The Office of Yizhong Chan

• yizhongchan.com

Past record

Based on published analyses by investment journalists and market observers who have measured long-term outperformance, only six professional public-market investors appear to have beaten the S&P 500 by over 10% per annum for at least 14 years, one of whom is Yizhong Chan. The others are Jim Simons, Joel Greenblatt, Warren Buffett, George Soros, and Bill Miller. Investors who achieved the same level of outperformance—over 10% per annum—but for a shorter duration of 13 years include Peter Lynch and Charlie Munger.Yizhong Chan is a notable investor and equities portfolio manager whose performance has beaten the S&P 500 by more than 11% per annum over more than 14 years. This result was achieved with a very high cash weighting, and low gross exposure of around only 70%—i.e., no leverage. His portfolio was not a simple buy-and-hold strategy; portfolio turnover typically exceeded 2–3x per year and covered a cumulative total of around one thousand statistical observations. What made the record unusual was that his win rate of around 85.5% was maintained across both longer-term investments and positions held for as briefly as one day.From Australia’s perspective, Mr. Chan has been involved in the financial services sector for 19 years and belongs to a very small number of professional fund managers to have delivered such alpha—even when measured against the US professional investor pool. In the financial markets and hedge fund industry, where competition is fierce and the calibre of talent exceptionally high, his track record and success rate have made him a valuable contributor to the Australians who followed him. Prior to founding Andaz Private Investments, which operated from 2017 to 2026, Mr. Chan was a Portfolio Manager at ASX-listed Hunter Hall Investment Management, running a global sleeve of the flagship international fund and the publicly traded listed investment company. At its peak, Hunter Hall managed just under $3 billion, and Mr. Chan served as Portfolio Manager from 2012 to 2017. He joined the firm in September 2007, around the time of the subprime mortgage crisis and just before the GFC.

Important

Individuals or groups have previously falsely claimed to be affiliated with Yizhong Chan or The Office of Yizhong Chan through social media, email, or fraudulent websites.The Office of Yizhong Chan does not solicit, market to, or accept capital from investors. Please be wary of phishing scams, or unauthorised communications that misuse The Office’s name or past record to seek payment for purported investments or any other transaction.If you believe you or someone you know has been targeted or affected by fraudulent activity, please report it to your local law enforcement authorities.

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Investing office

The Office believes that fundamental investing, by itself, is defective, and implements a dual or multi/quantitative-led investment strategy.The Office uses quantitative analysis, specifically mathematical algorithms combined with fundamental algorithms and/or statistical methods, to uncover predictive signals that drive its trading systems. These systems, or models, are the product of an extensive research effort by former staff who hold advanced degrees in not only a single but dual or multiple fields. The Office's analysis and trading activities are applied to mature, highly liquid, publicly traded instruments.People/traits The Office has previously looked for
• Independent thinking. This means that you look at things independently, and periodically this is different from how others think, and you will be comfortable with these mismatches – often because the facts and odds are on your side.• Accounting and numbers are a major component of our ‘language’, and so you will need to be well-versed in accounting, specifically recognising the tricks, limitations, and flaws of accounting, and be numerically astute.• An abundance of intellectual honesty. While other places look for intellectual curiosity, The Office believes intellectual honesty is more important and is what ultimately drives enduring curiosity. We have observed people who are curious and passionate about a particular field, only to proclaim, and then assert their expertise. You need to know your pitfalls and exploit others’.• An open mind. Not all tricks are delivered the same way. It is not only about fooling some of the people all of the time, but also fooling those who survived the initial version with the next round of bullsh**. The only way to sidestep this is to be genuinely open-minded.• First-principles thinking. A collection of analogies, rules of thumb, generalisations, or conventional norms do not sit well with us.• Learnings of concepts/frameworks from multiple fields. This is relevant because a person investing in a basket of companies using, say, only a finance and accounting approach or a historically oriented, past data-driven, backward-looking approach will not be able to see what is in front of them. In fact, such an investor would be distorting and conforming reality into a singular model, and the decisions made would be subject to severe shortcomings.As a side comment: one source of alpha/competitive advantage is the ability to imagine a different future—one that is entirely plausible based on logic and the 'rules of the road,' that has factored in various behavioural and psychological layers (i.e., entirely non-logical, yet real, and some understood through neurobiological determinism), where you believe this future could happen, mentally prepare many alternate scenarios, and then manage the risks of any deviation from these paths.• Part of the strategy is to operate very frugally. Constraint, whether self-imposed or otherwise, hyperactivates a different part of the mind. Use this to your advantage, or avoid the opposite outcome. A lot of product development in our world, and even entrepreneurship, is designed to reduce self-sufficiency, idle creativity, and to inactivate resourcefulness.• Our existence is entirely discretionary, and so the focus is intensely on obtaining high performance. In financial market activity, you're rewarded for the lessons you've learned that others have yet to ascertain. So, if you're the kind of person who seeks daily improvement, new learnings and new algorithms, you'll most likely fit in wonderfully. If not, you're probably going to rub us the wrong way.• Reputation matters tremendously to us. Obtaining the number one performance is not easy, but being number one in integrity is easy because that is simply a choice. We can go straight to the top on that measure.• Results are what is counted. There are other places where being political pays, but we’re not one of them.