BENJAMIN D. SUMMERS
Founder & Managing Director of Adagio Group
Ben's work is defined by a first-principles re-evaluation of complex systems, beginning with the foundations of financial mathematics and culminating in fundamental physics. His research journey began with the development of new risk and performance metrics to correct fundamental flaws in conventional econophysics, detailed in "An Intuitive True Total Risk-Adjusted Performance Measure." This foundational inquiry evolved into a complete theoretical framework, "The Standard Model of Complex Economic Systems." This work, in turn, has led to his current research, which proposes that computational irreducibility is the physical origin of quantum mechanics. This entire theoretical portfolio—from risk metrics to quantum foundations—underpins the Adagio Group's first-principles approach to institutional investment.
His professional career has spanned distinct domains of high-performance, from professional baseball with the San Diego Padres organization to senior leadership in the global energy sector. This multi-disciplinary experience informs his unique approach to risk and complex systems. His independent research began after earning his Bachelor of Science in Physics from Louisiana State University and is conducted through Adagio Institute.
Ben earned his Bachelor of Science in Physics from Louisiana State University. His professional career has spanned distinct domains of high-performance, from a career in professional baseball with the San Diego Padres organization to senior leadership in the global energy sector. This multi-disciplinary experience informs the firm's unique, first-principles approach to risk and complex systems.
He is a member of the Forbes Finance Council and author of the international bestseller, The Shadow Banker's Secrets: Investment Banking for Alternatives.
INSIGHTS & RESEARCH
The Briefing Room
For principals of endowments, family offices, and other institutional allocators, this collection contains Ben's foundational research and strategic frameworks that govern Adagio Group's platform.
The Intellectual Foundations (Core Research & Applications)
An Intuitive True Total Risk-Adjusted Performance Measure and Characteristics Matrix
Technical paper for practitioners introducing a suite of proprietary metrics, including the Summers Measure and the SIC Matrix, that provide a complete, mathematically robust method of portfolio analysis.
The Standand Model of Complex Economic Systems
Mathematical econophysics paper introducing a unified framework that integrates signal processing, operator theory, and Bayesian inference to model financial markets with empirical rigor.
Adagio Group
Mathematical physics operates on first principles and empirical proof; institutional finance largely operates on consensus and convention. Adagio Group was founded to apply the discipline of the former to the domain of the latter via OCIO relationships with family offices and endowments.
The Institutional Framework
The Public Narrative
The Public Narrative
From the Desk of Ben Summers
For the broader community of accredited investors, RIAs, and financial professionals, Ben wrote the international bestseller The Shadow Banker's Secrets and provides ongoing commentary on markets, risk, and the first principles of investment through his Substack newsletter of the same name. With over 100,000 accredited investors and 10,000 institutional representatives, it is a leading platform for sophisticated, unconventional financial analysis.
The Shadow Banker's Secrets
INVESTMENT BANKING FOR ALTERNATIVES
Benjamin D. Summers
Foreword by Oren Klaff
Protect Your Portfolio from Market Crises While Generating Above-Market Returns, Create Capital and Become Your Own Bank
#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER IN 9 INVESTING & FINANCE CATEGORIES
The Shadow Banker's Secrets
INVESTMENT BANKING FOR ALTERNATIVES
Benjamin D. Summers
Foreword by Oren Klaff
Protect Your Portfolio from Market Crises
While Generating Above-Market Returns, Create Capital and
Become Your Own Bank
The Shadow Banker's Secrets
The Shadow Banker's Secrets
Benjamin D. Summers
Foreword by Oren Klaff
Protect Your Portfolio from Market Crises
While Generating Above-Market Returns,
Create Capital and Become Your Own Bank
#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER IN 9 INVESTING & FINANCE CATEGORIES
The Shadow Banker's Secrets
On Substack
CUSTOM JAVASCRIPT / HTML
The Standard Model of Complex Economic Systems [WORKING PAPER]
March 2025
(This working paper presents the comprehensive theoretical and empirical framework underlying Adagio Group's successful investment strategies, now being transitioned to academic publication. Components of this framework are being prepared for submission to peer-reviewed journals.)
This paper introduces a comprehensive theoretical framework termed ”The Standard Model of Complex Economic Systems” that bridges econophysics, signal processing, and portfolio theory using Hilbert space methods. We develop a unified approach that integrates fundamental analysis with sophisticated quantitative methods, applying Bayesian inference in function spaces to signals extracted from spectral analysis, wavelet decomposition, and operator-theoretic analysis of financial time series. The primary objective is to optimize the Omega ratio for leveraged liquid assets that have passed specific fundamental screening criteria. This dual-methodology approach addresses a significant gap in current practice: fundamental analysis establishes intrinsic value baselines while Hilbert space methods identify market signals that enable predictive modeling of period total returns. We introduce the Summers Total Risk-Adjusted Performance Measure (Summers Measure) with functional extensions that provide improved interpretability while preserving higher-moment sensitivity. Empirical testing demonstrates that our approach significantly outperforms traditional optimization techniques, particularly during market regime transitions and periods of high volatility. The framework contributes to the theoretical understanding of financial markets as complex adaptive systems while offering practical applications for investment management. By providing a physically interpretable model of market dynamics grounded in functional analysis, this paper establishes a foundation for a new paradigm in quantitative finance.
An Intuitive True Total Risk-Adjusted Performance Measure and Characteristics Matrix
January 2023
Keating and Shadwick’s Omega ratio captures all four statistical moments of risk but has practical limitations with respect to portfolio optimization. Kapsos et al. simplified the Omega ratio into an expression with better practical application, but its focus as a portfolio optimization tool represents a trade-off with respect to absolute risk-adjusted performance measurement. First, we've transformed the Kapsos form of the Omega ratio in an analogous manner to what Modigliani did with the Sharpe ratio to create an intuitive percentage output scaled against the market. Second, we’ve deconstructed the Kapsos form of Omega to create a 3 x 1 matrix that measures and intuitively communicates the three fundamental characteristics that define an investment: risk, return, and liquidity.
Be a Better Fiduciary: Private Structured Products & Quantitative Risk Analytics for Financial Advisors
February 2018
(This paper details the core philosophy behind our use of bespoke private structured products. While originally framed for financial advisors, its central argument on the duties of a modern fiduciary is directly applicable to institutional allocators. It establishes the 'why' for this critical component of our platform. The specific 'how'—the proprietary engineering of these solutions—is now governed by the more advanced frameworks detailed in our core research, such as the Summers Measure and the SIC Matrix.)
Investment Banking for Private Real Estate Operators
June 2017
Investment banks are intermediaries that, amongst many other functions, help typically large companies raise capital by advising on and underwriting new securities issues. To prepare for a new issue of securities, investment banks first advise their clients on considerations such as capital structure (how much debt vs. equity should be issued; what types of equity and debt should be issued, etc.), the strategic use of other financial instruments (such as warrants), and...
Investment Clubs: Gain the Exclusive Access of the Top 1%
May 2017
There is a little-known solution that can afford non-accredited investors the opportunity to participate in the exclusive securities offerings of hedge funds and invest like the top one percent: the investment club. An investment club is a business entity structured as either a general partnership or LLC in which all members (owners) are also managers who participate by vote in determining the investment decisions of the club; because all owners actively participate...
Constructing Alpha: An Introduction to the Fundamentals of Risk
April 2017
Every investor — from the guy who bets on physical currency by hiding it under his mattress to Ray Dalio — is concerned with risk. Somewhat surprisingly, despite the fact that the vast majority of people are risk averse, very few have any idea what risk actually means or how to measure it… this group includes many, if not most, financial professionals. Ironically, despite retail investors’ often stated aversion to risk, they tend to solely focus on the projected return...
From Wall Street to Main Street
July 2016
Most real estate investors face the nearly impossible task of competing for the few quality deals in their market against tens, if not hundreds, of deep-pocketed, well-connected and established investors already there. To survive, new and undercapitalized investors are forced to work many fruitless hours blindly mailing, calling, driving and knocking on random doors to find whatever scraps may be left over. After all this effort, in the rare instance a good deal is finally secured...
Introduction to Options in Real Estate
January 2015
One of most prolific and powerful tools of “creative” finance in real estate is the lease-option, but this tool represents only the proverbial tip of the iceberg when it comes to the most powerful breed of derivatives in the investing world, options. There are two basic types of options: the call option (or “call”) and the put option (or “put”). A call is what is utilized in the traditional lease-option; the put, on the other hand, is virtually unheard of in the world or real estate. An option...
Determining Equilibrium Value for Residential Real Estate
March 2013
(This paper serves as a foundational case study in the Adagio methodology. It demonstrates how we dismantle a conventional, narrative-based valuation model ("comparable sales") and replace it with a rigorous, first-principles framework derived from corporate finance. The subject is real estate; the principle is universal.)
One of the most pervasive challenges facing the residential real estate market is the determination of property values. As a result of TARP and other federal subsidies to institutional mortgage lenders, in addition to administrative incompetence, the foreclosure pipeline has been clogged. The expected glut of inventory resulting from the mortgage and financial crisis has yet to materialize, and correspondingly, prices have been lifted by artificially limited supply...
Deciphering Monetary Policy as a Means to Beat the Market
October 2012
(This paper details the first-principles critique of the post-1971 monetary order that serves as the foundation of our institutional worldview. While our tactical implementation has since evolved into a comprehensive OCIO platform, the core diagnosis of systemic risk articulated in this document remains our unwavering guide.)
Monetary policy and its effect on the markets can often seem as an impossibly complex, if not opaque dynamic. The market obviously responds, and most often in a seemingly positive manner, to the actions taken by the Federal Reserve System and statements by its chairman, Ben Bernanke… but how and why, and what are the less obvious effects of a centralized monetary system...
Our Research
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