Gary Fabian and Associates

Gary Fabian and Associates

Gary Fabian and Associates was established as a registered investment advisor in Los Angeles, built on the principles of technical analysis and trend-following. Gary Fabian, who began his investment career in the 1970s, developed a rules-based methodology centered on moving-average signals to time entries and exits in broad-market ETFs and individual growth stocks. The firm's origins trace to the publication of a widely followed investment newsletter, which documented the "Fabian Plan" — a systematic approach that combined market-timing with a focus on no-load mutual funds, later evolving into separately managed accounts that use exchange-traded funds for client portfolios. The strategy allocates primarily across US equity sectors, utilizing ETFs such as SPDR S&P 500 (SPY), Invesco QQQ Trust, and sector-specific funds to capture upward trends while maintaining the ability to rotate entirely to cash or fixed-income equivalents during market declines. The approach gained attention for its defensive profile: the system signaled an exit from equities before the 1987 crash, the 2000 dot-com collapse, and the 2008 financial crisis, preserving client capital in each instance. Performance is not hedged through derivatives but managed through position sizing and binary on/off signals derived from long-term moving averages. Gary Fabian remains the sole portfolio manager, operating without a large analyst team or institutional infrastructure. The firm has not disclosed total regulatory assets under management and does not appear to participate in institutional consultant databases. No secondary office locations, philanthropic vehicles, or club affiliations are known. The boutique structure means all investment decisions flow through a single decision-maker, a model that presents clear succession risk but also eliminates committee-driven delays during volatile markets. What distinguishes Gary Fabian and Associates is longevity without institutionalization. Most trend-following practitioners operate within hedge fund structures or systematic commodity trading advisor (CTA) formats; Fabian's model is rare in applying a purely technical, unhedged, long-flat strategy within a traditional RIA wrapper. The firm's refusal to adopt fundamental analysis or diversify the decision-making process means its edge depends entirely on the continuing applicability of long-term trend-following signals — a factor that has persisted through multiple market regimes but is monitored closely by allocators evaluating manager-specific risk.