Our Passion
The Auspice Philosophy
Markets are not efficient. Emotions and cognitive biases lead to poor investment decisions which contribute to these inefficiencies. We employ a process driven approach to bypass emotions, identify inefficiencies and design strategies to capture returns. There are multiple drivers of returns and we believe the most resilient investments are built from combinations of non-correlated return sources. We also understand that markets change. We continually evolve our research to identify new sources of returns and seek to improve how we capture them.Our Mission
We are here to challenge the status quo. A diverse combination of the best stocks and fixed income investments does not mean low risk. Our mission is to transform the investment conversation away from fear and towards opportunity. We believe that non-correlated alternative investments will be a core holding in all portfolios. We partner with investors who become the inspiration to create products that include other sources of returns. These products are uncorrelated, make their portfolios more resilient to adverse events in the market, and improve their risk adjusted returns overall.How We Invest
Emotions, like fear and greed, create stress, drive markets and influence poor decision-making.
The flip side of this is that they also create opportunities for those that have mastered investing without emotion. This is our passion. We employ a scientific research process to create rules-based investment strategies that puts the volatility created by human behavior to good use.
We have a suite of liquid alternative investment strategies that can be tailored to suit different investors.
We believe that the addition of the right investment strategy can improve the risk adjusted performance of a traditional portfolio while making it more resilient to adverse market movements.
Auspice manages active long/short strategies that are designed to be efficient, scalable and provide a low risk profile. Auspice utilizes a disciplined rules-based approach to global commodity and financial sectors which produces superior risk adjusted returns that are non-correlated to traditional equity and bond portfolios.
The Auspice Brand
The word ‘auspice’, is the root of auspicious, which means:
1. A sign of good things to come
2. Protection or support
To us, Auspice reflects the positive impacts that we can bring to our clients' investment portfolios while preserving capital and managing risk.
The Auspice logo (an endless knot) is derived from one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Tibetan mythology and symbolizes the Union of Wisdom and Method.
This captures the essence of the Auspice philosophy, which combines the wisdom that markets are inefficient and are driven by emotion, together with the application of rules-based methods to identify and capture these inefficiencies.
Team
Principals
Tim Pickering
Lead Portfolio Manager, CIO
Tim Pickering is Founder, President and CIO of Auspice. Tim leads strategic decision making and the vision for Auspice’s diverse suite of award winning rules-based quantitative investment strategies. Tim believes that in the future, non-correlated alternative investments will be a core holding in all portfolios, regardless of investor size or sophistication. Alternatives will no longer be viewed as risky, but as conservative and prudent, given the measurable value to investment portfolios. He is passionate about creating innovative investment strategies and products that the market needs with distribution through reputable partners at a fair price. In 2015, Tim was selected by Alberta Venture Magazine, one of Alberta’s most widely respected business publications, as one of Alberta’s 50 most influential people. In 2017, Tim was named to the University of Calgary Accounting and Finance Advisory Council and in 2019 became the Chair of the Finance Advisory Council at the Haskayne School of Business. In 2020, Tim was elected to the Board of the Calgary chapter of Pheasants Forever, a globally respected habitat organization dedicated to wildlife, land management, conservation and education. In 2022, Tim was elected President.
Prior to forming Auspice, Tim was VP of Trading at Shell (North America). He began his career at TD Securities (Toronto) in their elite trading development program ultimately holding the Senior PM position for the Energy Derivatives portfolio. Outside of Auspice, Tim has been involved in grain farming in Western Canada. Through the founding of Auspice, Tim ties together a career in commodity and financial risk and portfolio management that has spanned institutional experience along with entrepreneurial vision.
Ken Corner
Portfolio Manager, Director of Research and Operations.
Ken is a Co-founder of Auspice, and he leads the Research and Operations groups at Auspice. His educational background is in Mechanical Engineering and he is passionate about applying a scientific approach to the emotionally driven world of trading. Prior to founding Auspice with Tim, Ken worked as design engineer for the ATCO group of companies and from there moved into financial modeling and commodity trading. Following his time with ATCO, Ken traded natural gas derivatives for Shell, and then went on to become the Vice President of Options Trading for TD Securities in Calgary.
Ken is an avid skier and cyclist and is currently obsessed with river surfing!
Senior Professionals
Arthur Chan
Director of Finance, Chief Risk Officer. Partner
Arthur has over 20 years of experience in accounting and fund administration. Prior to joining Auspice, Arthur was a VP of Fund Administration and Investor Relations with Citco Fund Services in Toronto.
From 2000 to 2009, Arthur worked in Bermuda with Citi Fund Services, including two years as VP of Fund Administration. Arthur started his career working for a number of private Canadian corporations.
Josh Wilson
Chief Compliance Officer.
Josh Wilson has extensive experience in Compliance and Risk Management. As Chief Compliance Officer, he is responsible for monitoring, overseeing, and managing all aspects of the Compliance function within the organization.
After starting his career in various Compliance roles with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in the US, he became a trainer at the FINRA Examiner University and Advanced University. Subsequently, he became Director of Examinations at the National Stock Exchange (NSX).
In Canada, Josh worked for global financial institutions acting as Chief Compliance Officer for their US and Canadian operations and was the regional head of compliance for the United States, Canada, Bermuda, Panama, Bahamas, and Uruguay.
Josh is a graduate of Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas where he earned a B.B.A. in Finance and has completed the Partners, Directors and Senior Officers Course as well as the Chief Compliance Officers Qualifying Exam from the Canadian Securities Institute. Josh also possesses the series 7 and series 24 FINRA licenses.
Kevin Malenfant
Director of Quantitative Research. Partner
Passionate about quantitative modeling and mathematics, Kevin is the lead quantitative researcher and plays a strategic role in research and strategy development, testing, and managing the operational back-end at Auspice. Concentrating in both cryptography and mathematical finance, Kevin holds a Bachelors of Science in Pure/Applied Mathematics and a Master's of Science in Applied Mathematics from the University of Calgary. Areas of study included: Energy market modeling, model calibration and efficient hedging strategies. Along this theme, Levy based models were explored and, with the influence of supervisor's past research, Kevin completed his master's thesis: "Variance Swaps for Local Levy based Stochastic Volatility with Delay". Outside of Math Finance, Kevin has a continued general interest in Machine Learning, Cryptography, information theory, and programming.
Brennan Basnicki
Product Specialist. Partner
Brennan is a Partner and Product Specialist at Auspice. He was previously Director at Campbell and Co, a $5bn systematic Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) fund manager, and Investment Officer at the Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois (TRSIL), a $45bn teachers’ pension plan. At TRSIL Brennan managed a $6bn external hedge fund portfolio and led the Teachers' first investments into trend-following CTAs, the largest allocation within the Hedge Fund portfolio. Prior to joining TRSIL, Brennan was a Proprietary Trader in Toronto.
Brennan earned his Bachelors of Arts in Political Sciences at the University of Western Ontario, and a Master of Science, with distinction, in Investment Analysis, from the University of Stirling, Scotland. Brennan holds the CFA, CMT, and CAIA charters, and completed the SCR certificate offered by GARP. He is also Director for the Canadian National Day of Service Foundation. An outdoor enthusiast, his spare time is often spent skiing, wing-foiling, and SUP-surfing.
Advisory Committee
The Auspice Advisory Committee (AAC) provides advice and perspectives on strategic and business development initiatives and acts as a filter on the strategic direction of the company. The members may also have valuable input and advice regarding corporate governance and compliance related issues.
The Auspice Management Team (AMT) is responsible for ensuring that an Advisory Committee is established and operated according to the mandate in the Auspice Advisory Committee Charter.
The two core duties and roles of the AAC are:
First, the AAC may provide insight on markets and industry trends. This insight and feedback is of primary value to the strategic vision and direction of the business and product (fund) development. However, asset allocation decisions are made solely by the portfolio managers of the fund(s).
Second, the AAC will provide an outlet for the firms Compliance and Risk Officer(s) to ask for advice and direction on these key issues should the need arise.
Ron McNeil
CEO & Co-Founder of LMS Reinforcing Steel Group.
Starting in 1987 with a pick-up truck and 6 employees, he and his partner Ivan Harmatny have grown the company to be the largest supplier & installer of reinforcing steel in Western Canada with over 500 staff and Revenue of 150 million dollars and growing. Ron is a past recipient of Business in Vancouver’s 40 Under 40 award as well as earning the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Real Estate / Construction category on 2008. In addition LMS is named one of “Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies”.
Ken Wilson
Senior Vice President, Long Range Planning and an Officer of Coril Holdings Ltd., a privately held company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Mr. Wilson has over twenty five years of experience in senior management and leadership positions of both private and publicly held corporations. Prior to joining Coril Holdings in 2005, Wilson was President and CEO of Richardson Technologies Inc., a start-up business engaged in the design, manufacturing and sales of high technology optical microscopes. Prior to 2004, Mr. Wilson operated his own management consulting firm in Toronto, Canada, where he completed various senior management assignments with diverse clients, RTI among them.
Mr. Wilson was previously President and CEO of InQuent Technologies, a private-label web hosting company owned by SBC Communications of San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Wilson has also held senior roles at Sprint Canada, Oracle Corporation, IBM, and Amdahl Canada. He is a member of the Board of Directors of INLIV Inc., Chaordix, The Norlien Foundation and the Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre.
Community
We are proudly located in one of Canada’s most prosperous and innovative cities and take pride in the community that we live in. We recognize the opportunities that we have in our backyard and want to make them available to all. We support two of our greatest resources: children and water. We believe in giving back to the community and are proud to sponsor the following charities:
The Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre (CAC) is an innovative centre where children can safely recover, heal and grow stronger in one amazing place. The CAC is taking the lead in the investigation, treatment, prevention and education of child abuse across the country.
The Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre (AARC) is a long-term treatment program for substance dependent adolescents and their families. Success at AARC is a graduate who is clean and sober, back in school or working and is reunited with their family.
Charity:Water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations directly fund water projects.
*Donations can be made by cheque to “Auspice Charities in Trust.” Please contact us if electronic funds transfer or wire is required.
Testimonials
Don’t take it from us – listen to our valued clients and partners.
“In the summer of 2010 we were looking for a way for our company to hedge its risk against steel price fluctuations. My company commits to a fixed price for steel supply and install for construction projects across Western Canada. Our risk from steel price fluctuations is substantial, especially on very large multi-year projects. Auspice was able to give us the direction and advice we needed to create a hedging tool that allows us to, for the first time, remove considerable market place risk from our equation. Tim Pickering and Ken Corner impressed me throughout the process with their ability to think practically and creatively about hedging strategies that worked for my business.”
“Commodities are well recognized for their diversification potential for a traditional basket of stocks and bonds (both from the point of view of exhibiting low correlation and as an excellent inflation hedge). Investors in passive, long-only commodities (beta products) have historically had to pay a high price for this diversification, however, in the form of large drawdowns, high volatility, and resulting low risk-adjusted returns.
The advent of alpha-driven products, that maintain the diversification benefits of beta-driven products while significantly limiting their ancillary detriments, has resulted in a `best of both worlds scenario in which investors are able to achieve both higher returns and lower risk simultaneously, often referred to as moving the efficient frontier `up and to the left`.
As a pioneer* in the realm of actively managed commodity-based products, Tim Pickering and Auspice Capital constantly strive to extract the most value out of beta-driven products while providing enhanced return and downside protection through the addition of alpha-driven strategies. ”
*In reference to beta and enhanced beta index products
DISCLAIMER
Futures trading is speculative and is not suitable for all customers. Past performance may not be indicative of future results and there is no assurance that any of the fund’s investment objectives will be met. An investor could lose all or a substantial portion of their investment.
Partners
A large part of our success at Auspice is our due to our belief in creating strong partnerships. These are some of our strategic partners:
