Howard Aschwald

Howard B. Aschwald began his investment career in 1983 at Morgan Stanley. He subsequently joined the investment management firm Stein Roe, where he worked as a Technology Analyst and Portfolio Manager. In 1996 he co-founded Quantum Capital Management, a San Francisco–based independent Registered Investment Advisor, where he served as Chief Investment Officer, Director of Research, and Portfolio Manager, leading the firm's Large Cap team. At its profiled peak, Quantum Capital Management managed roughly $680 million for high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors.

Aschwald is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and retired as a Captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He holds two MBAs from Golden Gate University (in finance and financial planning), is a CFA charterholder, and is a member of the CFA Society of San Francisco and the international CFA Institute. He has over 35 years of industry experience.

Quantum Capital Management's wealth-management business was later associated with Sterling Bancorp and was acquired by Lido Advisors. Aschwald is currently an Investment Advisor at Delta Investment Management in San Francisco, where he continues to work as a public-markets investment professional and market strategist.

• Invests in public equities, not private startups. Describes himself as a "growth at a reasonable price investor that combines quantitative and fundamental research into high conviction, risk-controlled multi market-cap equity strategies."
• Two guiding principles at Quantum Capital: minimize losses and take lower risk relative to benchmark — grounded in the belief that "investors make money by not losing so much in a downturn."
• Believes "Portfolios will do best when solid valuation is the basis for stock selection."
• On active management: "Active managers must demonstrate why their investment process cannot be replicated more cheaply by software."
• Process combines quantitative scoring/ranking (using the Applied Finance Group's Economic Margin framework and proprietary metrics) with fundamental analyst judgment for stock selection and portfolio construction.