You Might Not Win with Vincere
- Vincere Trading is led by Alex Cecola, its Chairman, CEO, and President, whose presence and LinkedIn profile provide some transparency compared to Ridge Capital.
- The company has a diverse leadership team of ten senior members, including staff across the U.S. and the UK, offering services like Vincere Portfolios and Vincere Trading.
- While Vincere shares historical performance data and cautions against expecting future returns, the six-year track record is relatively short, and the appropriateness of using the S&P 500 as a benchmark is uncertain given their 12 different algorithmic models.
- The website does not disclose licensing costs, which is a critical detail potential clients should inquire about early in their evaluation process.
In Latin, vincere means “to win.” Vincere Trading has a lot more going for it than Ridge Capital, which I reviewed earlier today, but I am cautious about it as well. I did not like the lack of transparency about the people at Ridge Capital, but the CEO is front and center in the video on the home page for Vincere. Alex Cecola, Chairman, CEO and President / Chicago, founded the company several years ago. He has a LinkedIn profile, which is good, but it does show that he has some other roles he is pursuing or that he has been pursuing since 2016.
The leadership team goes well beyond Cecola, with nine others pictured on the team page on the website and described as well. The company has senior people across the country and even one in the UK serving Vincere, which includes Vincere Portfolios (for sophisticated investors) and Vincere Trading (for prop traders). I like that the team is diverse by age, gender and race, and I like that it provides some good information for visitors to its website:
There is a lot to like, but there are some things that should concern readers. The first is performance. I like that they share this, and they do use the right words about not promising future returns, but they sure talk about the history a lot as depicted on this chart:
Yes, the performance has been good, but six years is really not that long of a time. Also, is the benchmark properly the S&P 500? Vincere has 12 different algorithmic models.
This leads to a big question: How much is it to license from Vincere? This is not answered on the website at all. Anyone interested in “winning” should ask this important question very early!