Monetizing Volatility.
Learn MoreOur Firm
Our History
Pearl was founded in January 2014 to act as the alternative investment arm of a California-based family office. In the course of managing the family's portfolio,
Why Volatility
With the introduction of many derivative based trading products, volatility has become a unique asset class to trade. Volatility derives its returns from, among other factors, the behavior of market participants. While other asset classes are tied to interest rates, currency movements, earnings, and innovation, volatility encapsulates the market's collective fear, greed, and complacency. These expectation-driven dynamics differ from what occurs in reality—creating a dynamic and persistent opportunity which may be monetized and may provide uncorrelated returns to other alternative equity and commodity programs.
Our Approach
Volatility investing is generally approached via two classic methods: shorting risk premium or "short-vol" and purchasing risk premium or "long-vol". Short-vol strategies are typically prone to negative returns during market stress or crisis. Long-vol strategies are usually characterized by prolonged periods of non- or negative-performance in the hopes they will produce returns during periods of market turmoil.
The
BarclayHedge Awards:
#5 Stock Index Ranked By Net Return - Jan 2017
#5 Stock Index Ranked By Net Return - May 2017
#3 Stock Index Ranked By Net Return - Aug 2017
#6 Short Term Ranked By Net Return - Aug 2017
#3 Stock Index Ranked By Net Return - Feb 2018
#6 Short Term Ranked By Net Return - Feb 2018
#3 Systematic Traders Ranked By Net Return - Feb 2018
#8 Ranked By Net Compound Annual Return - 2nd Q 2018
#10 Ranked By Net Compound Annual Return - 3rd Q 2018
#5 Stock Index Ranked By Net Return Yearly - 2018
#3 Stock Index Ranked By Net Return - May 2019
Pinnacle Awards:
Nominated: Best Emerging CTA - 2017
Winner: Best Single Sector CTA - 2018
Timothy Jacobson, CFAManaging Partner
CIO & CMO
Mr. Jacobson is a founding member of Pearl, co-creator and co-portfolio manager of the Pearl
Prior to co-founding Pearl, Mr. Jacobson had specialized in hedge fund manager research and due diligence, risk management processes and controls, and portfolio construction and optimization. He began his career at Franklin Templeton Investments where he worked on an alternative strategies team constructing and managing a series of in-house quantitative trading strategies. While at Franklin, Mr. Jacobson also oversaw risk reporting for the firm's international fixed income products and provided macroeconomic research to the firm's investment grade bond team.
Mr. Jacobson earned a B.S. in Management with an emphasis in Finance from Brigham Young University and holds the Series 3 registration and the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
Alexandra ElstonManaging Partner
CTO
Ms. Elston is a founding member of Pearl and leads the software development functions of Pearl's proprietary systems.
Prior to founding Pearl, Ms. Elston had specialized in software development, data processing and cloud technologies. Earlier in her career, Ms. Elston was lead architect on multiple projects using a wide range of technologies creating synergistic technology solutions in diverse industries including: financial institutions, military, and government organizations. Most fittingly Ms. Elston has developed multi-threading real-time risk monitoring applications for monitoring financial assets.
Ms. Elston received a bachelor's degree in Software Engineering from INCCA University (Bogota, Colombia) and her master's degree in Project Management with emphasis in software development from the prestigious Rosario University (Bogota, Colombia). Ms. Elston holds numerous industry certifications including, but not limited to: AWS Big Data Specialist, AWS Developer, and AWS Solutions Architect.
Lawson StringerManaging Partner
COO & CCO
Mr. Stringer is a founding member of Pearl, co-creator and co-portfolio manager of the Pearl
Prior to co-founding Pearl, Mr. Stringer had specialized in portfolio accounting, brokerage, back-office, and trading technology design. Earlier in his career, Mr. Stringer led a portfolio administration team at State Street Corporation, which he joined in 2006. His focus at State Street was counter party risk management for some of the world's largest insurance and pension funds such as CalPers & CalSters. Mr. Stringer began his career working for Henyep Investments, located in London, England, where he was a foreign exchange market maker.
Mr. Stringer holds the Series 3 and 65 registrations.
Phone: 650-278-2032
Mail: info@pearlcapitaladvisors.com
505 Montgomery, Suite 1143 | San Francisco, CA 94111