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Bull Run Investment Management · Proprietary SMA Strategy Pitch Deck
Bull Run Investment ManagementProprietary SMA Strategy
Pitch Deck
Bull Run manages four portfolios of individual public companies, ranging from aggressive innovation to defensive equity. Each strategy is held directly inside the client's Charles Schwab account, and each can be used on its own or combined into a complete equity portfolio.
The problem we built Bull Run to solve.
Most portfolios show an investor what they own. Very few explain why they own it. Many investors hold a collection of funds, models, and legacy positions assembled over time by people who never spoke to each other. The account may well be diversified. The investment logic is usually much harder to see.
Ask a straightforward question and the answers tend to run out quickly. Why is this company owned. What job is it doing in the portfolio. What would have to happen for it to be sold. How does any of this connect to the rest of the client's financial life.
Bull Run was built around a different standard. Every portfolio has a stated mandate, every company has a specific reason for being owned, and the client can see the whole system.
The goal is not complexity. The goal is a portfolio whose logic can be explained.
How a separately managed account works.
You own the companies. Bull Run manages the portfolio. Schwab holds the assets. A separately managed account, or SMA, is a portfolio managed directly inside an account held in the client's own name. Instead of buying shares of a pooled Bull Run fund, the client owns the underlying public companies. Bull Run receives limited authority to research, buy, sell, and rebalance the strategy. Charles Schwab remains the independent custodian throughout.
The client
and advisor
- Selects the appropriate strategy or allocation
- Oversees the wider financial plan
- Retains complete account visibility
- Can request reasonable restrictions
Bull Run
- Performs the research
- Builds the portfolio
- Executes the trades
- Monitors risk and rebalances
Charles Schwab
- Holds the assets
- Settles the trades
- Issues statements and tax forms
- Provides direct online access
The four portfolios we run.
One card below for each strategy, ordered from the most aggressive on the left to the most defensive on the right. They are not unrelated products. They are four applications of the same research process, at four different levels of growth and risk. Innovation seeks the highest growth and accepts the most volatility. Growth widens the opportunity set while keeping a strong secular growth orientation. Core emphasizes durable large-cap compounders. Low Volatility concentrates on resilient businesses and downside control.
The investor is not choosing between four philosophies. The investor is choosing how aggressively to apply one.
The same research work sits behind every holding in all four strategies. What changes from left to right is the growth threshold a company has to clear, how concentrated the portfolio is allowed to become, and how much interim decline the mandate is built to tolerate.
How the four strategies have performed.
Below is the performance graph, followed by the full comparison table. Four mandates produce four different return and risk profiles, and performance is only meaningful next to the risk taken to produce it. The comparison below shows how each strategy has behaved over the selected period and how those results sit against the benchmark. Growth of $100,000, with the fee basis and time period under your control.
| Strategy | Cumulative | Annualized | Volatility | Max drawdown | Upside capture | Downside capture | $100,000 becomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computing… | |||||||
The return differences are intentional, not accidental. Innovation is built to create the greatest upside and will experience the largest swings. Growth and Core step that volatility down in sequence. Low Volatility is built to be the most defensive equity profile in the lineup. A client is not picking the best line on the chart. They are picking the line they can hold.
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What we look for in a company.
Over time, business performance becomes investment performance. Bull Run starts from the view that sustained revenue growth is one of the most important long-term drivers of what a company is worth. Growth on its own is not enough. The strongest investments pair it with durable margins, scalable economics, a real competitive position, capable management, appropriate financial strength, and a price that still leaves room for an attractive return.
Revenue growth
The business sells more, to more customers, at a rate the wider market cannot match.
Operating leverage
Revenue grows faster than the cost base, so each additional dollar carries more profit.
Free cash flow
Profit converts into cash the company controls rather than accounting earnings alone.
Strategic value
That cash funds the position, the products, and the advantages competitors then have to answer.
Long-term compounding
Repeated over years, the process is what turns a good business into a good investment.
The objective is not to own every exciting company. It is to identify businesses capable of compounding at an exceptional rate and buy them when the expected return justifies the risk.
That distinction is what separates the four mandates. Every strategy applies the same eight tests. What changes is the growth rate a company has to clear to qualify, and how much volatility the mandate will accept in exchange for it.
A ticker is never bought because the story sounds good. The business is underwritten, the return is estimated, and the position is sized against everything else competing for the same capital.
Our research process, step by step.
Six stages, in order. Every holding has to survive the same sequence of questions, and the process is built to reject more ideas than it accepts. Select any stage below to see the question it answers, what actually gets examined, and what causes a company to drop out.
A complete investment process must also explain the sale.
Selling is where most published processes go quiet. A position is reduced or removed when the case for owning it stops holding, not when the price moves. Any one of the following is enough to start that conversation.
Each strategy in detail.
One chapter per strategy below, each with its own chart, its own numbers, and its largest positions. These are not four versions of the same portfolio. Each has its own growth threshold, its own concentration, and its own job inside a client allocation. Every chart below is the live record for that strategy against the S&P 500 since January 2023.
Who manages the portfolios.
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Chris Passarelli founded Bull Run Investment Management and serves as portfolio manager across all four equity strategies.
The person responsible for the research framework is the person responsible for the portfolio decisions, including each purchase, trim, and sale. There is no handoff between a research team that writes the thesis and a separate desk that trades against it, which is what keeps the explanation a client receives connected to the decision that was actually made.
The point is not that this arrangement is unique. It is that accountability for the portfolio sits in one place, and a client can ask about any position and get an answer from the person who took it.
How the four strategies combine into one portfolio.
Five model allocations below, from conservative to aggressive. Select any one to see its exact mix and how it has behaved. Most clients do not need to pick one strategy as an all-or-nothing decision. The strategies combine in different proportions based on goals, risk tolerance, time horizon, liquidity needs, tax circumstances, and the ability to stay invested during a decline. Select a model to see its mix and how it has behaved.
The decision is not simply how much return an investor wants. It is how much volatility the investor can experience without abandoning the plan. The best allocation is not the one with the highest historical return. It is the one the client can hold through a full market cycle.
What it costs, and who holds the money.
Cost is a measurable input to the investment decision, the same as expected return and volatility. Below are the custody arrangements, then a fee calculator you can run with real numbers. The portfolio should be as understandable operationally as it is financially.
Independent custody
Client assets are held at Charles Schwab in accounts titled in the client's own name. Bull Run never takes custody of client money.
Direct ownership
The client owns the individual securities themselves rather than shares of a pooled Bull Run vehicle.
Daily transparency
Positions, activity, balances, and statements stay visible through Schwab, independently of anything Bull Run reports.
Fee-only fiduciary
Compensation comes from disclosed advisory and investment-management fees. No commissions and no performance fees.
What happens next.
Bull Run's four SMAs provide distinct ways to pursue long-term equity returns through directly owned public companies. The right strategy or combination depends on the investor's objectives, financial circumstances, tax situation, time horizon, and tolerance for volatility. The next step is not to select the portfolio with the highest return. It is to determine which combination provides the right balance of growth, resilience, and risk.
Important disclosures
Bull Run Investment Management, LLC is an investment adviser registered with the appropriate regulatory authorities. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. This presentation is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, and it is not personalized investment advice. Nothing here should be construed as a recommendation to purchase or sell any particular security or to adopt any particular strategy or allocation.
Past performance does not indicate future results. All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Equity strategies are subject to market risk and may decline substantially in value. The Equity Innovation strategy is concentrated and has experienced, and is expected to continue to experience, drawdowns materially larger than those of a broad market index. The Equity Low Volatility strategy is a lower-volatility equity strategy and is not a substitute for bonds, cash, or a capital preservation vehicle.
Performance figures are calculated from Bull Run's daily return record and are shown for the period selected in the presentation. Returns marked gross do not reflect the deduction of advisory fees, which reduce returns. Net figures reflect the deduction of the annual fee rate selected by the viewer, applied daily. Benchmark and index returns are always shown gross and are unmanaged; an index cannot be invested in directly. Where a period includes results prior to a strategy's live inception date, those returns are backtested, were derived by applying the same research framework retroactively, were not achieved with client assets, and are clearly labeled where shown. Live inception dates are stated in the presentation.
Allocation models are educational illustrations of how the strategies may be combined. They are not personalized recommendations. Blended model results are hypothetical, assume daily rebalancing to the stated weights with no transaction costs, taxes, or cash drag, and were not earned by any client account. The bonds sleeve is represented by a high-yield corporate bond index. Individual client results will differ from strategy composite results based on account size, the timing of contributions and withdrawals, tax circumstances, cash positions, and any restrictions applied to the account.
Rankings compare the strategy against a universe of United States listed equity exchange traded funds over the stated period on a consistent return basis. The universe, methodology, and net-of-fee version of the comparison are published on the strategy page. A ranking is a historical measurement over one specific window and is not a prediction.
Fee estimates are illustrative and use the graduated tier schedule in Bull Run's Form ADV Part 2A, where each tier's rate applies only to the assets within that tier. Actual fees are governed by the executed advisory agreement. Where an account is managed through an outside financial advisor, that advisor's fee is set by the advisor and is disclosed separately in their own agreement and Form ADV. Charles Schwab is the independent custodian and is not affiliated with Bull Run Investment Management. Schwab does not endorse, review, or recommend Bull Run or any of its strategies. Form ADV
Data through —. CRD #306763.
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General information from this website only — not advice and not a recommendation. Past performance does not predict future results.