​​What ​Makes Us Different?
 
When we set out to develop our risk management system and strategies, our goal was to bring a fresh set of ideas.  We knew we would not be successful if we were afraid to differ from what is generally accepted.  Below we summarize the important characteristics, different than the financial services industry status quo, that make us unique.

​Our focus is on not losing money rather than on maximizing return – risk management first

• We put risk management first.
• Avoiding gut-wrenching drawdowns is the first priority of our strategies.
• Our strategies include multiple layers of risk management whenever possible.
• We believe the path is as important as the destination for our clients.

To emphasize the point, we, like other successful investors, focus on risk rather than returns:

“Whenever I buy or sell something, I always try to make sure I’m not going to lose any money first…my basic advice is don’t lose money.” – Jim Rogers
 
“Learn to take the losses.  The most important thing in making money is not letting your losses get out of hand.” – Marty Schwartz
 
“I am always thinking about losing money as opposed to making money.  The most important rule…is to play great defense, not great offense.  Don’t focus on making money; focus on protecting what you have.” – Paul Tudor Jones
 
In addition, one of our favorites is from Warren Buffett, who is known for his two favorite rules for investing:  "Rule#1 – Never lose money.  Rule#2 – Don’t forget Rule#1."
 
A Benjamin Graham quote reads, “The essence of portfolio management is the management of ‘risks,’ not the management of ‘returns’.  All good portfolio management begins and ends with this tenet!” ​
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We use an objective, quantitative, and data-driven approach based on decades of historical data

• Our risk management and strategies are based on the historical data that reflect the consistent human behaviors and biases (fear and greed) that have consistently reoccurred and have driven markets throughout history.
• Our entire effort is data-driven and designed to remove emotion from the investment decision process.
• We have evaluated performance across several bull and bear market cycles.

  
Our strategies are programmed to go to cash (short-term Treasury securities) when markets become risky

• Our strong belief is that cash is one of the most important risk management tools. 
• Most other professional investors are not willing to do this.
• Having part of your portfolio switch to cash during dangerous times is a dependable way to reduce risk.
• All of our strategies go to a 100% cash position when our risk model indicates a high probability of bear market conditions.  As such, we consider our strategies alternative investments that truly reduce risk and have a low correlation to traditional stock investments.

  
Our aim is to achieve diversification through strategies, not asset classes, or geographies

• While diversification is the best way to reduce portfolio risk, most sophisticated portfolios have two vulnerabilities:
  • Asset classes are becoming increasing correlated across both different asset types and geographies.
  • Alternative investments like private equity, hedge funds, and REITs often use leverage to boost returns, which makes them correlated with stocks during severe downturns.
• Over the full market cycle our strategies have a low correlation with the market which makes them especially suitable for true diversification.
• We believe diversification through different strategies like ours, rather than asset classes will be adopted more widely in the future by portfolio managers.

  
We strive to be genuine, trying to find real answers for our clients and ourselves

• We have made our best effort to quantify the impact of taxes and transaction costs on our strategies, which others often do not do.
• Our strategies are evaluated over several full-market cycles.
• We provide risk and well as return measures of performance.
• The majority of our personal money and retirement funds are invested in our strategies.