With over a decade of experience in capital markets and Portfolio management Darin Tuttle left Goldman Sachs to manage multi-million dollar portfolios in his early 20’s. As a millennial money manager, Darin has been featured in: Yahoo! Finance, The Epoch Times, The Institutional Investor and Streetinsider.com for his expert insights. Darin is the key person for Investment research, portfolio construction, strategy implementation, monitoring, performance evaluation and communication of investment strategy.

Where did your journey in capital markets and portfolio management start?

My junior year of college I joined the student leadership society and they put me in charge of the career student events with potential recruiters. I was in charge of getting companies set up in the booth, making sure they had all the IT equipment they needed. It also allowed me to work directly with recruiters and put my face in front of a lot of people.

I used that as an opportunity to get my first big break into Wall Street and landed a summer internship position as an analyst with Goldman Sachs.

What accelerated my career was being willing to go and do the work that nobody else wanted to do. In everything that I did I wanted to do it in such a way that it would make it the the best place to work.

I took an interest in electronic trading platforms and I was really good at it. So they started having me help onboard prime brokerage clients and new prop traders to the firms trading systems. This got me access to portfolio managers and traders from a variety of firms, backgrounds, and products. I would set the limits for them in the system and show traders and portfolio managers how to implement their strategies. At night I would read operational manuals and study the products I didn’t know about. I was always curious. Even though I mostly worked with on-boarding, I ended up doing a lot of customer service because when something in the system broke I was knew their problems better than others I was usually their first call to fix it.

I didn’t like only getting attention when something went wrong, so I transitioned to portfolio management at Keats Connelly a cross border wealth management firm which managed $500m in assets between the US and Canada. They took a chance on me, being only 27, but they liked me because I could add a lot of value by navigating the operational complexities of assets on both sides of the border and working with multiple custodians.

I made the move to Pacific Capital to manage $200m in assets so I could manage portfolios as the key person, with more autonomy to pursue new investment opportunities.

What inspired you to start your own business?

I started Tuttle Ventures in order to help people find lasting financial security. My dad was a good example, starting 2 businesses of his own at a young age.

When life turns as volatile and confusing as it has over the past year, even the most patient investors may come to question the wisdom of the plan they’ve been following and that happened to me too.

I guess the biggest catalyst was, after reviewing portfolios and financial plans for hight net worth clients. I realized a high percentage started their own businesses. I was inspired by the chance that I could obtain financial security for my family by starting my own business too.

What are your top 3 investment advices?

Vision to see what the future holds rather than what it is now. Believing in something before others understand it. Courage to act in a meaningful way. Patience to stay disciplined and not fall victim to human nature.

We are told that diversity is key in investment. What advice would you give terms of the best investment portfolio?

Diversification is not what it used to be. Accelerated events to the downside are not unique but current events have shown that more pronounced crashes can effect everything especially any type of concentrated investment.

When people head for the exits, the speed of trading, at zero cost, great as it is, doesn’t give investors time to think. Diversified investment has become more and more difficult as correlations increase. This trend is not reversing, with bonds likely becoming the next asset class to start moving lockstep with equities. A thoughtful, proactive approach to investing, combined with prudent hedging, will combat the impulsive reaction to the markets that can lead to failure.

At Tuttle Ventures we take a unique approach to gain real diversification in extreme events. Financial contagion has increased over time so understanding volatility as an asset class and being able to take advantage of trading volatility products both long and short has increased in its importance to regain diversification.

We created our core investment drivers by combining a complementary strategy of:

- Buying good companies at fair prices,

- Trading volatility as an asset class to improve returns throughout all market cycles.

What is the mindset of winning as an investor?

To quote Benjamin Graham, “Successful investing professionals are disciplined and consistent and they think a great deal about what they do and how they do it”. - Benjamin Graham

Where to from here for you?

Tuttle Ventures has the vision, capital and people to make a difference. What does this mean? Tuttle Ventures will seek investment in companies & leaders who prioritize value creation early and are aligned to that mission.

Why? People’s ability to withstand market fluctuations and remain committed to long term goals is dependent upon what they value most.

This does not just apply to my business, but it can also apply to YOU and how you invest. Focus on what matters most and the rest will take care of itself. We invest so you can do the rest.

To get in touch with Darin:

Website: www.tuttleventures.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/tuttledarin

Twitter: @Darin_T80