Something that's unique about Capstone Investment Advisors, LLC, or Capstone U.S., is that it only focuses on the management of funds. Therefore, Capstone currently doesn't have any individuals as direct clients.
Capstone is a hedge fund management firm that has a large team of financial advisors on staff. The firm has its headquarters in New York City. It has three central investment strategies that it uses to manage the hedge funds under its control. If you’re an individual looking for a financial advisor, SmartAsset’s advisor matching tool can set you up with options in your area.
Capstone Investment Advisors Background
Paul Britton founded Capstone Investment Advisors back in 2007, and he continues to be the principal owner of the firm to this day. Britton has worked in the financial services industry for around 25 years. Capstone has a presence in both New York and the United Kingdom, and it acquired an additional office in The Netherlands in 2017.
Several of Capstone's advisors have earned professional certifications such as chartered financial analyst (CFA), certified public accountant (CPA) or chartered alternative investment analyst (CAIA).
Capstone Investment Advisors Client Types and Minimum Account Sizes
Capstone Investment Advisors’ client base currently includes 26 pooled investment vehicles, all of which are hedge funds. These consist of an aggregate amount of investable assets from different investors, which is treated as a single portfolio. The only other clients are a small number of pension/profit-sharing plans and charitable organizations.
Capstone Investment Advisors doesn’t maintain any sort of minimum requirements for the funds it advises. These funds may themselves have minimum investment amounts for investors, but that will vary on an individual basis.
Services Offered by Capstone Investment Advisors
Capstone Investment Advisors provides investment management services through three platforms: CVM, Solutions and DDA. More specifically, the firm seeks to grow client portfolios through the practice of relative value trading, which is described further below.
Capstone acts as the investment manager for several different hedge funds that are in turn offered to investors on a private placement basis. These vehicles include:
- CVM
- Capstone Vol (US), LP
- Capstone Vol (Offshore) Limited
- Capstone Volatility Master (Cayman) Limited
- DDA
- Capstone Diversified Dynamic Alpha Strategy Fund, LLC
- Capstone Diversified Dynamic Alpha Fund, Ltd.
- Solutions
- CPP-2012-1 Fund Limited
- Capstone Income Opportunities, Ltd
- Capstone Income Opportunities II, Ltd.
- Capstone Equity Replacement Master Fund Ltd.
- Capstone Equity Replacement Fund (Cayman) Ltd.
- Capstone Pi Sigma Fund (US) LP
- Capstone WDV Fund, LLC
- KS-Capstone Fund Limited
- Capstone SPC Fund Ltd.
- Dispersion Funds
- Capstone Dispersion Master Fund Ltd.
- Capstone Dispersion Fund (Cayman) Ltd.
- Capstone Dispersion Fund (US) LP
- Capstone Full Court Press LP
- Capstone Phi Kappa Fund Ltd.
Capstone Investment Advisors Investment Philosophy
Capstone Investment Advisors seeks to manage funds with a wide range of investment strategies, but two key strategies are volatility arbitrage and relative value trading. The volatility of a financial asset (usually options, in the case of Capstone) is measured as how significantly it varies from the mean.
Volatility arbitrage is the practice of exploiting perceived inefficiencies between how the volatility of an option is priced and how the firm believes it should be priced. As this is a particularly risky form of investing, Capstone has several strategies in place to diversify the way it capitalizes on these inefficiencies.
Relative value trading can take a few different forms, but in general, this is a practice where an investor trades one or more securities in relation to others or the market at large. For example, let’s say you believe Coca-Cola will outperform PepsiCo in the future. To make a relative value trade, you would buy shares in Coke and simultaneously short the same amount in Pepsi shares. By doing so, you’re ensuring that you’ll make money no matter how the overall market performs - so long as Coke performs better than Pepsi.
Capstone Investment Advisors Fees
Capstone Investment Advisors charges the hedge funds it manages a varying, percentage-based annual fee. Each type of fund adheres to its own maximum rate:
- CVM: Up to 2.00%
- Solutions Accounts: Up to 1.25%
What to Watch Out For
Capstone Investment Advisors has a couple of disclosures listed on its Form ADV. For one of these, the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority found in 2016 that one Capstone-sponsored fund failed to submit proper disclosure documents in a timely fashion, which resulted in a $22,000 fine. The other disclosure is in relation to an advisory affiliate of the firm.
Capstone Investment Advisors doesn’t provide financial planning services or work with individual clients. So if you’re an individual seeking investment management and/or financial planning services, you'll need to find another advisor. To check out the options in your area, stop by SmartAsset's advisor matching tool.
Depending on the investment fund, Capstone may also receive performance-based fees. It states in its Form ADV that this may give the firm an incentive to favor these accounts over those that don't pay performance-based fees. Regardless, Capstone is a fiduciary, legally binding it to act in your best interest.
Opening an Account With Capstone Investment Advisors
While the firm only manages hedge funds, you can still contact it by calling over the phone or sending an email.
All information is accurate as of the writing of this article.
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