The Portfolio Optimizer for Wealth Management

Highlights

• RIABiz: After the visions of this engineer and Wealthfront diverged in 2016, he left to write his own robo-investing code on a shoestring; now Riskalyze is his first customer.

  "Yes, this is light years ahead of the rules-based tax handling that most rebalancing products or robo services provide," says Riskalyze CEO Aaron Klein, in an email.

• WealthManagement.com's Ten To Watch in 2024

Industry awards & nominations

• Finalist for 2024 WealthManagement.com industry awards ("Wealthies"), in "Direct Indexing" category
• Finalist for 2023 "Wealthies, in "Direct Indexing" category
• Finalist for 2021 "Wealthies", in "Rebalancing" category

Peer-reviewed journal publications

• 2022: Stephen W. Anderson, Iraklis Kourtidis: Direct Indexing with Tax-Loss Harvesting: The Importance of Held-Away Gains; The Journal of Beta Investment Strategies, Special Issue on Direct Indexing.
• 2024: Iraklis Kourtidis, Stephen W. Anderson: Enhancing Tax Loss Harvesting Returns in Direct Indexing by Increasing Stock Dispersion; The Journal of Beta Investment Strategies, Special Issue on Direct Indexing.

• FundFire, a Financial Times publication: Wealth Manager Appetite for Direct Indexing Outpaces Asset Managers' Interest
• Financial Advisor IQ, a Financial Times publication: Advisors to Drop Mutual Funds for Lower-cost, Personalized Products
• WealthManagement.com: A Pivotal Year for Direct Indexing
• WealthManagement.com 2021 Midyear Outlook
• Ignites, a Financial Times publication: Direct Indexing for Retail Investors: Not Here Yet (subscription required)
• RIABiz article on Direct Indexing , plus various other mentions ( link 1, link 2 , link3 , link4 , link 5 ).
• Financial Planning: Younger, faster, digital-first: Cracking the new advice code

Conference panels

• FinancialPlanning.com's INVEST 2022 conference panel speaker: AI and Digital Innovation in Wealthtech
• In|Vest West conference panel speaker: What Technologies & Designs Are Actually Working in Digital Wealth
• Harbor Capital's Activate event. Expert speaker on direct indexing & tax loss harvesting in the Unlocking Tax Efficiency panel.

Industry analyst mentions

• Celent industry report (subscription required)
• Celent industry report (subscription required)
• Financial Advisor FinTech Solutions Map by industry expert Michael Kitces
• Direct Indexing market map by industry expert Gavin Spitzner
• WealthTech market map by top industry expert Gavin Spitzner

Guest articles

• WealthManagement.com: Direct Indexing Doesn't Have To Dwell On The Past
• WealthManagement.com: The Two Flavors of Direct Indexing
• WealthManagement.com: Why Direct Indexing Needs a Different 'Brain'
• WealthManagement.com: Direct or Personalized Indexing: Not Just for Passive Investing

Our "Wealthies"-nominated #nonarmchair #directindexing LinkedIn post series

• 1: Dealing with Missing ESG Data
• 2: Text-Based ESG Attributes
• 3: Dynamic ESG Attributes
• 4: Stretching and Squeezing ESG
• 5: Better ESG Exclusions
• 6: A Tax Loss Harvesting Thermostat
• 7: A Metric System for Tax
• 8: Multiple Votes on Tracking Error
• 9: Speed as an Enabler
• 11: Alpha Strategies
• 12: "Tax-Efficient Frontier"
• 13: Preferring Money-Weighted Returns
• 14: Using No Factor Model
• 15: Market Orders: Dumb for HFT, Good for SMAs (Part 1 of 3)
• 16: Market Orders: Dumb for HFT, Good for SMAs (Part 2 of 3)
• 17: Market Orders: Dumb for HFT, Good for SMAs (Part 3 of 3)
• 18: TLH ~= Momentum Tilt
• 19: NPV multiplier for postponing tax
• 20: Waiting Until April 15th
• 21: The Importance of Being Smoothest (part 1 of 4)
• 22: Non-jumpy liquidation values in backtests: The Importance of Being Smoothest (part 2 of 4)
• 23: The Importance of Being Smoothest (part 3 of 4)
• 24: The Importance of Being Smoothest (part 4 of 4)
• 25: Dynamic Direct Indexing, Part 1
• 26: Dynamic Direct Indexing, Part 2: why?
• 27: Dynamic Direct Indexing, Part 3
• 28: Dynamic Direct Indexing, Part 4: tying everything together
• 29: Compilation of all posts (up to that date)
• 30: STEIN Score (Standardized Tax-Efficiency-of-Index Number), Part 1
• 31: STEIN Score (Standardized Tax-Efficiency-of-Index Number), Part 2: Delistings
• 32: STEIN Score (Standardized Tax-Efficiency-of-Index Number), Part 3: Cash Dividends
• 33: STEIN Score (Standardized Tax-Efficiency-of-Index Number), Part 4: Ex-post vs. ex-ante
• 34: STEIN Score (Standardized Tax-Efficiency-of-Index Number), Part 5: Formula
• 35: STEIN Score (Standardized Tax-Efficiency-of-Index Number), Part 6: Formula and examples
• 36: Varying Sophistication of Simulation Benefits, Part 1
• 37: Varying Sophistication of Simulation Benefits, Part 2: Investment Research
• 38: Varying Sophistication of Simulation Benefits, Part 3: Financial advisors
• 39: Varying Sophistication of Simulation Benefits, Part 4: Clients & FINRA Rule 2210
• 40: Reality vs. Appearances, part 1
• 41: Reality vs. Appearances, part 2: Cash drag
• 42: Reality vs. Appearances, part 3: Trading thresholds
• 43: Reality vs. Appearances, part 4: Off-target portfolios
• 44: Death and no taxes
• 45: Noise tradeoffs, part 1
• 46: Noise tradeoffs, part 2
• 47: The Simulation Grid, part 1
• 48: The Simulation Grid, part 2
• 49: The Simulation Grid, part 3
• 50: Condensed Wisdom
• 51: Comparing Different Goals, Part 1: Bartering vs. Using Money
• 52: Comparing Different Goals, Part 2: What's the Best Currency?
• 53: Comparing Different Goals, Part 3: a Simple Example
• 54: Comparing Different Goals, Part 4: Normalization vs. Calibration
• 55: Comparing Different Goals, Part 5
• 56: Comparing Different Goals, Part 6
• 57: Our 2024 paper in the Journal of Beta Investment Strategies
• 58: Our Journal Paper, in Less Florid Prose
• 59: Our Journal Paper, in Less Florid Prose, Part 2
• 60: Our Journal Paper, in Less Florid Prose, Part 3
• 61: Our Journal Paper, in Less Florid Prose, Part 4
• 62: Comparing Different Goals, Part 7
• 63: Practical Approximations, Part 1
• 64: Practical Approximations, Part 2: As the Crow Flies
• 65: Holding Fewer Stocks, Part 1
• 66: Holding Fewer Stocks, Part 2
• 67: Holding Fewer Stocks, Part 3: The Michelangelo Algorithm
• 68: Sleeves and Tax Lots, Part # 1
• 69: Sleeves and Tax Lots, Part # 2

#rowboatproduct LinkedIn post series

• 1: Speed, part 1
• 2: General Solutions, part 1: hashtag#taxlossharvesting (TLH)
• 3: Now free & open-source (MIT License) - partially
• 4 : We just doubled our speed
• 5: Obsessive quality control
• 6: Obsessive quality control, part 2
• 7: Balancing multiple goals, part 1
• 8: Balancing multiple goals, part 2: explainability

#rowboateng LinkedIn post series

• 1 : New software-engineering-oriented post series
• 2: Choosing Java as our language
• 3: Defensive programming, part 1: immutable objects
• 4: Defensive programming, part 2: our three-pronged approach to immutable collections
• 5: Defensive programming, part 3: immutable maps and sets
• 6: Stable APIs using Enums
• 7: Bug avoidance in our 900,000-line codebase, part 1
• 8: Bug avoidance in our 900,000-line codebase, part 2: Extreme type-safety

Research & Engineering blog