James O'Shaughnessy (investor)
James Patrick O'Shaughnessy (born May 24, 1960) is an American investor and the founder, chairman, and chief investment officer of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management, LLC (OSAM), an asset management firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. O'Shaughnessy's areas of expertise include quantitative equity analysis, portfolio management, research decisions, and investment models. O'Shaughnessy has authored several books that use Standard & Poor's Compustat database to provide extensive quantitative analysis of stock market performance. O'Shaughnessy has been awarded several U.S. patents for his investment strategies and was recognized as a legendary investor by Forbes.com. Biography. James P. O'Shaughnessy was born and  raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he attended Saint Thomas Academy as a youth. His fascination with the stock market began at an early age when he started to manually track characteristics common to the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index. After studying international economics and business diplomacy at the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University, O'Shaughnessy graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Minnesota in 1986. After graduating, O'Shaughnessy worked for a family-owned venture capital firm. During this time, his interest in quantitative research was recognized by a  colleague who was on the board of directors with O'Shaughnessy at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. The colleague suggested that O'Shaughnessy's research might be well suited for pension plan management. In 1988, O'Shaughnessy started O'Shaughnessy Capital Management, Inc. and began consulting to large pension funds and foundations. In 1991, O'Shaughnessy moved his family to Greenwich, Connecticut, to be closer to the New York area, where most of his business was located. O'Shaughnessy continued to apply his research of the stock market and, in 1994, his first book "Invest Like the Best" was published, followed by the first edition of  What Works on Wall Street in 1997, "How to Retire Rich" in 1998, and "Predicting the Markets of Tomorrow" in 2006. O'Shaughnessy started his own mutual funds under the names Cornerstone Growth and Cornerstone Value in 1996. In 1997, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) launched the RBC O'Shaughnessy mutual funds for Canadian investors. Currently, there are seven mutual funds in the RBC O’Shaughnessy funds family. In 1999, O'Shaughnessy started Netfolio, The Personal Fund Company, to offer individual investors the ability to build their own diversified portfolio over the internet. The company was closed in 2001. As part of Netfolio 's concentration on “personal funds” O’Shaughnessy Capital Management sold their mutual fund family to Hennessy Advisors in June 2000. In 2001, O’Shaughnessy and his team from O’Shaughnessy Capital Management moved to Bear Stearns Asset Management (BSAM), where O’Shaughnessy served as a Senior Managing Director and the executive director of Systematic Equity. In 2007, O’Shaughnessy reached an agreement with Bear Stearns to spin his Systematic team out of BSAM to form O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, LLC. O'Shaughnessy is the former chairman of the board for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and currently serves as the chair of the capital campaign  for CMS. He is also a member of the board of trustees for Common Good.