The Beginning
A decade prior to the Even Herd’s inception, CEO and founder Sam Jurrens conceptualized and built an elementary version of a system that would become the cornerstone of the Even Herd’s proprietary guiding light. He recognized the challenges in diversified portfolio management and the absence of strategies immune to market timing or inherent bias.
A former value investor at his core with a passion for technology
Sam grappled with harmonizing these dual affinities. He was often torn watching tech companies he admired achieve robust growth, yet their valuations consistently seemed inflated by traditional metrics. Sam envisioned an investment approach that would capitalize on high-performing stocks while prioritizing diversification. Contrary to traditional value-based approaches, the system would proactively mitigate risks associated with undervalued stocks that face persistent decline, while highlighting top-performing stocks overlooked due to fundamental biases.
Identifying a gap in offerings for his family’s RIA and foreseeing potential demand from other RIAs and fiduciary institutions, Sam was motivated to establish Even Herd in 2023. This move was precipitated by the pronounced disparities in individual stock returns, continued economic uncertainties, and rising interest rates, marking an opportune moment for the launch of an alternative.
In the decade past, the original system faced technological limitations, leading to the selection of arbitrary variables and susceptibility to market noise. It was fragmented into 1,000s of processes to construct a comprehensive overview. Yet, akin to many modular systems, there was substantial data loss when compiling all the results.
Enter, cloud computing and web services.
Today, Even Herd’s advanced system conducts billions of calculations, eliminating the need to piece together insights from smaller components. What once would have taken over five years to compute can now be accomplished economically in under a day.
The system can now run nearly unconstrained, allowing it to be significantly more reactive. Looking at existing alternatives, it seemed no competing liquid alternative offered a momentum-based long/short strategy focusing solely on individual stocks rather than indices, and that was able to argue it was immune to market timing, making it suitable as a foundational long-term equity holding. Every alternative viewed still seemed to have some essence of market timing or was plagued with other risks caused by its strategy tilt or manager biases.
Adding to the need for a better strategy, there was now a belief that the markets are entering a new era, littered with economic uncertainties and excessive interventions, more akin to the 1960s and 70s. Bonds also seemed to now correlate closely with stocks, causing a further urgency for an alternative. There was a desire for hedging the portfolio; however, it had to be balanced with the ability to participate in continued upside in high-performing stocks. The uniqueness of the system to navigate these kinds of environments, made it a priority to pursue. The time had finally come to make this strategy a reality, leading to the launch of Even Herd’s inaugural ETF, EHLS.
The First ETF Launch
Even Herd’s Long Short ETF (EHLS)
The first in Even Herd’s portfolio strategy offerings is a long/short equity core that focuses on individual stocks and seeks to be agnostic to market timing while providing a hedge to portfolios without eschewing exposure to momentum names. EHLS strives to be the premier holding for fiduciary institutions seeking an equity core holding built for any market environment.
Bulls Invited
Leveraging a proprietary in-house system, Even Herd seeks to meticulously identify bullish frontrunners, committing capital to these equities as they sustain their upward trajectory. It is our conviction that a bull market invariably exists somewhere; it’s just finding it, which is what the system is designed to do.
Bears welcome
Just as the system identifies market leaders, it uses a mirrored approach seeking to detect underperformers, utilizing a system to short them strategically. This approach can provide a hedge in diverse market conditions, aiding a portfolio that can be agnostic to timing. As with bulls, bears should always be able to be found somewhere too.
Meet Leon
A fictitious advisor, Leon, discovered that EHLS addressed many challenges inherent in his practice’s portfolio management. Follow along with his journey, while he grapples with hedging, market timing, and passive investing, to uncover how Leon was able to find EHLS that emerged as a solution to his advisory paints.
Future Roadmap
EVEN HERD’S LONG-TERM PLAN
the PORTFOLIO MANAGER’S toolbox – agnostic to market timing
Beginning with a long/short equity ETF, EHLS, Even Herd intends to eventually debut its “long-only” strategy by segmenting it out from EHLS, allowing investors to augment additional equity exposure. Several other subsequent ETFs are planned, all powered by our proprietary system. As these strategies cement, they’ll eventually establish the building blocks for a comprehensive, diverse portfolio that can be mixed and matched to calibrate with risk tolerance.
Every strategy released will prioritize agnosticism towards market timing, focusing on watching the herd and catching the trends, no matter the environment.
Stay Informed
Join us on our journey to become the elite ETF toolbox for fiduciaries, helping them create unique portfolios for a discerning clientele that might even help them sleep at night. Read Leon’s whimsical story to see how it helped him and his practice.
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Recent Updates
The Even Herd Long Short ETF Debut
Announcing the launch of the Even Herd Long Short ETF (EHLS) Our inaugural ETF, designed to remain agnostic to market timing and serve as a core equity holding for a diverse clientele, is now listed[...]