Marathon Capital Growth Partners : System Financial

Summary

Marathon Capital Growth Partners, LLC, founded in March 1995, is dedicated to providing the best possible advice for directional strategies utilizing both discretionary and systematic approaches. Currently Marathon manages nine different portfolios, which vary by both trading style (long-term systematic, short term discretionary or a combination), and diversification. Marathon participates in over 50 exchange-traded markets globally, including currencies, interest rates, agriculture, energy, metals, and equity indices. The Systematic approach employs an intermediate systematic trend-following approach consisting of two key components, a signal generator and a portfolio risk filter. Two systems comprise the signal generator, each of which is trend following. The portfolio risk filters attempts to increase portfolio exposure when the environment for profit is good and reduce exposure when the probability for future profit declines. Portfolio volatility is a key factor in determining when to increase and decrease exposure. Marathon currently offers clients a choice between four distinct Systematic Portfolios. The Discretionary trading approach is a technical, but non-systematic trading methodology. The Discretionary Portfolio attempts to profit from short-term price movements. A significant percentage of the positions may have a life of as low as one or two days, and may have positions in very few markets at any time. Mr. Ecke looks for certain technical patterns on intraday and daily price charts and executes those trades which he feels have a high reward-to-risk ratio. Many of the trades made by Mr. Ecke pursuant to the Discretionary Portfolios are counter to perceived trends in a market. A common element to Mr. Ecke's trading is to attempt to identify short-term price momentum. The margin utilized is characteristically low. Marathon currently offers clients a choice between three distinct Discretionary Portfolios. The Marathon Plus Portfolio is an enhanced multi-strategy approach, utilizing two distinctly different opportunistic strategies. The System Diversified strategy utilizes a number of independent trading systems to analyze market movements. In addition, a systematic approach to risk management utilizes multiple systems to identify market conditions, which have proven advantageous for both increasing and decreasing exposure. The Discretionary Short Term (ST) Portfolio utilizes a nominal amount of leverage to take advantage of short-term price movements, which typically would not be captured by a systematic approach. The two approaches have a .102 correlation to one another. The portfolio encompasses approximately 40 markets globally, including Currency, Interest Rates, Equity Indices, and Commodities. Past performance is not guaranteed of futu

Investment Strategy

The System Financial Portfolio participates in a portfolio comprised of futures contracts in the following market sectors: Foreign Exchange, Interest Rates, and Equities. Marathon's systematic approach employs an allocation model designed to identify certain conditions that have historically proven ideal for both increasing and decreasing portfolio exposure. This system utilizes a number of independent trading systems that differ primarily in sensitivity to price action and identifies market conditions that have historically proven ideal for trending markets and adjusts exposure commensurate with risk. The time horizon normally ranges between one and six weeks.