As co-founder of QM Advisors, David Simmons has helped develop a firm that he believes fixes what is broken in the financial services industry. At many investment firms, you are either given a Modern Portfolio Theory allocation of money managers by a salesperson with no real access to the money manager, or you buy into a “black-box” that you just have to trust will work and have no understanding of what that box really does. At QM Advisors, we are turning those business models upside down. We give our clients full transparency into our process of money management and provide them with direct access to the money manager. However, money management is only one part of the equation. The more important part is YOU and your personal process for making decisions.
 
David earned degrees in Economics and Human and Organizational Development (HOD) at Vanderbilt University. The economics degree has given David the basis to understand how the economy and markets work and are woven together. The HOD degree has given him the skills to find solutions to human problems in organizations and communities and the importance of connecting academic knowledge to personal and professional practice.
 
Early in his 20-year career in the investment industry, David worked at several large traditional investment companies that focused on Modern Portfolio Theory. Most recently before founding QM Advisors, he was working at a small independent Registered Investment Advisor that focused on a "black-box" tactical money management system. While David believes that there are merits to every system of money management, he can often be heard saying, “every system works until it doesn’t…you just have to know when it is going to stop working.” Over the years, David has worked with clients with investable assets at both ends of the spectrum, in doing so, he has realized a few truths. First, regardless of the size of the account, very few people actually understand the investment process into which they are buying. They view it as a commodity (it is all the same everywhere), they don’t have access to the money managers to understand it and they don’t care to understand until it is too late. Second, and probably most importantly, is that they do not understand their personal decision process and biases that lead them to make emotion-driven investment decisions that often lead to poor investment results. Lastly, investment managers will often hold onto a process that is flawed because it worked in one particular set of circumstances and, because of their own emotion and decision biases, they do not change as the market structure evolves.
 
In 2018, David co-founded QM Advisors, a firm that blends behavioral finance theory, goals-based planning, and proprietary investment strategies that seek to take emotion out of our rules-based investment process. We take the time to explain our process and investment strategies, we provide direct access to the money managers, and we have a process to deal with your personal decision process and biases. Our investment process is constantly evolving as market structure changes, but one thing always rings true: We will always have a mathematical rules-based process that takes emotion out of the equation. At QM Advisors, we don’t claim to have the silver bullet for investing. We simply believe we have an investment process that is solid and that takes emotion out of the equation. We believe if you are aware of how you make decisions, what your biases are, have the tools to deal with them, and if you can take emotion out of the equation, you will have more success, less stress, achieve more goals, lead a happier life.  Your emotions will follow as you achieve your goals. Simply put, we give you the tools to deal with and make better decisions when the inevitable ups and downs of the market come. If you understand, buy into the process, and are comfortable with it, your emotions and results will follow. We believe, emotions should be your caboose, not your engine.
 
Investing and helping people achieve their goals are only a couple of David’s passions. David lives in Dalton, Georgia with his wife, Leslie, and their two boys, Sye and Grant. Their family attends Rock Bridge Community Church. David is active in his children’s lives leading or helping lead/coach their stock market club, Scouts, various sports teams, being a chauffeur, and indulging their crazy ideas. Over the years, David has been active in the community serving on nonprofit boards. When not working David enjoys heading to the great outdoors, traveling, skiing, and spending time with friends and family.

 

To contact David, please call (678) 596-4646 or
send email to: dsimmons@qmadvisors.com