iTrust (TM)

Founding iTrust in the early 2000s, AbraxasHoldings created iTrust Investor services and iTrust Institute, a not-for-profit, to study the effects of regulatory policies on equity valuations. Investor services included iTrust Investor news and iTrust Report subscriber services to address unique issues and values in Canadian equity markets in the context of global money supply and economies.

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Until February 2008, the iTrust Report was a leading guide for do-it-yourself investors and professional fund managers to manage outsized returns. The Report was based on an iTrust Model portfolio featuring a proprietary market indexation and asset valuation system. It was developed as a patent-pending methodology and deployed by our founder, Leslie Hayman. She focused on methods to differentiate relative returns typical of professional financial advisors and fund managers, from absolute and total returns from profitable operations. As a result:

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• The iTrust system used our Model Portfolio produced an average of 35-55% total annual returns until early 2008.

• An associate member of the Canadian Financial Analysts Society and expert on income-oriented equity markets with an emphasis on public companies and flow-through entities, Ms. Hayman became a regular guest commentator on the BNN midday market. Based on iTrust Model findings, she discussed fundamental business values and how they translated into sustainable returns from equity issues.

• She was invited to write a year-end market review for Advocis (Association of Canadian Financial Advisors) when the Canadian Prime Minister broke an election promise to protect the valuable income trust market. Rather, the government destroyed $68 billion in retiree savings overnight, by collapsing the market. The Conservative regulatory changes shocked equity market control out of the hands of millions of do-it-yourself investors and threw fearful investors into the arms of commercial fund managers at a handful of Canadian banking institutions.

• In early February '08, two quarters in advance of actual events, our Model portfolio predicted a total collapse in quality and valuations of equity issues in North American markets. 

• By the end of February '08, the iTrust Report advised investors to begin selling their equity holdings (if not go short). Many subscribers were unwilling to accept our Model observations and demanded answers about where to invest, ever hoping* to maintain outsized performances.

• To protect subscribers' assets, we shut down the iTrust Report service at the end of February, and refunded all remaining subscriber fees. 

• By the peak of the market 'party', iTrust informed portfolio management decisions by a private equity firm, iTrust Partners, in which AbraxasHoldings purchased a minority stake. Partners fully deployed one of two Canadian equity funds by the end of Summer '08. But following our Model signals, Parters quickly divested by mid-September, prior to the market crash, and protected the seed money of lead investors.

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At AbraxasHoldings, we find that consistent, equitable returns are based on a quality orientation starting with good people, focusing on absolute and total returns using manageable technology of our own making. [More]