Dan Ascani
Dan Ascani is Managing Director of Gemini Futures LLC, a CFTC-registered futures Introducing Broker, Commodity Pool Operator, and Commodity Trading Advisor managing two hedge funds: Gemini Long/Short Gold Fund, and Gemini Total Return Gold Fund.
Dan has been a licensed stock and commodity broker since 1983, Dan holds NASD Series 7, 24, 63, and 65 securities licenses and a Series 3 commodities license.
Previously, Dan provided hard-dollar research and proprietary trading signals to private and institutional investors through his firm, Global Market Strategists, Inc., which licenses Dan’s proprietary quantitative model for investing with ETFs to Weiss Capital Management for separately managed accounts programs. Dan is the portfolio manager for these ETF programs.
Dan’s specialty has long been in product development, money management, and technical and mathematical trading systems. His expertise in developing and executing trading strategies has been recognized by many well known investment firms. Since the early 1990s prominent financial institutions such as the Rushmore funds, the Rydex funds, the Rogers Raw Materials Fund, the Weiss Group, and the Perth Mint of Western Australia have turned to Dan for counsel and support in developing innovative strategies to apply to new investment products.
As President of Ascani Brokerage Services, his futures brokerage firm, Dan managed the futures trading desk in 1992 to execute trades for one of the Rushmore Funds out of Bethesda, Maryland.
In 1993 Dan helped develop the strategy for the initial funds of the popular Rydex family. This included the Rydex Ursa Fund, which is considered to be the first inverse index fund inside of a mutual fund family, and the first “high-beta timer fund," the Rydex Nova Fund, a mutual fund that strives to move 150% of the underlying benchmark S&P 500 Index. Dan also managed futures trades for various Rydex portfolios through Ascani Brokerage Services, Inc., until 1997.
As it grew in popularity, the entire Rydex Family vaulted to superfund status, with assets under management growing to as high as $14 billion. Dan's firm worked with Rydex on a brokerage and consulting basis until 1997. This work included helping develop and execute the strategies for the Rydex Juno Fund, which is considered to be the first inverse government bond mutual fund; the Rydex Arktos Fund, which is considered to be the first inverse Nasdaq mutual fund; the Rydex Government Bond fund; and the Rydex Over the Counter Fund.
In 1999 Dan brought his newest innovative ideas and strategies to the Perth Mint of Western Australia, a century-old precious metals mint and depository. Dan and the Perth Mint formed an alliance, founding Gemini Diversified Holdings, LLC, an owner of the parent company of Gemini Futures, Gemini Funds LLC, in order to bring to market alternative investment ideas and products such as securitized gold index funds and gold exchange-traded funds (ETF), gold and commodity hedge funds, mutual funds and trusts, and other ideas. In 2001 Gemini took on the Adviser to the Rogers Raw Materials Fund, Beeland Management Company, as a Member of its LLC.
In late 2006 Gemini was named by Weiss Capital Securities, Inc., to act as developer of new investment products, which may range from hedge funds to ETFs. In 2007, Weiss Capital Securities, Inc., became a distributor of the Gemini hedge funds.
Over the past two decades, Dan has been a speaker at numerous investment conferences and has been frequently quoted in the media providing expert market commentary and investment analysis. In the 1980s and 1990s, Dan hosted his own radio and television shows on local and syndicated television and radio stations. Dan graduated from UCLA in 1977, and holds bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Psychology
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