About James Damschroder
James Damschroder’s career points toward the zenith (and sometimes nadir) where technology and investments intersect. A FinTech entrepreneur, investor, and executive since 2000, James is a patented inventor, quantitative finance pioneer, and investment manager.
He is the founder & CEO of Gravity Investments, a unique investment and technology services firm (Hybrid Roboadvisor) centered on James’ inventions for diversification measurement, optimization, visualization, and analysis.
Inspired by his mentor, Nobel Laureate Harry Markowitz and the efficient frontier, James has carried the torch forward to teach the world about diversification; distilling diversification as a self standing, independent feature in any portfolio, deserving treatment on the same level as risk or return. He has pioneered the science of diversification while championing fiduciary relationships and investor protection through diversification, optimization, systematization, and automation.
Portfolio construction centered on diversification—whether through Markowitz’s mean-variance optimization (MVO) or James’ Diversification Optimization (DVO)—externalizes as a sustainable and resilient economic paradigm. It fosters greater wealth, income, and opportunity diversity, reduces unfair inequality, and promotes meritocracy, standing in stark contrast to the boom-bust cycles perpetuated by naive capitalization-weighted index investing.
James’ technology has advised or assisted in managing over $30 billion in investor capital. At the heart of his vision for empowering investors with smarter, more effective investment management lies Gsphere (www.gsphere.net) the digital advice platform that reflects his passion for performance, curiosity for the unknown, and fiduciary-minded commitment to helping investors achieve their financial goals.
James’ innovations have drawn the attention of some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated investors, including sovereign wealth funds, top buy side institutions, and many billionaires and their investment teams. When working with their family offices and other wealth managers, funds and fintech startups as a strategic sub-advisor, consultant, or FinTech vendor, James has trained and consulted hundreds of professional investors on weaving diversification into the fabric of their portfolio design and optimization. With his ability to identify practical, intelligent, and quantifiable opportunities for improvement, James excels in leading investment process development or improvement.
James has been hands-on with machine learning since 2000 when a genetic algorithm proved to be the breakthrough enabling his optimization routine. Over the past decade, he has served as a Project Sponsor for Cornell University’s Master of Professional Studies (MPS) program, fostering innovation and collaboration in applied machine learning research. The best of such A.I. investing developments are operationalized into the platform such as deep learning stock predictions, which now integrate to the optimization platform as a Capital Market Assumption (CMA).
James launched his career at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and experienced the nerve center of investing first as a runner, then clerk and then member. Off the trading floor, James developed systematic strategies for investors at Rosenthal Collins Group and then found a more holistic perspective with a stint at AXA Advisors before his inventions compelled him. He earned his finance degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
An Investment professional and technologist with more than 25 years of experience, he has served as the Founder and Chief of Financial Engineering at Gravity Investments (www.gravityinvestments.com) since 2000 and as the Chief Investment Officer of Gravity Capital Partners, a wholly-owned SEC-Registered Investment Advisor since about 2010.
Recently, James has created Portfolio ThinkTank Inc. (www.portfoliothinktank.com), a B2C platform designed to level the playing field for all investors. Portfolio ThinkTank repurposes Gravity’s advanced portfolio optimization, portfolio analysis, automation and backtesting capabilities, delivering the full suite of capabilities in a user-friendly interface freely accessible to any investor having only the desire to do better. Its onramp is a Programmable Investment Policy Statement that empowers investors to articulate the objectives, preferences, limitations and rules that feed the optimized and automated strategy. Moreover, it empowers any user with the ability to measure, manage and improve portfolio diversification.
James lives with his beautiful wife, two great children and 11 year-old puppy in the front range of Colorado; his basecamp for adventures, sports, family, civic and intellectual pursuits. He is currently geeking out endeavoring to master deep learning.
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