In that same interview, Mr. Black also eschewed the notion of investing in high-tech companies and said that any future leveraged buyouts would be "more rational" and involve "less leverage, more equity".
And while the national governing boards invest in technology to improve the performance of their teams, it's not being leveraged to identify future stars and fans early.
Other reasons cited are the threat of rising interest rates, which could be damaging for highly leveraged water companies, and expected future low inflation.
He predicted that there would not be any huge leveraged buyouts in the near future but suggested strategic investments could pick up if the economy continued to grow and the markets started to recover — two big ifs.
Asked about the future of the leveraged buyout business this week at The Deal's Private Capital Symposium, Mr. Moelis, a former top UBS banker who now runs his own firm, Moelis & Company, said the cycle would continue even in this grim environment -- but also encouraged his colleagues to step carefully.
It has built a large industry of actively managed funds, futures, options and leveraged products that in the aggregate can't do any better than market returns.
There are ETFs that use futures to track leveraged multiples of specified market indexes.
Futures are highly leveraged, and largely used by institutional suppliers or purchasers to lock in prices for shipments and reduce price movement risks.
Called commodity Trakrs, for total return asset contracts, they trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and aren't leveraged, eliminating some risks associated with futures.
That analysis lets him make big bets on esoteric plays, like euro dollar futures, the most sensitive leveraged device for betting on the direction of interest rates.
