NAAIM Shark Tank Winners Named for Stock Selection Strategies and Tactical Stock Market Strategies


The National Association of Active Investment Managers (NAAIM) announced that first place winners for the November 2019 NAAIM Shark Tank Competition were Bill Davis, Managing Director, Stance Capital LLC and John Worthington with Dauble+Worthington Equity Portfolios. Davis took top place in the Stock Selection Strategy category with his firm’s Stance Equity ESG Large Cap Core, while Worthington’s D+W Sector Rotation was named the top Tactical Stock Market Strategy at the competition held in Dallas, Texas, on Sunday, November 10, 2019.

Now in its sixth year, the NAAIM Shark Tank competition is a rapid-fire competition of investment managers making 7-minute strategy presentations in front of a live audience, followed by 10 minutes of questions from the judges and audience. Strategy performance data must be based on verifiable, real-money returns from actual trading, gross of fees.

The November 2019 event marked the first competition in which strategies competed based on investment approach. “When we looked at the active investment strategies that have competed in the Shark Tank over the last five years, there were distinctly different approaches and performance goals, which made judging a bit like comparing apples to oranges,” explained Dave Moenning, chair of the Shark Tank Committee and winner for the 2018 Shark Tank Competition. “By grouping investment strategies by type of approach, the competition drills down to superior strategies within specific investment niches.”

The winning Stock Selection Strategy – Stance Equity ESG Large Cap Core – is an actively managed quant strategy focused on members of S&P 500 that offer compelling financial fundamentals and off balance sheet outperformance relative to industry group peers on material risk factors relating to environmental, social, and governance risk factors. Stance Equity’s objective is to outperform benchmarks on both absolute and risk-adjusted returns, while at the same time demonstrating significant impact with respect to lower carbon profile and higher “green” product and service revenues. Notably, the strategy does not hold fossil fuel, tobacco, and weapons. Stance Capital is a Massachusetts-based Registered Investment Advisor, serving individuals, families, endowments, and institutions. The firm also builds products for other investment firms under research and sub-advisory agreements.

First place in the Tactical Stock Market Strategy category – D+W Sector Rotation – is an aggressive growth focused tactical sector rotation strategy. It seeks capital appreciation in rising markets as well as capital preservation during extreme market losses. The model follows proprietary trend and relative strength indicators and seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in specific mutual funds in the ProFunds Ultra Sector series which include leverage. It may invest in and may shift frequently among these funds and money markets. Manager Dauble+Worthington Equity Portfolios (D+WEP) is a Registered Investment Advisory firm (RIA) located in Evansville, IN. The firm specializes in tactically allocated, trend-following investment programs that focus on risk control while striving for absolute and relative price performance.

The winning managers received a cash prize of $1,000 each; promotion to NAAIM Membership; live meetings with Manager-of-Managers firms; and, pending due diligence approval, the winning strategies will be promoted to a TAMP platform’s client base and the manager will receive an invitation to the firm’s annual conference.

The competition judges were comprised of a panel of investment professionals selected by the NAAIM Shark Tank committee. The 2019 judges included David Daughtrey, Copperwynd Financial, LLC; Dina Fliss, Global View Capital, and past Shark Tank winners David Bush, founder of ALPHATATIVE, and John McClure, founder, president and CIO of ProfitScore Capital Management, Inc.

About the Winners:

Bill Davis

Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, Stance Capital LLC

Prior to forming Stance Capital, LLC, Mr. Davis was co-founder and Managing Director of Empirical Asset Management, and Portfolio Manager on EAM Sustainable Equity, a strategy he launched in 2014. Prior to co-founding Empirical, he was the founder and CEO of Ze-gen, a venture and private equity backed renewable energy company. Mr. Davis received a B.A. from Connecticut College, and his career in business has included serving as CEO or founder of numerous companies including: Database Marketing Corporation in 1986, Holland Mark in 1997, and Cambridge Brand Analytics in 2003. He is Vice Chair of Impact Infrastructure, LLC, and serves on not-for-profit boards of Seven Hills Global Outreach and Commonwealth Corporation. He is a founding member of the President’s Council of Ceres. Mr. Davis has taught at Columbia University Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, and guest lectured at Harvard College, Harvard Business School, MIT, MIT/Sloan, and Boston University. Mr. Davis holds a Series 65.

John Worthington

Partner, Dauble+Worthington Equity Portfolios

Mr. Worthington has been a founder and Partner of Dauble+Worthington Equity Portfolios since 2008 and manages multiple equity portfolios focused on managing risk and achieving growth. He holds a B.S. degree from the University of Evansville, with a focus on marketing, business.

About NAAIM

The National Association of Active Investment Managers (NAAIM) is a non-profit trade group of more than 130 registered investment advisors who collectively manage over $35 billion in assets. NAAIM members provide active money management services to their clients to produce favorable risk-adjusted returns as an alternative to more passive, buy-and-hold investment strategies. NAAIM publishes the weekly NAAIM Exposure Index, maintains a members-only NAAIM Indicator Wall of stock market indicators, sponsors the annual NAAIM Founders Award for outstanding papers advancing awareness of active investments management, and sponsors the annual Uncommon Knowledge and NAAIM Outlook conferences. For more information, visit http://www.naaim.org.

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