Michael Bannon Stokes

Ascend Capital employs an opportunistic US-focused long/short equity investment strategy. They seek to generate superior risk-adjusted returns that maximize gains and minimize volatility over a broad range of market environments. They employ a variation of the Jones Model investing strategy with the intention of achieving capital appreciation in a broad range of market environments. The net market exposure of each account may vary significantly depending on the firm's assessment of shifting economic and market conditions, as well as particular long and short investing opportunities. Ascend Capital's strategy has neither a long nor short bias. Although their strategy focuses on equity and equity-related securities that are publicly traded, they may pursue a highly diverse range of investments and trading strategies. Ascend Capital may cause the accounts to invest a significant portion of their assets in one or more of the following: illiquid securities, including privately placed equity (of public and private companies), defaulted debt, bank debt and trade claims, bonds (convertible and non-convertible), other fixed-income investments and senior and subordinated tranches of asset-backed pools. Ascend Capital's strategy includes short selling. They expect the funds to utilize leverage on a moderate to extensive basis. The separate accounts utilize leverage in accordance with the investment guidelines for each account. The firm may cause the accounts to buy or sell (write) options, publicly traded and over-the-counter, covered and uncovered, on securities and securities indices, as well as options and forward contracts on currencies. They may also cause the accounts to engage in a variety of investment techniques involving arbitrage. addition, they may cause the accounts to engage in futures and other derivative transactions, typically for hedging of existing long and short positions.

Functions as a College/University

Functions as a College/University