Looking ahead, the investing landscape seems more difficult, especially after three robust years of equity returns. More capital preservation strategies should be considered. At the same time, corporate earnings are still growing. Further, the long-term trend for stocks is up and to the right.
What is a person who doesn’t want to actively manage their money, but who also wants to hedge against downside risk to do? Find an investing platform that does these things.
In 2021, I was introduced to Titan Global Capital Management (Titan) by an old VC friend of mine, Mark G. He was an early investor in Personal Capital and acted as their CMO for several years. Mark and I actually overlapped at Personal Capital for a couple of years while I did some consulting.
Given Titan was founded only three years earlier in February 2018, I decided to see how they’d do for another year before sharing their work. I’m happy to say they’ve grown tremendously. Further, I think the timing is right to talk about their product now as the markets get more volatile.
Titan is an investment platform bringing premier, active investment management to everyone. Here’s Titan sharing their value proposition in their own words.
Why Does Titan Exist?
Wealth is crucial to our health and security. But we haven’t been properly taught how to grow our wealth or given tools to do so. We’ve been forced to choose between subpar options: unaffordable old-school wealth management, too-conservative mutual funds / ETFs, and uniformed “do it yourself” investing.
Managing and growing your wealth is a full-time job. With Titan, our experienced investment team does that job for you.
Founding Team / Story
The world tells the average retail investor to “run along and go put your money in an ETF.” But for the ultra-wealthy, the equation completely flips: “Welcome to first class. Which specialty funds would you like?” This didn’t sit right with Titan’s founders, so they set out to level the playing field.
Co-Founder and Co-CEO Clay Gardner spent the majority of his career as an investor at multi-billion dollar hedge funds, applying the long-term, quality-oriented approach that Titan uses today.
Co-Founder and Co-CEO Joe Percoco has a well-developed perspective of today’s financial and technology ecosystems, spending time investing at Goldman Sachs and a long/short equity hedge fund, as well as McKinsey & Co. in their technology practice.
Co-Founder and CTO Max Bernardy was a senior engineer and early employee at a hedge fund and several early-stage technology companies.
What Does Titan Do?
Titan is the new-guard investment platform bringing premier, active investment management to all.
We are the first Direct-To-Consumer, mobile-first investment platform where everyday investors, irrespective of wealth, can have their capital actively managed by 10+ investment experts in long-term strategies. We also just launched the first actively managed crypto portfolio available to US investors (except in NY).
Through the Titan app, investors and potential investors have courtside seats to the strategy, research, and commentary of Titan’s Investment Management team. The insights are accessible for clients from all levels of financial knowledge.
Investing with Titan not only grows clients’ long-term wealth, but transforms them into the smartest investors they’ve ever been. Here’s a recent portfolio update we sent to our clients. And here’s one of our daily “Three Things” email highlighting important moves in the market (some of which impact their portfolios).
Titan offers all U.S. investors access to four outstanding actively-managed investment products: Flagship, Opportunities, Offshore, and Crypto.
Titan’s Goals
1. Grow your capital long-term. Titan aims to outperform the market, not track it, in order to double your money every 5-7 years.
2. Education. Titan can enable you to be the smartest investor you’ve ever been by giving you court-side seats to the strategy, research, and commentary of our internal Investment Management team. If you enjoy learning about individual companies and general market research, you’ll enjoy Titan’s insights.
From instant investing to portfolio manager access, we provide access to many cutting-edge features that other firms do not, free of charge.
Accolades + Stats
In under three years, Titan has grown to $750 million AUM and 35,000+ clients.
Titan has raised $75 million to date at a valuation of $450 million from premier venture capital firms. They include Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Sound Ventures, and BoxGroup. In addition, we have raised capital from people such as Will Smith, Odell Beckham Jr., Kevin Durant, and Jared Leto.
Titan was also ranked the #1 Robo-Advisor by US News in 2020. In addition, Titan was included on the Forbes’ Next Billion Dollar Startups list in 2021.
Titan’s Investment Strategies / Product Offerings
1) Flagship is our large-cap US growth strategy made up of high-quality, big-name companies that they believe can compound capital in excess of the S&P 500. The portfolio contains 15-25 stocks with an average market cap of nearly $600 billion. Flagship has an annualized return of 20.4% (after fees) since inception (February 2018).
2) Opportunities is Titan’s small/mid-cap US growth strategy made up of companies that they believe can grow at exceptional rates and become the next crop of rising stars. The portfolio contains 15-25 stocks with an average market cap of $13 billion. Impressively, Opportunities has an annualized return of 61.4% (after fees) since inception (August 2020).
3) Offshore is Titan’s international growth strategy made up of some of the world’s best businesses in emerging and developed markets from China to Latin America and beyond. The portfolio contains 15-25 stocks with an average market cap of $175 billion. Offshore has an annualized return of -8.8% since inception (after fees), but was just recently created in April 2021.
4) Crypto is the newest addition to Titan, and is the first actively managed portfolio of crypto-assets made available to all investors that Titan believes are positioned for outstanding long-term returns with minimal correlation to equities and with attractive hedging qualities. The portfolio typically holds around 5-10 cryptoassets, and has an annualized return of 329.8% (after fees) since inception in August 2021.
Recommended Portfolio Mix
Depending on how much money you have invested with Titan as well as your preferred investing style and risk tolerance (aggressive, moderate, or conservative), Titan will provide a custom, recommended % allocation to each of their portfolios.
Risk Tolerance + Hedging By Titan
There are multiple ways that Titan provides downside protection to their clients. The primary way is by including a hedge, a holding that bets against the market, in their portfolio. The size of your hedge will depend on your preferred investing style and risk tolerance – aggressive, moderate, or conservative.
When the Titan investment team does not believe their portfolios are undergoing or have high risk of undergoing an extended downturn:
- 0% of portfolio value is hedged if your preferred investing style is “aggressive”
- 5% of portfolio value is hedged if your preferred investing style is “moderate”
- 10% of portfolio value is hedged if your preferred investing style is “conservative”
When the Titan investment team does believe their portfolios are undergoing or have high risk of undergoing an extended downturn:
- At least 5% of portfolio value is hedged if your preferred investing style is “aggressive”
- At least 10% of portfolio value is hedged if your preferred investing style is “moderate”
- At least 20% of portfolio value is hedged if your preferred investing style is “conservative”
During times of especially uncertain market volatility, the Titan investment team can also seek to preserve client capital and minimize risk by reducing equity exposure and increasing cash holdings. This cash reserve also allows Titan to make opportunistic investments when company valuations decline to attractive levels.
Sam’s note: Titan’s ability to offer hedged portfolios at a lower cost in this environment to be attractive. It is a unique investment offering I haven’t seen elsewhere. Since 2012, I’ve invested in structured notes to provide for downside protection and for potential leveraged upside. If I hadn’t invested in hedged investments, I wouldn’t have invested as much money as I have into equities.
How Titan Works
1. Deposit money into Titan via the app. Titan is 100% mobile-only.
2. Select a portfolio or multiple (Flagship, Opportunities, Offshore, and Crypto) for your money to be invested into. Titan will recommend a portfolio mix based on your preferred investing style, risk tolerance, and the amount that you’ve deposited. Your job is now done.
3. The Titan team buys the stocks in your selected portfolio. You now own fractional shares of the stocks or assets that Titan’s analyst team has selected for the portfolio.
4. From there, Titan will make updates by buying/selling stocks in the portfolios while explaining every move Titan makes with consistent written, audio, and video updates.
How Titan Differs From Other Modern Investing Products
There are a few different behaviors that consumers in today’s investing market engage in. The first is “set and forget,” when people invest in robo-advisors with general portfolios that generally track the market. These consumers want everything done for them and don’t want to engage with their investing experience much at all.
Another behavior is “do it yourself,” where you use an investing app to buy and sell all of your own stocks and assets. Managing existing positions and researching new ones requires a lot of time, energy, and skill. This is an activity most of us don’t have enough time to do successfully.
Enter Titan. When you become a client of Titan, our team of investment analysts will work to grow your capital in our strategies that aim to outperform the market in the long term, not track it. Additionally, Titan gives you insights to all of our investment decisions and market moves relevant to your portfolio.
Pricing
You can start investing with Titan for $5/month (if you have less than $10,000 in deposits); that’s the price of a cup of coffee in New York City. Once you invest $10,000 or more, it switches over to a flat 1% annual advisory fee (compared to 2% and 20% of profits for the average hedge fund).
Low Minimums and No Lockups
All you need is $100 (our minimum deposit) to get started, and there are never any lockups. Take your money out anytime.
Referral Program
Titan also has a robust referral program. In the Titan app, you can easily invite others to sign up for a Titan account by sending them an email, text, or social invitation.
For each eligible referral that you complete, you will win an entire portfolio of Titan stocks (or crypto) that could be worth up to $10,000. At a minimum, all portfolios rewarded will be worth at least $25. In addition, each person that you refer will automatically receive a 100-day free trial to Titan.
Sign up for Titan today!
