Hari Krishnan, Head of Volatility Strategies at SCT Capital Management

About this episode

The episode features a discussion with Hari Krishnan on volatility markets, hedging strategies, and the role of commodities in investment portfolios.

It was a pleasure to host a conversation with Hari Krishnan, Head of Volatility Strategies at SCT Capital, on the changing nature of volatility markets, portfolio hedging, and why commodities may offer increasingly valuable diversification in today’s environment. Hari reflects on his book Second Leg Down, which explores practical approaches to tail-risk hedging and the cyclical nature of volatility. He discusses how investors often ignore protection in calm periods, only to rush toward hedges after markets have already repriced risk. That dynamic leads to a broader conversation on planning, budgeting, and approaching hedging as an ongoing portfolio discipline rather than a reactive decision. We then turn to option markets more broadly, including volatility risk premium, skew, and the challenge of protecting against fat-tailed outcomes. Hari explains why moderately out-of-the-money options often embed persistent premium, while deeper tail risks can be difficult to price with confidence. The conversation then shifts to commodities, where Hari sees a differentiated opportunity set. We discuss how producer hedging, end-user demand, and forward-curve dynamics create a very different…

People in this episode

Host: Dean Curnutt

Guest: Hari Krishnan

Topics covered

• volatility markets
• portfolio hedging
• commodities
• tail-risk hedging
• option markets
• cross-asset dislocations

Keywords

• volatility
• hedging
• commodities
• tail-risk
• option markets
• diversification
• risk premium

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: SCT Capital Management

Books & works: Second Leg Down

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