Systematic trend following gains momentum as markets face uncertainty

Simone Haslinger

As market volatility persists and traditional portfolios face heightened uncertainty, investor interest has increased in quantitative (quant) investing to complement portfolios.

Recent industry data shows quant strategies led hedge fund inflows in 2025, accounting for over 70% of net inflows as investors seek diversification and uncorrelated return streams in the current environment. *

Trend investing – one of the most established forms of systematic investing – uses rules based frameworks to identify and capture directional moves across global markets. By filtering out short term “noise” and focusing on sustained price movements, these strategies eliminate human bias and can provide exposure to trends that develop across asset classes.

“Trend following is about the ability to adapt as markets shift,” says Simone Haslinger, CEO of East Coast Capital Management. “Our systems don’t impose preconceived notions about how asset classes should move together. Diversification is embedded in the process itself, emerging naturally from following price action across global markets.”

“Portfolios can benefit from the insights provided by trend analysis. Markets often move well before the news flow explains why. For example wheat rallied significantly before Russia invaded Ukraine, not after the headlines arrived. Trend systems don’t wait for explanations or narratives. They respond to price, which aggregates information faster than any analyst can. That’s the difference between reacting to news and capturing the move,” she says.

Ms Haslinger adds, “In recent years, we’ve seen strong moves in markets many investors do not have exposure to. Over the past two years, gold, silver and platinum rallied to record levels as investors sought real assets. Less well-known markets such as feeder cattle and live cattle futures trended strongly through much of 2025. Cocoa surged dramatically in 2023 and 2024, reaching record highs that few traditional portfolios were positioned to capture. Trend systems are agnostic about the asset class. They follow opportunity wherever it emerges.”

Strict risk management is core to the methodology, she adds. “Our approach systematically cuts losses when trends fail and allows profitable positions to develop where they work. Over our six years plus year track record, we’ve experienced lower maximum drawdowns than the ASX200 with superior annualised returns.

“Academic research conducted over decades of data has demonstrated that trend following strategies have historically performed strongly during market crises – precisely when traditional portfolios face their greatest challenges.”

Adam Havryliv, Founder and CIO of East Coast Capital Management, notes the firm manages capital primarily for high-net-worth investors and family offices who understand the value of diversification and the role of low-correlation strategies in a portfolio. The firm is also receiving interest from institutional allocators both in Australia and offshore looking for strategies with genuine crisis-alpha characteristics and a consistent, rule-based process.

“Our approach is grounded in discipline, patience, and risk management,” says Havryliv. “We follow clear rules, manage position sizing rigorously, and let trends develop without trying to predict where markets should go. That systematic process, executed without emotion or deviation, is what provides the edge.”

To share their framework and philosophy more broadly, Havryliv, together with East Coast Capital Management’s Strategy Ambassador Richard Brennan, formed the Aussie Turtles. “Trend following can seem technical or intimidating, so we created the Aussie Turtles brand, with a light tone. We wanted to show that you can be disciplined and data-driven without taking yourself too seriously,” notes Havryliv.

The brand draws inspiration from the legendary Turtle trading experiment of the 1980s, when Richard Dennis and Bill Eckhardt demonstrated that a disciplined, rules-based framework could generate exceptional results when applied with consistency and rigour.

The Aussie Turtles have published a book, The Aussie Turtles Trend Following Guide. It’s designed as a field manual (not a list of rules) to help readers understand the philosophy behind trend following. It is now available on Amazon.

“If you believe in reacting to what price does- not what you hope it will do – then this book is your blueprint,” notes Havryliv.