Pasi Havia
My portfolio HCP Quant differs as much from the other available funds in Finland as I differ from my portfolio manager colleagues. I have a long history with computers, and I admit of being a full-blooded nerd. I started programming in primary school with Commodore 64 and the programming language Basic, soon continuing to assembly language. When other kids my age were playing Kick the Can, I was trying to break the limits of my computer. In the dark hours of the night, I produced demos, and in the demo scene we competed against each other as to who could bend the limits of computers most.
Eventually, my hobby turned into a career in the IT industry. Before joining Helsinki Capital Partners as a portfolio manager, I worked in large and small organisations. My positions ranged from software developer and software
architect to chief technology officer.
I am the author of one of the most popular investing blogs in Finland. In 2011 and 2014, Cision, which is a leading global provider of media solutions, ranked my blog “Kohti taloudellista riippumattomuutta” (Towards financial independence) as the second most popular economics blog in Finland. In my first book “Erilainen ote omaan talouteen – Vapaus, onni ja hyvä elämä” (A different take on personal finance – freedom, happiness and a good life), which was published in 2014, I cover the relationship between money and happiness and discuss the role money and consumption play in our lives. The book offers building blocks to improve one’s personal finances through different saving and investing methods.
The investment strategy employed in the HCP Quant fund combines computer modelling and financial theory. It comes naturally to me to form a comprehensible and usable concept from complex and chaotic things. My strengths in investing are a strong understanding of probabilities and being rigidly systematic. In investing, nothing is certain, but some scenarios are more likely to happen than others. With the HCP Quant strategy, the portfolio is exposed to positive impacts in the future with a high probability.
I worked years to build my investment strategy, researching different market anomalies and investment methods – their pros and cons. After digging through countless of financial articles, modelling and researching multiple different investment strategies, I created the strategy HCP Quant uses. Although historical returns are not a guarantee of future returns, I must say that the HCP Quant strategy has performed extremely well the entire time it has been in use. As of Oct 4th, 2010, the strategy’s return after fees has been 186% (at the end of 2016). I continuously work on improving the strategy. The fact that one can always learn more about investing is one of the key elements keeping me passionate about the field.
My strategy utilizes traditional value investing and small capitalization stock anomaly, but in an untraditional way. The strategy uses quantitative methods to pick companies to invest in, and only after a company meets several criteria based on numerical facts, a decision to invest in it is made. Some important factors are, for example, the long-term development of the company’s debt and the company’s profitability.
The HCP Quant investment strategy is most suitable to investors who are able to bear equity risk. Additionally, it is advisable to have an understanding of value investing and the fact that even strategies that outperform the market in the long run will have periods of underperformance.
– Pasi Havia