Given that metals are a physical business, it's only fitting that the principals of London-based Amco Commodities possess hands-on experience in the industry -- having met and worked together at the brokerage arm of the Billiton Mining Group, which subsequently merged with BHP in 2001 to form the world's largest mining company. The knowledge and contacts that Christopher Adams and Keiron Mathias gained in their roles at Billiton certainly have served them well in their latest endeavor -- the pair's metals-focused alternative investment fund has grown to $79 million since its launch in May 2006 (in addition to another $92 million in managed accounts), with a compound annualized return since inception of 17.3 percent.

After cutting their teeth at Billiton in the late 1980s and early '90s, Mathias and Adams each went on to serve as traders at a variety of venues. Mathias held positions with commodity brokerage Sucden, Monaco-based investment adviser Anglojam Investments, Bankers Trust and JPMorgan; Adams worked for the London Metals Exchange, and investment houses Credit Lyonnais Rouse and Metchem, as well as Sucden.

The decision to join forces and form a commodity trading adviser, relates Mathias, stemmed from the convergence of experience and demand. "Both of us were at the stages of our careers where we wanted to leverage the skills and the knowledge base that we had in an environment that we felt was in demand -- commodity hedge funds," he says. "We had complementary skills, had worked together as colleagues and counterparties for the better part of 20 years, and we had a good relationship, so together we thought that a partnership would be the right step to take."

Amco focuses on trading futures and options in aluminum, copper, lead and zinc, according to Mathias, with futures typically comprising 90 percent to 95 percent of the firm's activity and options covering the remainder. All of Amco's futures are exchange-traded, primarily on the London Metals Exchange, he says.