About PurePlay Capital

PurePlay Capital, Inc. is a financial engineering firm that is focused on the construction of publicly traded securities indices.

Our indexes are designed to capture a more “pure” participation in a current underlying theme or investment objective without the watering down seen by other firms.

PurePlay was established to develop indexes which accurately represent emerging industries. We have found that most developing industries share;

  • A few major companies whose primary business is not in the developing market and have very little direct exposure such as Scotts Miracle Grow begin represented as a marijuana company;
  • In some cases, we find companies who are included in an industry which don’t have significant operations. An example would be biotech firm with a catalog of 200 products which announces they are in the marijuana industry because they started experimenting with THC or CBD;
  • Companies who claim to be in an industry that is doing well in order to garner attention and increase their stock price, such as Long Island Iced Tea entering the cryptocurrency space.

The current and questionable inclusion of half-pregnant securities seen by our competitors shortchanges investors looking for the best “PurePlay” way to gain market exposure.

PurePlay is based on the idea that better index construction is possible without the constraints of traditional modeling methods. A PurePlay index is designed to capture the full participation of the underlying investment philosophy or strategy.  PurePlay gives investors the yardstick by which to measure performance. This effective financial measurement tool is imperative to objectively measuring individual stock performance as well as understanding the underlying groups metrics.

Our Story

The asset management industry has been plagued by decades of institutional thinking. This kind of thinking has led to an investment industry that is not built for individuals and their investments, but more for large pensions, insurance companies and foundations that have exceedingly long time horizons and make decisions based on statistics like tracking error and information ratios. The core of how large institutions manage money caters to these large institutions and is the basis on which they have developed their investment strategies and philosophies and how they present their results.

It became apparent after years of tracking and assessing investment managers that the history of managing money relative to benchmarks had engrained several habits in portfolio managers and the organizations around them that led them to be ‘closet-indexers,’ unwilling or unable, within the confines of their institutions, to make the active investment decisions around managing risk or enhancing returns that their clients expected from them and that they are indeed being paid to make.

Many of these organizations have proven to be formidable at increasing their assets under management, while we feel they have lost sight of the needs of the individual investor.

At PurePlay Capital we believe that investors deserve a set of investment solutions that are actively managed and deliver on the outcomes that Canadian investors want for their portfolios.
“Helping Build Better Portfolios for Better Investment Outcomes”
Unconstrained Thinking

At PurePlay Capital, we believe that it’s important to partner with investment firms that are built to make active investment decisions, in an effort to skew investment outcomes in favour of our clients. We call it unconstrained thinking, and it takes into account both the portfolio managers’ investing philosophy and also the structural aspects of their organizations that allows them to actively pursue superior risk/reward opportunities in the areas in which they invest.

We also focus our funds in areas of the market where we believe that active investment management can add value. Whether our fund manager is selecting a company in which to invest in Malaysia, a preferred share in Canada or making a bold call on the US bond market, our mandates are built to complement your core holdings and to be building blocks in creating better portfolios.

“Closet-indexers” have given the asset management industry a bad reputation, and are one of the key reasons for the significant growth in indexed strategies. By focusing on truly active managers, focused on areas of the capital markets that are less efficient, we aim to deliver better outcomes for advisors and their clients.

Why PurePlay Capital?

We look forward to “building better financial mousetraps” and empowering both professional and civilian investors alike with our models.

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