Marvin & Palmer Associates

Marvin & Palmer Associates provides equity-focused investment management primarily for high-net-worth and institutional clients, including separately managed accounts and private pooled vehicles. The firm acts as adviser and general partner to investment entities (including a U.S. partnership and a global fund) and bills primarily as a percentage of assets under management while also serving qualified investors in pooled vehicles.

Its investment platform centers on three equity strategies — a U.S. long-only strategy, a global absolute-return strategy that gains exposure through ADRs and ETFs, and a global long-short equity strategy — implemented using fundamental analysis, relative price-strength screening and technical/charting, with the ability to use derivatives, options, futures and ETFs. Accounts are managed on a discretionary basis, and certain global mandates and funds include performance-allocation components subject to high-water marks; performance is calculated in accordance with CFA standards.

Noteworthy features relative to peers include its role as a private fund adviser and fund sponsor/syndicator with pooled-vehicle clients and an affiliate that receives incentive allocations as general partner of the global fund. The brochure also discloses the firm’s use of soft-dollar research arrangements, that an affiliate has filed a notice of exemption regarding CPO/CTA registration, and reliance on a shareholder loan to support operating cash needs — characteristics that are uncommon for firms of this size.