Archangel

  

Categories: Entrepreneur, Investing

You are the developer of Solar Slinger Sasquatch, a solar-charged product that chases sleeping Sasquatches in the land of The Unknown. Problem is you need forty-grand more to launch it. Your wealthy Aunt Sue, a well-known podiatrist, offers to give you forty grand in exchange for 4% equity in the company. Sue is an angel investor with wings on her back (well, feet). She loves your enthusiasm, isn't a venture capitalist, wants you to succeed, and is willing to offer access to her deep pockets. However, she's not an archangel investor.

An archangel is someone who has done tons of angel investing to the point of fame. For example, Silicon Valley's Ron Conway would be considered a former archangel. In his heyday, he pegged (no, not that kind of pegging) companies like PayPal and Google...and has gained notoriety for his power and influence. Same concept, grander scheme of things.

And another take: In the middle ages, theologians enumerated a complicated hierarchy of angels, from Seraphim and Cherubim at the bottom all the way to Archangels at the top. And above them was Tiger Woods…you know…until The Event. (See Purgatorio for details.) Modern finance has partially transplanted these concepts to the realm of investing, if only in a metaphorical, somewhat stunted form.

There are no "Seraphim investors" at this point, but there are angel investors (people with money who use that cash to fund startups) and above them, there are archangels. This last category includes angel investors who have successfully made money on their startups, giving them a significant reputation in the investing community.

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Finance: What is a High Alpha Investor?5 Views

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Finance a la shmoop what is a high alpha investor? alpha dogs you know um fear em, [Arrow points to dogs]

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love em feed em alpha is good okay okay more specifically it's an

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investing term synonymous with smart if you have lots of alpha then you are

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smarter than the market so a high alpha investor is someone who beats the market

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while taking low risk ie not a lot of leverage not super volatile

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stocks per se or crazy categories like crypto currencies and they didn't just

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go by 20 bucks of California lottery tickets and then win alpha is well

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kind of a newish term in Modern Portfolio theory which is a thing [Modern Portfolio Theory book appears]

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apparently that signifies that this fund manager or mutual fund is pretty awesome

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and we can quantify that awesomeness with a number which we call alpha well

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what does this number mean? well a 2 indicates that the fund or investment

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performed at 2 percent better than the benchmark index and minus 7 is a 7 percent

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in the wrong direction and stuff like that and as we all know an alpha dog [Dog chewing a bone]

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will eat numbers like that for breakfast so high alpha good low alpha bad

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