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PORTFOLIO ADVISORS

In addition to our System Execution and CTA Placement services, Attain owns and operates its own CTA programs - Strategic Diversification Program & the Modified Program, through its wholly owned subsidiary Attain Portfolio Advisors.

We were not content to simply say putting multiple non correlated trading systems together in portfolio is a good idea, and wanted to "put our money where our mouth was", so to speak - launching the Strategic Diversification Program in 2004 to trade a portfolio of 15 to 25 different trading systems across multiple time frames.

View the Attain Portfolio Advisors website.

Strategic Diversification Program

The goal of the Strategic Diversification program is to achieve maximum growth of capital within defined risk limitations.*

To meet these targets, Attain employs a portfolio of objective, technically-based trading systems and a multidimensional diversification strategy which allots capital to different markets, trading strategies, and time frames.

The selection of component strategies, time frames and markets follows a rigorous quantitative analysis that considers the liquidity and volatility of markets traded, types of strategies employed, trade duration, risk of loss, and probability of achieving performance objectives.

These factors, along with measures of correlation between the system components, attempt to ensure synergy at the portfolio level while limiting risk by maintaining diversification across multiple dimensions.

We believe our philosophy of diversifying among time frames and strategies as well as markets sets Attain apart from the bulk of advisors who diversify amongst market sectors only.

The resulting multi-dimensional approach gives Attain the ability to profit (or suffer losses) in virtually any environment, be it rising or falling markets, quick or long term moves, or trending versus oscillating markets.

*Attain seeks to limit the end of month drawdown (difference between maximum month-ending equity and subsequent minimum month-ending equity) that is expected to occur with a 1 in 100 year frequency to below 15 percent and to limit the 95 percent upper confidence limit of drawdown in the same period to less than 25 percent. By comparison, the S&P 500 (US Stocks) has exhibited drawdowns greater than 25% in 17 of the last 100 years, and greater than 15% in 37 of the last 100 yrs.

Attain also offers a Strategic Diversification (4X) program. The 4X program is the exact same program as our flagship Strategic Diversification Program, only traded at 4 times leverage (with only $250,000 in the account versus $1,000,000). The dollar gains/losses will be the exact same as an investor trading the main program with $1,000,000, therefore, only the percentage gains and losses will be 4 times those of the main program. This additional leverage results in a proportionally greater risk of loss (and opportunity for gain). While the possibility of losing all the cash in an account is present in all accounts, accounts that contain notional equity have a proportionately greater risk of loss. Additionally, a Client who funds his account with notional equity may receive more frequent and larger margin calls. Furthermore, a Client's quarterly management fee charged by the Advisor will be calculated on the actual funds plus notional funds, resulting in a Client’s management fee as a percent of actual funds being higher.   View performance

Modified Program

Our newest model was launched in February 2007 to meet the needs of one of our clients, and is offered at this time only to Qualified Eligible Persons (QEPs) through the CFTC Rule 4.7 Exemption.

This model was developed in response to our client’s desire to trade our main program, but keep margin requirements below $75,000. The latter wasn’t possible with the full portfolio, which can reach margins up to $200,000 - thus a modified portfolio was constructed while striving to retain the multidimensional diversification attributes of the main program. The end result was average daily margin of approx. $40,000 to $60,000.

The modified portfolio thereby trades in much the same manner as the main program, diversifying between markets, strategies, and time frames. It just does a fewer number of contracts in each market and utilizes several electronic e-mini markets where available, thereby reducing margin. It also removed several high margin contracts like Heating Oil and Natural Gas from the portfolio.

Because of the lower initial capital amount, there is more risk (and reward) inherent in this program, and the volatility is likely to be about twice that of the main program. This is due to some of the models in the modified portfolio doing a minimum of one contract on their signals, when the normal risk sizing would have them doing less than one contract, and therefore risking more than the 1% maximum risk per position possible in the main program.

The Modified program will therefore be a little less diversified than its main program brother, and skewed slightly towards those positions and models which have higher risk and higher reward potential.

Managers

The investment managers of Attain Portfolio Advisors are Attain CEO Jeff Malec, CAIA and Dr. Jack Parker, PhD.

Mr. Malec holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, CAIA, designation. The CAIA program is designed to provide finance professionals with a broad base of knowledge in traditional and modern alternative investment vehicles, including real estate, private equity and commodities, as well as hedge funds and managed futures.

Jack Parker (PhD) joined the Attain team as director of research and development, responsible for trading system design and testing.

Dr. Parker has served in numerous academic, government, and private sector positions over the last 25 years involving research and application of advanced stochastic and numerical models.