Our Philosophy & Mission
At Validea we believe the best way to outperform the market is to learn from those who have consistently done so in the past. Since 2003, our team, led by our founder John Reese, has been dedicated to bringing the fundamental strategies of great investors to the professional and retail investment communities via the tools, portfolios and research found on Validea.
Our Story
Validea founder John Reese, like many investors, had always been actively involved in managing his own money. But after growing frustrated with underperforming fund managers and pundits who offered more hyperbole than help, John began conducting his own extensive research into quantitative investment strategies some 20 years ago. The goal of his research was to find strategies that had consistently outperformed the market over the long term, and which the average investor could use in a practical way. What John found was that a number of history's greatest investors, including Peter Lynch, Warren Buffett, and Benjamin Graham, had made their fortunes by using approaches that were mostly, if not completely, quantitative. After studying the works of these and other stock market greats, John used his background in computer science and artificial intelligence to develop the sophisticated yet easy-to-use guru-inspired models offered on Validea.
John's ultimate goal for Validea.com is two-fold: to help make the strategies of the most successful pros usable and understandable for the individual investor, and to offer investors a systematic investment framework that helps them overcome the emotions and biases that often eat away at long-term performance.
In August of 2010, Validea Canada was released. Validea Canada offers analysis of the Canadian equity market using the same proven models that we have been following in the US since 2003. Using Validea.ca, users can see the highest-rated Canadian stocks based on the approaches of investing legends like Warren Buffett, Ben Graham, Peter Lynch and Joel Greenblatt.
Every day, those of us who work at Validea work hard not to lose sight of John's original goal -- to make successful investing easier and more understandable for the average person and to give investors access to an investing system that gives them a good chance at generating long term outperformance over the market using the strategies of great investors.
Our Book
 |
Today's investor is faced with a myriad of investment options and strategies. Whether you are seeking someone to manage your money or are a self-directed investor deciding to tackle the market on your own, the options can be overwhelming. In an easy-to-read and simple format, The Guru Investor dissects the strategies of some of Wall Street's most successful investment gurus and teaches readers how to weed through the all of the choices to find a strategy that works for them. The model portfolio system used in the book and also featured on Validea.com turns each strategy into an actionable system, addressing many of the common mistakes that doom individual investors to market underperformance. The Guru Investor focuses on the principles behind Validea's multi-guru approach, showing how investors can combine the proven strategies of these legendary "gurus" into a disciplined investing system that has significantly outperformed the market. Gurus covered in the book are: Benjamin Graham; John Neff; David Dreman; Warren Buffett; Peter Lynch; Ken Fisher; Martin Zweig; James O'Shaughnessy; Joel Greenblatt; and Joseph Piotroski. |
Our Team
John P. Reese, Founder
John P. Reese, founder and CEO of Validea, is the author of The Guru Investor: How to Beat the Market Using History's Best Investment Strategies and a regular columnist for Forbes and Canada’s Globe & Mail. He is also the co-founder of Validea Capital Management, a money management firm for individuals and institutions. He holds a Master's of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor's degree in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jack Forehand, CFA, President
Jack is President of Validea. Since 2003, he has been co-developing Validea’s guru-based models and investing system. Jack has earned the right to CFA designation and is the co-author of The Guru Investor: How to Beat the Market Using History's Best Investment Strategies. He is co-founder of Validea Capital Management and shares portfolio management responsibilities with John Reese.
Justin Carbonneau, Vice President
Justin is VP of Validea, in charge of sales, partnerships and media relations and has been involved with the company since its very beginning. Justin, who holds a MBA from the University of Connecticut, was on UConn's Track & Field team and is a former member of the Connecticut Air National Guard. Justin is also one of the partners at Validea Capital Management.