Paul Hondros’ AlphaOne Capital Partners is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania- headquartered asset management firm with offices in San Francisco and Boston. It provides its services to institutions, advisors and high net worth individuals since its launching, back in April 2009, by utilizing alternative, equity investment strategies. Besides Paul Hondros (pictured below), who’s its President, CEO, and co-founder, the firm is run by its senior portfolio manager, Daniel Niles, who’s also its founding partner, as well as Stewart Stecker, Daniel Goldfarb, and Christopher M. Crooks who serve as its senior portfolio managers.
The head of the firm, a sixty-eight-years-old Mr. Paul Hondros, spent more than four decades in the investment industry, having vast experience in the financial services industry. After obtaining a BA in History from St. Joseph’s University, he joined SEI Investments in 1975. Since then, Mr. Hondros knew how to pave the way towards a successful career. He worked for Fidelity Investments, where he served as a CEO of its individual investor groups as well as the President and Chief Executive Officer of its Institutional Services Company, Inc. for seven years, until 1997. Prior to launching his own fund, Mr. Hondros served as President and Chief Operating Officer at Liberty Ridge Capital, Inc., and Pilgrim Baxter & Associates. Also, he was the Principal Executive Officer of Gartmore Variable Insurance at JP Morgan NVIT Balanced Fund and a CEO of Gartmore Distribution Trust plc. During his time in Gartmore Investment Management, he served as Non-Executive Chairman through 2003 and a CEO of the Gartmore Group for the following four years. Mr. Hondros serves as CEO at Nationwide Funds and AlphaOne Investment Services, LLC, while he’s also its President. He’s a member and a trustee in a number of funds, including Dreyfus Gvit International Value Fund, and Aberdeen Funds, to name a few.
The fund’s senior portfolio manager, Mr. Dan Niles holds a BS in Systems Engineering from Boston University, while he also obtained an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He started his career at Digital Equipment Corporation, where he worked as an Engineer, and entered the Wall Street world in 1990, being a part of Robertson Stephens’s mergers & acquisitions group for seven years. While there, he dealt with equity research. He also served as its Managing Director, until 2000, when he joined Lehman Brothers. For the following three years he served as a Managing Director and Head of Computer Hardware and Semiconductor Research in the company. In 2004 he became a Managing Director of Neuberger Berman, Inc., a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers, and also a CEO of Neuberger Berman Technology Management, LLC where he served for four years. The same year, he launched the AlphaOne Satori Fund which he has been managing for almost 15 years now. During the U.S. Performance Awards in New York in 2006, the fund was awarded the “Best Newcomer” by MARHedge.
AlphaOne Capital Partners employs equity long-short strategies as well as long-only small/micro-cap strategies through hedge funds, institutional separate accounts, and registered mutual funds. The fund’s investment strategies are based on deep fundamental research and insightful risk management. The firm’s aim is to provide its clients with a good investment performance through market cycles. As of March 2018, Alpha One Capital Partners’ wholly owned subsidiary AlphaOne Investment Services, LLC manages around 397.39 million of regulatory assets on a discretionary basis. It serves as an adviser as well as sub-adviser to registered investment companies such as AlphaOne NextGen Technology Fund (which is managed by Dan Niles), offshore and onshore private funds such as AlphaOne Satori Fund Ltd. (also under the guidance of Mr. Niles), as well as individually managed accounts. The firm is involved in a UMA program financed by an unaffiliated investment advisory firm. It employs a number of investment strategies including long and short term purchases, trading, short sales, options writing, derivative transactions, etc.
Even though investing in the tech sector was a smart thing to do over the past few years, 2018 was a bumpy ride, particularly for tech investors, mainly because of the US-China trade war, and also a major sell-off market witnessed in February, and then again in early October. Luckily, AlphaOne Capital Partners’ portfolio managers seem to have found their way during the last year’s roller coaster ride. For example, its US focused, long-short equity fund, AlphaOne Satori Fund, LP., which is technology biased, managed to return 5.26% last year (at least until October 29th). Since the fund lost 3.83% in 2017, 2018 return is definitely a success. And while the fund’s returns fluctuated throughout years, they remained positive the whole time, with 2017 being an exception. In 2013 and 2014 the fund returned 6.30% and 2.49%, respectively. 2015 was the most prosperous year for the fund since it returned 12.61%. Unfortunately, 2016 was a down year, with fund returning only 0.67%. Its total return amounted to 195.84%, for a compound annual return of 7.77%, and its worst drawdown was 18.99.
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And now, let’s breeze through the most significant changes the fund made to its portfolio on the next page.
