N.J. commodity-trading advisor specializes in momentum trading of FX market. A pair of veteran foreign-exchange traders have launched Cinneas Foreign Exchange, an alternative investment-management firm that actively manages a diversified foreign-exchange portfolio using proprietary technical and fundamental methodology developed over its principals' 30 years in the business.

"An actively managed, globally diverse portfolio can adapt and grow with the changing markets," says Cinneas managing partner Douglas Borthwick, who founded the firm with Michael Myrtetus earlier this year. "Our approach draws upon global economic, fundamental, and technical analysis to identify momentum trading opportunities, with the ultimate goal of producing non-correlated risk-adjusted returns."

Ultra liquid

Analyzing long- and short-term trends in the foreign-exchange currency market, Morristown, N.J.-based Cinneas exploits momentum and carefully applies and manages leverage to realize gains with greater probability. Recognizing that many investors lack the resources or knowledge to trade the foreign-exchange market, the firm has a low minimum investment of $5,000 with no lock-up period. The aim is to help investors preserve capital and mitigate risk.

Cinneas' principals met in 1996when Borthwick joined Morgan Stanley 's foreign-exchange team. Borthwick was in charge of the team's forwards and non-deliverable forwards businesses; Myrtetus ran the spot foreign-exchange desk. In the nine years they worked together at Morgan Stanley, the team's annual sales went from $200 million to around $1 billion.

With over $3 trillion in daily transactions, the foreign-exchange market is the largest and most liquid market in the world, according to Myrtetus "It is growing in popularity as an asset class with pension funds, hedge funds, university endowments and high net worth individuals, in an effort to enhance the diversification portfolios," he adds. "Retail investors know they need greater diversification in their portfolios as they begin to question buy-and-hold strategies in equities and fixed income."

Myrtetus was at Morgan Stanley from early 1989 until the spring of 2007.

Borthwick left Morgan Stanley for Merrill Lynch in 2005, where he worked as a foreign-exchange and interest-rate-derivatives trader. In 2006, he joined Standard Chartered to trade Latin American non-deliverable options and forwards. He left that position shortly before Cinneas' launch in March 2009.

Cinneas is registered as a registered with the National Futures Association as a commodity-trading advisor.

The word Cinneas means "growth" in Scottish Gaelic. -FWR

Purchase reproduction rights to this article.