Sierra Investment

A seven-person investment management team meets every day to review quantitative signals generated by a rules-based process co-founders David C. Wright and Kenneth L. Sleeper established in 1987. The discipline is designed to limit drawdowns by moving capital out of declining trends and, when no uptrend is present across the target opportunity set, can shift up to 100% of a strategy into cash. The firm states that rules—not predictions or emotions—drive all trades.

Sierra’s strategies can hold up to 100% in cash exposure during periods when no uptrends exist across the target investment opportunity set. This extreme posture was available during the 2008 crisis, the COVID-19 shock, and the 2022 bond sell-off, though the firm does not disclose the exact cash weighting it held during those specific episodes.

Chief Investment Officer James St. Aubin leads portfolio management alongside Chief Investment Strategist Ryan Harder and Lead Portfolio Analyst Marshall Quan. The co-founders, David C. Wright and Kenneth L. Sleeper, hold senior advisor and portfolio-manager titles but operational leadership sits with the next-generation team.

In September 2023, Sierra appointed Skip Schweiss as Chief Executive Officer, a newly designated role. Schweiss oversees firm management, marketing and client service, while James St. Aubin continues to run the investment management team. The separation codified a governance structure that had evolved informally as the co-founders stepped back from daily operations.

Sierra’s disclosed strategy is limited to tactical, global, multi-asset portfolios spanning equities, fixed income and cash equivalents. The firm has not publicized any private equity, venture capital, real estate or hedge-fund allocations, distinguishing it from peers that blend liquid and illiquid strategies.

Sierra’s investment team convenes daily to act on rules-based buy-and-sell signals, whereas a typical balanced fund rebalances quarterly or semi-annually and often allows equity exposure to drift with the market. Sierra’s process is built around limiting drawdowns, not tracking a static policy benchmark, and it retains the authority to retreat entirely to cash when its quantitative discipline calls for it.

The firm states that it served clients through the 2008 Financial Crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2022 market and bond sell-offs. Performance history is not publicly available on an audited or GIPS-compliant basis, and Sierra has not disclosed specific return figures for those periods beyond the claim that its process helped investors limit downside risk.