Not every hedge fund conversation needs to revolve around performance charts or trade execution. In HedgeNordic’s Quirky Questions series, we look beyond the strategies to the people shaping them: their inspirations, philosophies, and the personal quirks that drive their thinking. This time, we sat down with Kathryn Kaminski – coiner of the now widely-used term “crisis alpha” and a longtime voice in the managed futures space. From her roots in the American South to her formative years in Sweden, Kaminski’s journey blends quantitative rigor with cultural curiosity. Whether reflecting on how a concept born in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis took on a life of its own, or sharing the values she hopes her daughters carry from their Scandinavian upbringing, Kaminsky reveals a side of finance rarely captured in equations.

• You helped define and popularize the term “crisis alpha”, giving language to something many in managed futures were circling around but hadn’t quite named. Looking back now, how happy are you with that term and what it has come to represent? What is a misconception about “crisis alpha”? Would you coin it the same way today or is there a version 2.0 quietly forming in your mind?

Oh, now you sound like my good friend, Niels Kaastrup-Larsen. He loves to ask me this question. The whole story behind “crisis alpha” was really fun. Just after the GFC, I noticed that Managed Futures was one of the few strategies that did well and seemed to like disruption. I wanted to know why this was the case. I realized that it was the adaptive nature of the strategy – related to the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis, a nod to my mentor and Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Andrew Lo. That adaptive nature sometimes allows the strategy to seize the opportunity when markets are in chaos. From my perspective, crisis alpha, like any type of alpha, is never guaranteed. It is something you search for – part of why Alex Greyserman and I called our book Trend Following with Managed Futures: The Search for Crisis Alpha. We continue to search for crisis alpha in new places, for example, across different time horizons, markets, and investment styles. 

In terms of misconceptions, I try to emphasize that Managed Futures is one tool in your alternatives toolbox that can help defend in certain environments. My view on the strategy remains the same, but I also recognize that sometimes people want a hedge. Some investors want insurance and certainty, and in financial markets nothing like that comes for free.

• You may not remember, but we first met around 2010 in RPM’s old offices and you were among the very first I pitched the HedgeNordic concept to. You were encouraging and motivating at a time when it was still just an idea on paper. Have you often found yourself in that kind of mentoring role, nudging others to take the leap? Have you ever seriously considered starting your own asset management business, and how did you weigh that off?

Of course, I remember that amazing meeting! It was a start to something that has blossomed into one of my favorite media groups! I think you met me between one of my two “mammaledighet” periods so good thing I was in the office and not on the playground. I actually worked with a number of start-up ventures earlier on in my career. I learned a lot from them, especially the range of skillsets one needs to build a successful business in asset management. For example, I was on the board of a big data hedge fund years ago back when “big data” was the buzz word, not “AI”. Needless to say, big data wasn’t enough to capture success. 

In any case, I have tried to use my experiences to mentor other people in the industry. In particular, I have spent a lot of time mentoring those of us who don’t fit the typical mold, something I term “the exceptions.” I’m actually in the process of writing a new book, From Exception to Exceptional, to share some of the things I’ve learned on my own personal journey.

• Your daughters spent their early years in Sweden. Are there values or ways of seeing the world that you think or hope will stay with them because of that experience, is there something you feel they might not have picked up in quite the same way had they grown up in the US?

I absolutely love Sweden. It is an amazing country. I was so fortunate to start my non-academic/finance career there in the CTA world. Some of the things I really appreciated with Swedes are their humble way of approaching the world. They infrequently boast of their success, roar into a meeting, or loudly boast of their personal attributes or accomplishments, which is something I find quite inspiring (especially after returning the U.S. years later). I also admire the country for the kindness and respect they show to all parents (and yes, dads, this means you too!). I also developed a lifelong appreciation for the standard sauna and ice-cold water swimming, something I still enjoy today. 

I also hope my daughters will keep a sense of humility and equality as they grow. We still spend plenty of time in Sweden with my husband’s family, and I love to see my daughters being so fluent in the language. It’s tough for me, so my kids do correct my pronunciation at times. I sometimes feel that I’m yodeling! Putting the silliness of my American Swedish aside, anytime you put yourself in uncomfortable situations, you really have the chance to learn about yourself and challenge the assumptions of your own cultural norms. I hope my daughters will learn that as well!

• You, in contrast grew up “down South” in the USA. Do you think any of that Southern DNA whether in values, temperament, or instinct, still shows up in how you approach markets and models today? Is there something in that early environment that might have shaped your way of thinking differently than if you’d grown up in Boston?

Yes, I was raised in Nashville, TN… cue the cowboy boots. The best part of the south is the southern hospitality, something you start to miss when you are in the Nordics or even in Boston. Being southern, I just like people. I loved being a university professor and I try to bring that joy of being with others to all my presentations and even when I do media. Random fact, do you know that on radio you sound better if you smile? Your voice sounds more pleasant to the listener. A little southern charm goes farther than one thinks!

• Teaching in both the US and Sweden has likely offered some striking contrasts. What differences have you noticed in how students respond to challenge, uncertainty or abstract ideas? Has that influenced the way you teach or translate complex concepts across different audiences

Connecting to an audience is about learning how they respond. Cultural norms can be quite different in Europe as opposed to the US, where I taught at MIT. At MIT, I taught a very diverse group of students, whereas in Sweden almost all of my students were Swedish. I had to learn the nuances of Swedish culture, like the term “omtenta:” basically, you get to take exams over and over again until you’ve learned the material. This would have been a truly foreign concept at MIT, a place where the stakes tend to be high and there is less wiggle room. At first, I thought it was more work for the professors, but over time I saw the merits of this approach. It reflects the generally kind approach of the Swedes, but I still also value the focus on competition that is a signature of the American approach. I try to combine both of these methods in my approach to teaching complex ideas to different audiences.

• You’ve spent your career in a part of the industry where women are still few and far between, especially on the quantitative and systematic side. Was that something you felt early on, or did it only become clear with time? How do you make sense of the fact that a field so rooted in numbers, logic, and data can still carry such visible bias? And do you think having more women in this space could influence not just team dynamics but also how we think about markets, risk, and decision-making?

I was just a southern girl who liked math. It turns out, this made me an accidental non-conformist (Adam Grant talks about this in his book The Originals). This started for me well before I started in finance, at MIT and throughout my education. For example, in 2000 I was a student at École Polytechnique (a military French engineering school that had a population at the time that was only 5% female). There were so few women in my program that I once lived in an all-male dormitory. When you are in these situations, you are forced to adapt and find solutions (for example, you shower in the women’s gym locker rooms). Now that I’ve been in finance for many years, I work hard to support women in finance. I think having women in the room helps bring balance, and many women are quite good at risk calculations. There are certainly still biases in the field, but that also provides opportunities for growth and for women to forge their own paths. My book touches on this topic. I find people who are exceptions, those who are different from the rest, fascinating. Their exceptional qualities can provide an opportunity to do exceptional things.