The concept of market, “beta”, returns evolved from the efficient market theory whereby many academics surmised that since so many people were paying attention to the stock market all the time, the prices of stocks rapidly moved to the correct price at any one moment.  The conclusion was that only luck made it possible for one fund manager to achieve better results than another and the concept of “beta” or market performance was born which could be achieved at a very low cost.

The desire and demand for index outperformance soon followed.  Fund managers and investment advisers alike were expected to make a difference to a client’s portfolio performance above and beyond that which the market, by default offered naturally.    The new investors demanded “alpha”; that extraordinary performance above the return offered by the overall market or index exclusively attributable to the skilful management of the client’s assets by the investment manager.

Guardian specialises in the creation of investment strategies that are structured to offer potential “alpha” returns based on the rigorous and robust mathematical due diligence we undertake.