Michael Ashton is a Bates Consulting and Testifying Expert. With his depth in risk management and deep domain knowledge of pricing and inflation, his background in research, market-making, and trading at large broker dealers as well as his turns in portfolio management and entrepreneurship, along with his experience in developing new products and markets, Michael brings a rare and diverse skill set that will be additive to many firms and complementary to many teams.
His background is predominantly in fixed-income and commodities, with a special focus on inflation. Since 2003, when he traded the first interbank U.S. CPI swaps, and 2004 when he invented and was the lead market maker for the CME’s CPI Futures contract, Michael has played an integral role in developing new instruments and methods for accessing and hedging various inflation exposures.
Widely known by his trademarked moniker “the Inflation Guy,” Michael is a frequent industry speaker and lecturer on inflation topics as well as an architect of portfolio strategies and inflation indexed products for hedging real exposures. He is the author of “Cents and Sensibility: The Inflation Guy Podcast,” thousands of blog posts and articles, and two books.
Michael has a talent for communicating complex topics in easy-to-understand ways. It's this talent for explaining that have made him a regular and popular guest on Bloomberg TV, TD Ameritrade Network, and other television programs as well as on a variety of podcasts and numerous radio programs. This talent for synthesis and explanation would be very valuable in many contexts.
Michael is a consultant and subject matter expert in these Practice Areas and Services:
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Securities and Financial Services Litigation & Consulting
- Alternative Investments
- Commodities
- Fixed Income
- Futures
- Investment Management
- Options
- OTC Derivatives
- Portfolio Management
- Research
- Risk Management
- Structured Products/Structured Notes
- Trade Processing
- Data Analyses and Analytics
Credentials
EXPERIENCE
Bates Group, Consulting and Testifying Expert, 2026 – Present
Enduring Investments LLC, Managing Principal, Morristown, NJ, 2009 – Present
Natixis, Director, Inflation Trading and Product Development, New York, NY, 2005 – 2009
Barclays Capital, Associate Director, Inflation Trading, New York, NY, 2001 – 2004
Deutsche Bank Futures, Vice President, Relative Value Sales, New York, NY, 1999 – 2000
Ashton Analytics, Managing Partner, Morristown, NJ, 1997 – 2005
Bankers Trust Securities, Chief US Fixed-Income Strategist, New York, NY, 1996 – 1997
J.P. Morgan Futures, Associate, Futures Research, New York, NY, 1994 – 1996
Garvin, Guybutler & Co., Broker, New York, NY, 1993 – 1994
Technical Data Corp., Senior Quantitative Analyst, Boston, MA, 1990 – 1993
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Arts (BA), Economics, summa cum laude, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS/LICENSING
Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA)
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Assumption School, Head Cross Country Coach, Morristown, NJ, 2011 – Present