk/reward is favorable and underweighting growth assets when the risk/reward is unfavorable). As such, risk-adjusted portfolios are constantly adjusted to match current market conditions and therefore optimally weighted.
Once completed any significant changes to portfolio composition is conveyed to subscribers immediately. Unless conditions change rapidly, historically only 3-4 significant changes per year have been required to keep portfolios within their optimal ranges. As such, there is no need to constantly go back into retirement accounts to "tweak" portfolios unless desired.
An additional feature of the 5-Factor model is a "limit switch" which, if triggered, indicates a high likelihood of a bear market decline. If triggered, all model portfolios are moved into 100% cash to protect investment capital. This "trigger" determines the ultimate success of absolute return and has in the past proven to be highly effective in preserving account values.
Question:
What benefit can you provide an Emirates Airlines employee over other advisory services?
Answer:
ECAM was initially established with the sole purpose of assisting Emirates employees with the self-management of their Provident Fund accounts. We are the only service that provides continuous analysis of economic, fundamental and technical conditions applied to those investment vehicles available within the Emirates Group Provident Scheme.
Since 2006 ECAM has been widely recognized as being the "go-to" source for assisting Emirates Airlines employees in the self-management of their company Provident Funds. Hundreds of ECAM subscribers have benefited over the years by following the analysis provided by ECAM as the world's stock markets have gone through a variety of severe up and down cycles.
Question:
What is the cost of your ECAM Retirement Fund Analysis Service?
Answer:
We have been providing analysis to Emirates employees since 2006 and are firmly committed to offering this valuable service at an extremely reasonable cost. For a fraction of the value of your provident scheme account balance (and, to put it into perspective, less than the cost of a single night out in Dubai), you'll receive continuous market monitoring, weekly updates and monthly/quarterly in-depth newsletter analysis for a full year.
The cost for a 1 year subscription to the ECAM Retirement Fund Analysis Service is $149 USD per year. That is the equivalent of 0.40 cents per day for 24/7 monitoring of your retirement accounts.
Question:
Can you provide me with specific investment advice?
Answer:
No. ECAM is not authorized to provide individual investment advice to anyone currently living in the UAE. ECAM provides market analysis and insight to allow individuals to make their own investment decisions using analysis and tools provided by ECAM.
Question:
What is your Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account Service and how does it work?
Answer:
The Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account Service allows selected individuals an opportunity to hold their own individual Interactive Brokerage account and have the management of those accounts "linked" to ECAM's brokerage accounts. There is no inter-mingling of accounts, no avenue for ECAM to add/subtract funds from individual’s accounts and no tie up period whereby you do not have access to your money any time you like.
The investment strategy ECAM employs is a very successful hedge fund strategy combining risk adjusted active asset management of various asset classes (Equities, Bonds, Commodities, Real Estate Investment Trusts, Currencies and Precious Metals) through Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). The strategy is actively managed with defined stop loss criteria and is the strategy utilized by ECAM in 100% of their own trading accounts.
The strategy has returned well above average returns since 2003 and is ideally suited for investors looking for above average volatility-adjusted market returns outside of pension fund accounts.
Individuals interested in actively managed portfolios will be required to meet with ECAM to have the investment strategy discussed in detail in order to proceed.
Question:
What is the minimum account size you will accept for your Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account Service?
Answer:
Unfortunately due to a limited number of linked accounts allowed by Interactive Brokers, the minimum account balance to qualify for the Linked Trading Account Service will be $100,000 USD.
In the future ECAM plans to offer an offshore Private Investment Account for up to 50 clients (with much lower required account balances) but currently only the linked Interactive Broker accounts will be offered.
Question:
Can I increase/decrease the size of my Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account?
Answer:
Absolutely. The account is yours and you may manage it as you see fit. The minimum balance will be set at $100,000 USD but you may add to it as you see fit.
The limit on the overall account (master plus linked accounts) set by Interactive Brokers is $25 million USD.
Question:
What are the fees associated with your Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account Service?
Answer:
Currently ECAM charges an annual base management fee of 1.0% of assets under management (prorated and payable daily at a rate of 0.00002739726 per day) and a performance fee of 10% of total fund return generated annually (payable 31 Dec annually; no high water mark is used in performance calculations). All fees are automatically deducted by Interactive Brokers in a seamless manner.
This base management and performance fee has been set at a very reasonable rate given the level of active management provided. The fees are typically less than half that charged by typical hedge funds (typically the base management fee is 2-3% of assets under management per year and the performance fee is typically 20-30% of total excess return).
Question:
What is your ECAM ETF Trading Strategy?
Answer:
The ETF trading strategy is the same strategy utilized by ECAM within their own trading accounts (as well as that used within the ECAM Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Accounts).
It is based upon a proprietary selection of ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) designed to deliver optimal risk adjusted returns. The strategy is actively traded twice monthly to minimize turnover and trading commissions. However, as it is a trading strategy, ideally your chosen broker would offer low cost commissions on ETF trades (Interactive Brokers is the broker chosen by ECAM in their own accounts due to their low commission structure). Also any tax implications on capital gains would need to be taken into consideration by each individual depending upon his/her country of origin.
Included in the package are 5 trading strategies suited to a variety of trading preferences:
- a low volatility bond trading strategy
- a low volatility hybrid bond trading strategy
- a medium volatility all weather-portfolio trading strategy
- a medium volatility mixed-asset trading strategy
- a high volatility maximum return strategy
Question:
What is the cost for your ETF Trading Strategy?
Answer:
The ETF Trading Strategy is $29 USD per month.
Who is ECAM?
Answer:
ECAM is a market analysis & informational investment service started in 2006. Using a unique combination of Fundamental, Technical, Economic and Sentiment analysis; ECAM endeavors to provide absolute return analysis and strategies to assist individuals with the management of their investment accounts.
ECAM initially began as a blog service dedicated to providing analysis to readers to assist with their investment decisions. Over the years the ECAM service grew to over 1000 subscribers; many of whom requested a more formal service be established to provide expanded investment information to assist them in managing their portfolios.
As a result of these requests, a decision was made to expand the ECAM service to its present form.
Question:
Why should I subscribe to your Retirement Fund Analysis Service?
Answer:
The Retirement Fund Analysis Service is a comprehensive analysis tool to assist with delivering absolute returns within retirement accounts. It is designed to provide optimal exposure to growth assets based upon each individual's unique investment profile adjusted for varying market conditions.
If you are a highly accomplished investor capable of using the variety of skills necessary to analyze today’s rapidly changing market conditions (economic, fundamental and technical) on a continual basis in a systematic and unbiased manner, then it is possible you may not need our services. However, if you are not a highly accomplished and experienced investor or you do not have time in your busy life to keep up with ongoing changes in market conditions; our services will assist you (as we have done with many others over the years) in helping you to steer your portfolio in the right direction irrespective of future market conditions.
Question:
How does your Retirement Fund Analysis Service work?
Answer:
The Retirement Fund Analysis Service assists an individual in the construction and maintenance of their own retirement portfolios based upon the concept of Absolute Return. It does so by having each individual complete a psychometric investment risk tolerance questionnaire to determine his/her specific tolerance to investing risk.
Following that, seven risk-adjusted portfolios are suggested based upon various risk profiles. Using your unique risk tolerance score determined by the psychometric questionnaire, you will be able to choose your "ideal" risk adjusted portfolio (ideal meaning a "perfect-world" investing climate) ideally suited to your unique personal investment characteristics.
However, as we all know, the investment world is not "perfect" very often. Given this is the case, ECAM then runs the seven portfolios through their proprietary 5-Factor model to adjust for actual market conditions. The 5-Factor models have a large number of inputs so no one unique piece of data unusually skews the resulting signal. The 5-Factor models are as follows:
- Economic Model
- Fundamental Model
- Technical Model
- Sentiment Model
- Stress Model
Each model gives a factored score based upon its historical impact upon future absolute returns. The 5-Factor model is then compiled into a single 5-Factor Composite Signal used to "tilt" the above mentioned suggested risk-adjusted portfolios to the upper or lower end of their respective ranges (overweighting growth assets when the risk/reward is favorable and underweighting growth assets when the risk/reward is unfavorable). As such, risk-adjusted portfolios are constantly adjusted to match current market conditions and therefore optimally weighted.
Once completed any significant changes to portfolio composition is conveyed to subscribers immediately. Unless conditions change rapidly, historically only 3-4 significant changes per year have been required to keep portfolios within their optimal ranges. As such, there is no need to constantly go back into retirement accounts to "tweak" portfolios unless desired.
An additional feature of the 5-Factor model is a "limit switch" which, if triggered, indicates a high likelihood of a bear market decline. If triggered, all model portfolios are moved into 100% cash to protect investment capital. This "trigger" determines the ultimate success of absolute return and has in the past proven to be highly effective in preserving account values.
Question:
What benefit can you provide an Emirates Airlines employee over other advisory services?
Answer:
ECAM was initially established with the sole purpose of assisting Emirates employees with the self-management of their Provident Fund accounts. We are the only service that provides continuous analysis of economic, fundamental and technical conditions applied to those investment vehicles available within the Emirates Group Provident Scheme.
Since 2006 ECAM has been widely recognized as being the "go-to" source for assisting Emirates Airlines employees in the self-management of their company Provident Funds. Hundreds of ECAM subscribers have benefited over the years by following the analysis provided by ECAM as the world's stock markets have gone through a variety of severe up and down cycles.
Question:
What is the cost of your ECAM Retirement Fund Analysis Service?
Answer:
We have been providing analysis to Emirates employees since 2006 and are firmly committed to offering this valuable service at an extremely reasonable cost. For a fraction of the value of your provident scheme account balance (and, to put it into perspective, less than the cost of a single night out in Dubai), you'll receive continuous market monitoring, weekly updates and monthly/quarterly in-depth newsletter analysis for a full year.
The cost for a 1 year subscription to the ECAM Retirement Fund Analysis Service is $149 USD per year. That is the equivalent of 0.40 cents per day for 24/7 monitoring of your retirement accounts.
Question:
Can you provide me with specific investment advice?
Answer:
No. ECAM is not authorized to provide individual investment advice to anyone currently living in the UAE. ECAM provides market analysis and insight to allow individuals to make their own investment decisions using analysis and tools provided by ECAM.
Question:
What is your Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account Service and how does it work?
Answer:
The Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account Service allows selected individuals an opportunity to hold their own individual Interactive Brokerage account and have the management of those accounts "linked" to ECAM's brokerage accounts. There is no inter-mingling of accounts, no avenue for ECAM to add/subtract funds from individual’s accounts and no tie up period whereby you do not have access to your money any time you like.
The investment strategy ECAM employs is a very successful hedge fund strategy combining risk adjusted active asset management of various asset classes (Equities, Bonds, Commodities, Real Estate Investment Trusts, Currencies and Precious Metals) through Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). The strategy is actively managed with defined stop loss criteria and is the strategy utilized by ECAM in 100% of their own trading accounts.
The strategy has returned well above average returns since 2003 and is ideally suited for investors looking for above average volatility-adjusted market returns outside of pension fund accounts.
Individuals interested in actively managed portfolios will be required to meet with ECAM to have the investment strategy discussed in detail in order to proceed.
Question:
What is the minimum account size you will accept for your Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account Service?
Answer:
Unfortunately due to a limited number of linked accounts allowed by Interactive Brokers, the minimum account balance to qualify for the Linked Trading Account Service will be $100,000 USD.
In the future ECAM plans to offer an offshore Private Investment Account for up to 50 clients (with much lower required account balances) but currently only the linked Interactive Broker accounts will be offered.
Question:
Can I increase/decrease the size of my Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account?
Answer:
Absolutely. The account is yours and you may manage it as you see fit. The minimum balance will be set at $100,000 USD but you may add to it as you see fit.
The limit on the overall account (master plus linked accounts) set by Interactive Brokers is $25 million USD.
Question:
What are the fees associated with your Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Account Service?
Answer:
Currently ECAM charges an annual base management fee of 1.0% of assets under management (prorated and payable daily at a rate of 0.00002739726 per day) and a performance fee of 10% of total fund return generated annually (payable 31 Dec annually; no high water mark is used in performance calculations). All fees are automatically deducted by Interactive Brokers in a seamless manner.
This base management and performance fee has been set at a very reasonable rate given the level of active management provided. The fees are typically less than half that charged by typical hedge funds (typically the base management fee is 2-3% of assets under management per year and the performance fee is typically 20-30% of total excess return).
Question:
What is your ECAM ETF Trading Strategy?
Answer:
The ETF trading strategy is the same strategy utilized by ECAM within their own trading accounts (as well as that used within the ECAM Interactive Brokers Linked Trading Accounts).
It is based upon a proprietary selection of ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) designed to deliver optimal risk adjusted returns. The strategy is actively traded twice monthly to minimize turnover and trading commissions. However, as it is a trading strategy, ideally your chosen broker would offer low cost commissions on ETF trades (Interactive Brokers is the broker chosen by ECAM in their own accounts due to their low commission structure). Also any tax implications on capital gains would need to be taken into consideration by each individual depending upon his/her country of origin.
Included in the package are 5 trading strategies suited to a variety of trading preferences:
- a low volatility bond trading strategy
- a low volatility hybrid bond trading strategy
- a medium volatility all weather-portfolio trading strategy
- a medium volatility mixed-asset trading strategy
- a high volatility maximum return strategy
Question:
What is the cost for your ETF Trading Strategy?
Answer:
The ETF Trading Strategy is $29 USD per month.