Signal
We test a great many ideas and keep very few. A signal earns its place by surviving the periods that would have broken it, not the periods that flatter it.
Fulcrums, a start up boutique quantitative fund firm
Most of a market is noise.
We trade what is left.
The lever gets the credit.
The fulcrum does the *work.*
Built on the fixed point.
Fulcrums is a start up boutique quantitative fund firm. No management fee, performance shared only above ten percent, and open to a small number of members by invitation.
The fulcrum does the work.
Fulcrums is a start up boutique quantitative fund firm. No management fee, and we share performance only above ten percent.
The idea the firm is named for
Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.
About us
We are a start up boutique quantitative fund firm.
Our objective is the systematic appreciation of client capital through proprietary quantitative trading across liquid asset classes. Admission is strictly by invitation.
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01
By invitation only
There is no public subscription. Every investor arrives through an invitation and a conversation, and a fixed entry threshold applies to each invitee.
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02
Systematic by construction
Positions come from proprietary models, not from a morning opinion. The same inputs on the same day produce the same trade.
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03
Aligned by fee structure
We charge no management fee at all. We are paid only when your annual return clears ten percent, which means we are paid only after you are.
How it works
Three moving parts. Nothing hidden behind them.
The models themselves are proprietary and stay that way. How they are governed is not, and that is the part you can actually hold us to.
Size
Position size is set by the model's confidence and by the risk already on the book. Conviction never overrides the sizing rule, because that is the rule that fails first.
Stop
Trading runs through an execution only connection to the account. We place trades. We never hold, move, or withdraw the capital itself.
A lever is only as good as the thing it rests on.
Hold it and the beam comes level. Let go early and it settles back, which is rather the point.
Alignment
What we put in writing.
The strategy is proprietary and stays that way. The commercial terms are the opposite: they are fixed, written into the term sheet, and yours to hold us to.
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No management fee. None at all.
No front end load, no ongoing management fee, no per transaction charges, and no administrative costs taken out along the way.
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You keep the first ten percent
Performance allocation starts only above a ten percent net annual return, and it carries a perpetual high water mark, so we are never paid twice for the same gains.
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Your capital is segregated
Brokerage accounts are held in the name of the investment vehicle. We trade them through execution only access, with no direct access to the capital and no commingling.
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A NAV statement every month
Net asset value in writing within the first week of each calendar month, and an Annual Refresh statement, net of any performance allocation, at your anniversary.
How we get paid
Nothing on the first ten percent.
Most funds charge you whether they perform or not. We charge no management fee, and our share only begins once your net annual return passes ten percent. Above that it rises in bands, and it is capped.
| Tier | Annual net return | Our share | Your share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 hurdle | 0.0% to 10.0% | 0% | 100% |
| Tier 2 | 10.1% to 20.0% | 10% | 90% |
| Tier 3 | 20.1% to 30.0% | 20% | 80% |
| Tier 4 | 30.1% to 40.0% | 30% | 70% |
| Tier 5 | 40.1% to 50.0% | 40% | 60% |
| Tier 6 cap | Above 50.0% | 50% | 50% |
Performance allocation is calculated at each annual anniversary, or on an off cycle redemption, and is subject to a perpetual high water mark. Your investment cycle begins on the first day of the month after your subscription funds clear, and your anniversary recurs on that date every year.
Liquidity
Getting in, and getting out.
This is a locked structure and we would rather you read the hard parts here than find them later. All of it is set out in the term sheet you receive before you commit anything.
- Redemption window
- Once a year, at your anniversary.You receive your Annual Refresh NAV statement in the first week after it, which opens a seven day window to submit a redemption request.
- Payment
- Within 30 calendar days of an approved request.
- Partial withdrawal
- Not permitted.A redemption is all or nothing.
- First 12 months
- Payout capped at 0.90 for every 1.00 invested.If you redeem inside the first year you take a loss on principal by design. This structure is not for money you may need back quickly.
- Off cycle exit
- Penalised, 2.5% per quarter elapsed.2.5% within 3 months of your last refresh, 5.0% to 6 months, 7.5% to 9 months, 10.0% to 12 months. That is 10% a year, pro rated quarterly.
- Units
- Non transferable.
- If we end the relationship
- You are paid the prevailing Annual Refresh NAV plus 2.5% for each 3 month period since that refresh.
Structure
What you actually own.
Capital is pooled in a dedicated vehicle, kept separate from the manager, and traded under an arrangement that gives us the trades and never the money.
- The vehicle
- A Wyoming manager managed limited liability company.Capital is pooled there rather than held by the manager.
- What you hold
- Passive, non voting Class B membership units.
- The manager
- A separate Wyoming LLC with sole trading authority.It owns the proprietary algorithms and the trade intellectual property.
- Custody
- Brokerage accounts are in the vehicle's name.The manager trades through execution only API access or a limited power of attorney, with no direct capital access and no commingling.
- Beneficiaries
- One primary and one contingent.On verified activation, settlement is made on the preceding monthly NAV, without penalty, within 30 days.
- Referrals
- Two candidates per year, at each Annual Refresh.Invitations remain subject to the same evaluation as any other.
- Tax
- Yours to report and pay.Investors are solely responsible for all tax arising from distributions and NAV appreciation.
Plainly
What we will not put on this page.
A new firm cannot show a ten year record, and dressing one up is how funds fail their first serious diligence. So here is the honest version.
- Stage
- Start up. Founded and building.We are early. We would rather say it here than have you discover it on a call.
- Track record
- Not yet published.It goes up when there is enough of it to mean something.
- Guarantees
- None.Returns and principal are speculative and can be lost in part or in full.
- Real time holdings
- Confidential, deliberately.Live trade logs would give away the strategy. You get NAV monthly instead, and the commercial terms in full.
- Open to
- Non US investors, by invitation.
- What proves us today
- The terms, in writing, and a conversation with the two people who built it.
Questions
Questions people actually ask.
Is this a black box?
The models are proprietary and real time holdings are confidential. We are not going to pretend otherwise, because publishing live trade logs would hand the strategy away.
What is not hidden is everything about your money: what you own, where it is held, who can touch it, what we charge, when you can leave, and what it costs you if you leave early. All of it is in the term sheet before you commit anything. A fund that is opaque about its commercial terms as well as its models is the one to walk away from.
What do you charge?
No management fee, no entry load, no per transaction charges, no hidden administrative costs. We are paid only from performance, and only above a ten percent net annual return.
Above that our share rises in bands from ten percent up to a cap of fifty percent, and it is subject to a perpetual high water mark, so we are never paid twice for recovering ground already lost. The full table is above.
You have no track record. Why would I look at this?
Because at this stage the terms are the part you can actually check, and they are the part most funds are weakest on. Read the fee table, the liquidity terms, and the structure above, then ask us to walk through any of them. If it does not hold up, you have your answer quickly and it costs you nothing.
What happens in a bad month?
You get a NAV statement in the first week of the following month, the same as every other month, and we take no performance allocation at all until you are back above your high water mark and past the ten percent hurdle again.
A drawdown costs us before it stops costing you. That is the point of having no management fee.
How quickly can I get my money out?
Slowly, and you should assume that before you subscribe. Redemptions happen once a year at your anniversary, inside a seven day window that opens when your Annual Refresh statement arrives, and approved requests are paid within thirty days. Partial withdrawals are not permitted.
Leave inside the first twelve months and your payout is capped at 0.90 for every 1.00 you put in. Leave outside the annual window and an administrative penalty applies, rising 2.5% for each quarter since your last refresh. This is not a place for money you may need back.
What am I actually buying?
Passive, non voting Class B membership units in a Wyoming manager managed LLC. Capital is pooled there and the brokerage accounts sit in that entity's name. A separate manager entity holds the trading authority and the algorithms, and reaches the accounts through execution only access, so it can place trades but cannot move your capital.
Why do you ask whether I am a US citizen?
The fund is not offered to US persons. Asking at the start means we do not take you through a process that could never end with you investing.
How do I actually join?
Request an invite. We send you a time, we talk, and if it fits both sides you get a code that opens registration. A fixed minimum subscription applies to every invitee, and we tell you what it is on the call. There is no public sign up form, and that is deliberate.
Request an invite.
Twenty minutes with the two people who built it. No deck, no pressure, and you can ask anything about the terms or the model that is not the source code itself.