Co-founders Chris Davies and Tomiko Evans discuss Crossing Point’s unusual trend-based approach and connection to the Welsh city of Swansea.

Originally meant to be an early Monday morning call, my meeting with Crossing Point’s chairman Chris Davies and CIO Tomiko Evans was delayed as markets tumbled after another chaotic weekend in the Iran war.

When we finally got together to talk later in the week, Evans said events had developed suddenly and all indicators led to them ‘reducing their allocation to protect investors’, having already cut equity weightings in March.

While the MPS specialists typically rebalance portfolios every six months, making changes in extraordinary market conditions is an important part of their trend-based approach.

Crossing Point has an interesting backstory beyond that distinctive investment philosophy. The small Swansea-based firm won two Citywire Adviser Choice Awards last month, one for its retirement proposition and another for investment performance.

‘A few of the fund managers that I’ve spoken to at Citywire events have said that we’re “the best kept secret”, which isn’t great if you’re trying to get the word out,’ said Evans.

Set up by the duo alongside Swansea University finance professor Mike Buckle in 2018, Crossing Point went fully out to market in 2020, a few weeks before the first Covid lockdown.

The firm, which now runs assets in the hundreds of millions, operates under a ‘trend-following’ strategy, using the moving averages of various asset classes to decide if a particular market is heading down or up, and switching into cash to protect investors from a negative-trending market.

Operating six types of models, the firm’s Guardian and Fusion ranges are orientated around the trend-following approach and reposition more frequently. Other models like their Passive and Growth ranges use a ‘buy and hold’ strategy but use the same methodology to allocate assets.

Performance figures from inception in September 2019 to the end of February 2026 show the Guardian Strategic portfolio, with a current 70% equity weighting, has returned 53.1%, versus 45.4% for the IA Mixed 40-85% sector.

The Strategic portfolios in the Growth and Passive ranges are 9.5 and 6.7 percentage points ahead of the same benchmark, respectively, since launching in mid-2023, according to factsheets.

Established upon a chance meeting

Davies, a chartered financial planner, started advice firm Estate Capital Financial Management in Swansea in April 2003, after a background in the insurance industry. Soon after, the firm decided to set up its own in-house model portfolios, which have gradually grown over the years.

For Evans, her finance industry trajectory was slightly less conventional. The CIO worked for the likes of Salomon Brothers and Citibank in the late 1990s and early 2000s in both London and New York.

After she moved to Swansea with her Welsh husband, however, Evans decided to stay at home for a period and focus on raising three children.

‘I then thought, “Well, what do I do?” And I eventually realised that I just wanted to get out the house more, see people and have adult conversations.’

A chance meeting came when both Davies and Evans decided to send their children to the same primary school. Evans originally started working for Estate Capital as a receptionist, until the pair realised they shared a similar philosophy towards investing.

‘We wanted to secure an investment solution based upon maths and evidence, and Tomiko wished to develop trend following and see if it worked – something she was aware of through her past work,’ said Davies.

He sponsored his colleague to enrol in a master’s degree at Swansea University, where they met Buckle, who supported and joined the Crossing Point project.

The firm sees its philosophy as an intersection between the academic and investing realms. Crossing Point’s focus on trend following is the result of Evans’ ‘mammoth’ academic research.

The outcome of Evans’ master’s research was that being in the FTSE 100 when trends were favourable and pivoting to gilts as an alternative when trends turned negative provided stronger and more consistent returns. ‘That was when we thought, “Right, this has got legs,” Davies added.

Evans then studied for a PhD, extending her research to include a variety of global indices. Initially, the group set up and tested Crossing Point with private money prior to launching the firm to market.

‘Wales’ only indigenous investment management company’

Davies, who has lived in Swansea for most of his life and has ancestry going back five generations in the coastal city, says that Crossing Point is ‘Wales’ only indigenous investment management company’, with the firm’s identity closely tied to Swansea.

‘It’s a fantastic place to live, and the people are very grounded, generous and kind. It allows you to take yourself out of the London noise, and if you’re doing evidence-based investments based on mathematical algorithms and academic research, you do not need to be working in a large city like London or New York,’ said Davies.

‘I think our journey shows that a small firm with the right approach and academic talent can outperform its peers no matter where it’s based.’

He added that being based outside London makes it easier for the firm to be competitive on price within the MPS space. The Passive and Guardian portfolios carry a 0.15% DFM fee, with that rising to 30 basis points for the other four ranges.

The firm is currently growing its sales team, and former Copia Capital managing director, Robert Vaudry, has become part of the firm’s board and investment committee.

Davies added: ‘We’re developing a lot of marketing and engaging with new IFA firms. Once our inflows pick up, we’d like to see the business grow significantly.

‘Hopefully we’ll then strategically acquire some IFA firms, providing some security over our distribution.’

Elliott Rose – City Wire Correspondent

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