A manager’s presentation is built to win an allocation. The backtest has usually been chosen from many, the live record is often short, and the costs in the research are often lower than the costs in the market. Telling a real edge from a well-presented one takes the same work as building a strategy: reading the research, rebuilding the numbers and testing what can be tested.
We are paid by the allocator only, never by the manager under review. The review follows our research standard, and the report says plainly where the evidence is strong, where it is weak and where it is missing.
What the work covers
- Review of the research behind the strategy: where the idea came from, how many variations were tried and what data was held back
- Reconstruction of the track record from statements and trade files, checked against the reported figures
- Comparison of live trading with the backtest the manager presented
- Review of execution, costs, risk limits and behaviour in stressed markets
- Written questions for the manager, and an assessment of the answers
- A written verdict on what holds up, what does not, and what would change the verdict
To discuss a project, write to our contact address.