BIO

Alan, a widely-followed contributor to Seeking Alpha who has been recognized frequently by its editorial staff over the past several years for the quality of his posts, spends most of his time helping professional investment advisors manage their clients' funds through his consulting service, AB Analytical Services. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1997 and was recognized in 2007 for his achievement of a decade of continuous partipation in its voluntary Continuing Education Program.

After graduating from Northwestern University in 1986 with a degree in Economics and in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences, Alan spent 8 years on Wall Street, working initially with Kidder, Peabody and then CS First Boston. In 1994, he joined Critierion Investment Management in Houston, where he was responsible for managing several billion dollars of mortgage securities. In 2000, Alan joined a small money manager, Piedra Capital, as an analyst and portfolio manager and became a principal a year later. When he left the firm, which catered to both institutions and individuals, almost 7 years later, it had more than doubled its assets under management to $550mm. In early 2007, Alan formed AB Analytical Services to help independent investment advisors by providing them with institutional quality buy-side research and process consulting. The firm serves a variety of customers in terms of size, investment style and market-cap focus. Alan also provides research to Management CV, an independent research firm that analyzes the skill and quality of CEOs and their management teams for a number of large institutional clients.

Alan is quite passionate about the markets and, in particular, stocks. He is extremely process-oriented, reviewing proprietary screens regularly and maintaining a disciplined focus on his watchlist of 100 companies from both technical and fundamental perspectives. Alan strives to look where others aren't looking and to always avoid getting caught up in the crowd, which is perhaps a little easier to do given how far he lives from Wall Street. He launched the Invest By Model service in 2008 because he believes that most investors pay too much for the inferior performance that most mutual funds or money managers provide. He is committed to professional management delivered in a transparent manner, which he hopes will continue to result in superior risk-adjusted returns delivered affordably to model subscribers.