By Hamlin Lovell
In 1997 the founders of Aspect Capital – Anthony Todd, Martin Lueck and Eugene Lambert – agreed on their philosophy, culture and ambitions to offer trend following strategies to institutional investors, but they struggled to agree on a name for the firm, since many potential monickers were not available. Inspiration came from Lambert’s gliding hobby. “The aspect ratio of a wing measures the ratio of the square of its wingspan to the area of the wing. A higher aspect ratio creates a more stable aeroplane, and crucially results in a higher lift to drag ratio, which is analogous to risk-adjusted measures of investment returns, such as Sharpe ratios,” says Lueck, Research Director. Lambert, who remains an investor in Aspect’s strategies, left the firm in 2004 to spend more time gliding, travelling and writing prize-winning fiction.
