What did Debenhams do wrong?

A recent article published in the Wall Street Journal highlights the growing interest in Islamic Finance. The sector is now seen as a thriving industry, with many keen to study the specialised area. Business schools are now tailoring their courses to reflect these needs and structuring degrees to train students in investments that comply with Quranic Law.

Momentum trading is a popular strategy in the commodity futures markets. The idea is simple. Suppose that an investor wants to invest in the first nearby contract of several commodity markets, e.g. crude oil, live cattle and gold. At the end of each month, the trader ranks these assets according to their past return performance, observed over a measurement period of 12 months for example, from the top performing asset to the bottom performing asset. The investor opens a long position in the first nearby of the markets that performed well and a short position in the first nearby of the markets that underperformed. These positions are held throughout the next month. This strategy has performed historically well historically and has attracted the interest of investors.