History
In 2011, our principals met for the first time: Wayne Ferbert with Arun Muthupalaniappan and Rod Fertig. In that meeting, Arun told Wayne: "If you can track the digital footprint (ie, alt data) of a publicly traded company, you can predict that company's growth and the growth of its competitors. When you juxtapose that growth estimate against the Wall Street consensus, you will find trading opportunities."
In late 2014, Alpha DNA Investment Management (Alpha DNA IM) started investing capital for advisors utilizing its proprietary, cutting edge research platform. Alpha DNA IM began as an affiliated advisor subsidiary to a larger derivatives sub-advisory firm (ZEGA Financial). Wayne Ferbert was a co-founder of both ZEGA Financial and Alpha DNA IM.
In 2017, Alpha DNA IM spun out of ZEGA to become an independent advisor and Wayne Ferbert exited ZEGA to run Alpha DNA IM full time. alpha-dna IM Labs is a research company that was formed by Rod and Arun to act as a dedicated product development arm for new investment strategies. Alpha DNA IM and alpha-dna IM Labs formed a joint venture (Alpha DNA) to deliver its investment strategies to its clients.
Alpha DNA is committed to constant improvement of both its research platform and its hedging programs. Alpha DNA has expanded both its research offering and its machine learning capabilities each and every year of its existence.
Alpha DNA IM launched its first hedged equity strategy in 2017 - the Large Cap Hedged Equity strategy. We followed up with the Mid Small Cap Hedged equity strategy a year later. The long only version of these strategies has always been available to advisors that request it.
In 2021, Alpha DNA IM surpassed the $100 million mark in AUM and became an SEC registered investment advisor.
In 2022, the firm launched the Alpha DNA Enhanced Dividend strategy. And in 2023, it has launched the Core GARP (Growth at a Reasonable Price) strategy.
Meet the Team
Wayne Ferbert
Managing Director
Wayne has spent his entire 30-year career in financial services. He founded Alpha DNA Investment Management to broaden the use of machine learning in the Hedged Equity space.
He previously co-founded ZEGA Financial to specialize in risk-management strategies using options. ZEGA’s founding principles grew out of the book Wayne co-authored entitled Buy and Hedge, the Five Iron Rules for Investing Over the Long Term.
Wayne spent 10 years in the online brokerage segment with TD Ameritrade. He managed Business Development as a member of the Senior Operating Committee-including M&A and Market Research--as well as ran Product Development. Previously, Wayne held planning & analytical roles at Fortune 500 insurance and banking firms.
Arun Muthupalaniappan
Arun is Managing Partner at alpha-DNA, a boutique research firm that specializes in growth analytics leveraging real-time digital information and machine learning to improve portfolio decisions in Investment management.
Through his 20+ year career prior to founding alpha-DNA, he has led data-centric capabilities transformation across Fortune 500 brands, designing and successfully monetizing information-based strategies across consumer finance, retail, e-commerce and advertising businesses.
Rod Fertig
Rod is a Partner and co-founder of alpha-DNA. Rod has spent over a decade leading Customer and Digital analytics transformation inside large global Financial Services businesses. Rod is passionate about creating structure around unstructured digital data, and the real-world application of autonomous learning algorithms making it truly actionable for improved high-value decisions in Marketing and Finance.
Joshua Chartier
Associate Portfolio Manager
Joshua is an associate portfolio manager at Alpha DNA. He is a CFA charterholder, holds an FRM designation, and has over 10 years of experience in investment management. An MIT physics graduate, he began his career as consultant and software engineer.
He became deeply interested in finance after the 2008 financial crisis. He followed that interest to HighVista strategies where he wrote software and became a founding member of their portfolio monitoring team. Josh left to pursue his interest in the intersection of machine learning and finance which led him to Alpha DNA.
History
In 2011, our principals met for the first time: Wayne Ferbert with Arun Muthupalaniappan and Rod Fertig. In that meeting, Arun told Wayne: "If you can track the digital footprint (ie, alt data) of a publicly traded company, you can predict that company's growth and the growth of its competitors. When you juxtapose that growth estimate against the Wall Street consensus, you will find trading opportunities."
In late 2014, Alpha DNA Investment Management (Alpha DNA IM) started investing capital for advisors utilizing its proprietary, cutting edge research platform. Alpha DNA IM began as an affiliated advisor subsidiary to a larger derivatives sub-advisory firm (ZEGA Financial). Wayne Ferbert was a co-founder of both ZEGA Financial and Alpha DNA IM.
In 2017, Alpha DNA IM spun out of ZEGA to become an independent advisor and Wayne Ferbert exited ZEGA to run Alpha DNA IM full time. alpha-dna IM Labs is a research company that was formed by Rod and Arun to act as a dedicated product development arm for new investment strategies. Alpha DNA IM and alpha-dna IM Labs formed a joint venture (Alpha DNA) to deliver its investment strategies to its clients.
Alpha DNA is committed to constant improvement of both its research platform and its hedging programs. Alpha DNA has expanded both its research offering and its machine learning capabilities each and every year of its existence.
Alpha DNA IM launched its first hedged equity strategy in 2017 - the Large Cap Hedged Equity strategy. We followed up with the Mid Small Cap Hedged equity strategy a year later. The long only version of these strategies has always been available to advisors that request it.
In 2021, Alpha DNA IM surpassed the $100 million mark in AUM and became an SEC registered investment advisor.
In 2022, the firm launched the Alpha DNA Enhanced Dividend strategy. And in 2023, it has launched the Core GARP (Growth at a Reasonable Price) strategy.
Meet the Team
Wayne Ferbert
Managing Director
Wayne has spent his entire 30-year career in financial services. He founded Alpha DNA Investment Management to broaden the use of machine learning in the Hedged Equity space.
He previously co-founded ZEGA Financial to specialize in risk-management strategies using options. ZEGA’s founding principles grew out of the book Wayne co-authored entitled Buy and Hedge, the Five Iron Rules for Investing Over the Long Term.
Wayne spent 10 years in the online brokerage segment with TD Ameritrade. He managed Business Development as a member of the Senior Operating Committee-including M&A and Market Research--as well as ran Product Development. Previously, Wayne held planning & analytical roles at Fortune 500 insurance and banking firms.
Arun Muthupalaniappan
Arun is Managing Partner at alpha-DNA, a boutique research firm that specializes in growth analytics leveraging real-time digital information and machine learning to improve portfolio decisions in Investment management.
Through his 20+ year career prior to founding alpha-DNA, he has led data-centric capabilities transformation across Fortune 500 brands, designing and successfully monetizing information-based strategies across consumer finance, retail, e-commerce and advertising businesses.
Rod Fertig
Rod is a Partner and co-founder of alpha-DNA. Rod has spent over a decade leading Customer and Digital analytics transformation inside large global Financial Services businesses. Rod is passionate about creating structure around unstructured digital data, and the real-world application of autonomous learning algorithms making it truly actionable for improved high-value decisions in Marketing and Finance.
Joshua Chartier
Associate Portfolio Manager
Joshua is an associate portfolio manager at Alpha DNA. He is a CFA charterholder, holds an FRM designation, and has over 10 years of experience in investment management. An MIT physics graduate, he began his career as consultant and software engineer.
He became deeply interested in finance after the 2008 financial crisis. He followed that interest to HighVista strategies where he wrote software and became a founding member of their portfolio monitoring team. Josh left to pursue his interest in the intersection of machine learning and finance which led him to Alpha DNA.