Company History
Sabrient Systems was founded in December 2000 in Santa Barbara, California, by David Brown and four associates.
David, a former NASA scientist and CEO of Telescan, Inc., formed a research team to develop algorithms to quantify various fundamental data on public companies. The algorithms were used to rank a universe of about 5,000 stocks from best to worst in a number of categories. In both back-tests and forward tests, the 50 top-ranked stocks in each category significantly outperformed relative benchmarks. The rankings were used by hedge funds and other asset managers to enhance alpha in their portfolios.
This led in 2004 to the selection of Sabrient as an independent research provider by seven of the twelve investment brokerage firms that were named in the SEC's 2003 Global Research Settlement. The firms included some of the giants of Wall Street (at that time)--Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros., Deutsche Bank, to name a few. As part of the research provided to these firms, we created a proprietary interface to translate the Sabrient rankings into text for the Sabrient Ratings Reports. Over the next five years, our R&D team, led by Dr. Joshua R. Anderson with strong support from Chief Market Strategist David Brown, developed a powerful proprietary engine that serves as our internal strategy testing and production platform. This engine, which we call FSYS, greatly advanced our ability to create, build, test, and execute powerful investment strategies.
In 2006 Sabrient was requested by Claymore Advisors (now Guggenheim Investments) to build indexes to be tracked by Claymore ETFs. This resulted in the first Sabrient indexes, including the Sabrient Defensive Equity Index, tracked by the Guggenheim Defensive Equity ETF (DEF), rated 5 STARs by Morningstar, and the Sabrient Insider Sentiment Index, tracked by the Guggenheim Insider Sentiment ETF (NFO), rated 4 STARs by Morningstar.
Sabrient now has suite of eight indices, including two for Direxion and two co-branded indexes with Thomson Reuters. Index strategies are a high-growth area for the company. The Sabrient indices spotlighted the Sabrient brand and attracted a wider range of clients, including Fidelity Investments, ING Direct, Guggenheim, Scotia Bank, Direxion, and Standard & Poor’s.
In 2009, BNY ConvergEx presented Sabrient with their Director’s Choice Award for Sabrient's forward-looking ability to adapt to the evolving needs of the institutional investment community.
Founded in October 1996 by Dr. Donn Vickrey and two associates, the company was rebranded Gradient Analytics in 2002 when it began offering analyst-written research reports under the direction of Dr. Vickrey. In 2011 Sabrient Systems acquired the Gradient business unit responsible for all analyst-driven reports and services. The acquisition included all analysts, sales and client relationship management personnel and the Gradient brand, which is synonymous with the highest quality and most in-depth independent research reports. The acquisition of Gradient added breadth and depth to Sabrient’s already outstanding research team. Dr. Vickrey remains the Director of Research for Gradient's company-specific research work.
Sabrient is not a money manager or hedge fund manager. However, in 2010, we partnered with Stutland Volatility Group in Chicago, one of the most successful options trading specialists in the business, to form Stutland Volatility Funds (SVF), a joint venture owned 50% by Sabrient. For SVF, Brian Stutland and Luke Rahbari, principals of Stutland, use their options overlays in concert with Sabrient’s alpha models, to create mutual funds, closed-end funds, hedge funds, and structured products, all based on the resulting strategies.
Sabrient has 35 employees in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Austin, Texas. The company is headquartered in Santa Barbara.