Man Global Technology Equity Long-Short

Man Global Technology Equity Long-Short is a concentrated, global, low net strategy with a focus on technology and its adjacent sectors.

  • The investment team is led by Sumant Wahi, a microchip engineer turned investor with 20 years of experience working and investing in the technology industry
  • The investment philosophy is grounded in the conviction that tracking the life cycle of tech innovation from ideation (patent filings) to business model maturity (VC money flow) gives early insight on new profit pools being created and existing profit pools that will be disrupted
  • The Strategy utilises this insight to (a) invest in companies with strongest industrial logic in growing profit pools and (b) short the most fragile assets in shrinking profit pools.
  • The Strategy’s key differentiators include:
    • A multi-layered investment approach: bottom-up fundamental analysis informed by thematic thinking
    • Investment process founded on engineering DNA and strengthened by forensic accounting
    • Technology empowered: leveraging Man Group’s quantitative and AI tools

Approach

The Strategy seeks to generate alpha on both the long and short sides by navigating through an industry where the only constant is change. The tech sector is unique in that it constantly innovates and disrupts itself. Every 10-15 years, a new platform resets the tech industry, creating new profit pools and disrupting existing ones. These shifts, and the sub-themes within them, are all investment opportunities: new profit pools create opportunities on the long side, while stagnant, declining pools lead to opportunities on the short side.

It is the investment team’s view that these moves within the tech industry are predictable, and that the evolution and maturity of these platform shifts and sub-themes can be tracked over time. Identifying key trends early and then tracking the various stages of their maturing offers the first source of alpha generation in the tech sector. Knowing which themes are emerging, and where you are in the monetisation cycle, helps zone in on who the winners (or the losers) will be at that moment. This understanding of when a particular technology is going to hit the tarmac and cause economic displacement helps the investment team identify timing and profit pools to hunt for long and short positions.