Allen Root
LP
Verified
I started my career in 2001 at Principled Capital, a long/short hedge fund seeded by Farallon, where I covered basic industries and industrials. Principled closed in early 2010 due to lingering effects of the credit crisis. Shortly before Principled closed shop I went to Altima Partners, a UK based fund, to run the public portion of an agribusiness sector fund. There we traded ag-related equities and commodities. Altima closed its New York office in 2011 and after that I (with a partner) tried to re-launch the product we ran at Altima on a standalone basis.
I fall in the category of value investor and the funds where I’ve worked stressed independent research to generate deep industry, corporate and market context. When modeling industries I am very focused on asset returns and think about ROA (and trends or inflections in ROA) as an important tool in measuring the health of an industry segment or the quality of a management team. When modeling commodities, either for direct investment or to incorporate into models, I spend a lot of time thinking about the cost of marginal production depending on various demand scenarios.