Paltarra Capital · Active ASX Long / Short
That is how I run Paltarra Capital. Nick Dekker — twenty years in hedge funds, now running a focused long/short book on the ASX with my own capital fully at risk. Every position sized, monitored, and managed daily.
Position-level detail — entry, sizing, and live P&L — is shared daily with Full Access subscribers.
Apply for Full Access →01 — The Approach
Every dollar is treated as the client's, because it is. No lazy risk. No hiding behind a benchmark. No 1.5% to hug an index. If a thesis breaks, I'm out — your capital deserves that respect.
Pre-market preparation every session. Active long/short execution that works in both directions. Defined risk — position sizing, net and gross exposure, hard limits. Daily client communication. The work, shown every day.
Two decades across long/short equity, global macro, and active trading desks. Crises, melt-ups, regime changes, and stretches of sheer boredom. I know what works, what doesn't, and what to avoid.
Most managers send a quarterly letter and hope you don't ask questions in between. I show you the work daily.
02 — The Strategy
A rules-based long/short strategy run across the ASX All Ords universe with a large-cap bias. The portfolio carries 30–50 positions at all times, with low net exposure designed to generate returns through stock selection — not market beta.
Core positions are held where longer-term thematic conviction exists. Tactical positions respond to near-term momentum, relative value, and risk events. All positions are governed by hard risk rules — no exceptions.
Sector focus: Financials · Resources · REITs.
A high frequency of relatively small positive returns. Losses are expected to be occasional but larger — the asymmetry is built into the process, not feared.
Consistent market exposure. The portfolio is always working — positions are not set and forgotten. Every day is a trading day.
Hard risk limits on every position and at the portfolio level. Losses are capped before they accumulate. Capital preservation is not an afterthought.
Proactive identification and hedging of tail events. The strategy seeks to avoid blow-ups — not merely recover from them.
03 — The Track Record
The strategy is run today on my own personal capital — a live, fully-at-risk proof of concept — while I open it to a small group of aligned investors: family offices, professional investors, and serious private capital who want to back a manager, not a benchmark. Skin in the game is the most credible signal in funds management, and I'd rather earn trust with it than market around it.
2026 is roughly flat year-to-date, and I show that plainly. Live portfolio means live accountability — including the weeks that don't go my way.
04 — Risk Management
The strategy runs with consistently low net market exposure — long positions are substantially offset by shorts. This is not a directional bet on the ASX going up.
Returns are generated through stock selection and relative value — being right on individual names, not riding the index. That provides meaningful downside protection in market sell-offs.
Both core and tactical positions are always governed by position-level and portfolio-level risk rules.
Typical Exposure Mix
Sector Allocation
05 — Daily Output
Before the ASX opens: market outlook, the day's catalysts, positioning thoughts, and what I'm watching — written the way a PM briefs the desk.
Post-close read of the session — what worked, what didn't, and what the tape is telling us. Public commentary; full portfolio detail for Full Access.
Macro and sector reads on Financials, Resources, and REITs. Thematic analysis, relative-value observations, and risk flags before they become consensus.
Every trade as it executes — entry, exit, sizing, and rationale, in real time.
The full book each day: every position, direction, size, P&L, and classification.
Reply to any note and reach me directly. Monthly performance letters with attribution; quarterly strategic letters.
06 — How to Engage
For family offices, professional investors, advisers, and serious private capital.
07 — Learn the Process
Most market education is sold by people who don't trade. This isn't that. A small number of serious students can follow the Paltarra book as a live classroom — watching a real long/short portfolio get built, sized, hedged and managed, with the reasoning behind each decision laid out as it happens.
This is a learning track — not an investment product. No tips, no signals to copy, no promises about your returns. Just an honest look at how a twenty-year process actually works, day after day: the preparation, the discipline, and the mistakes.
By application — places are limited. Educational only; not financial advice or a recommendation to trade.
08 — Contact
Public Notes are open and instant — the pre-market note and post-close commentary, delivered daily. For the live portfolio, trade alerts and direct PM access, apply for Full Access →