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Seven Bridges provides clients with a full service investment office.

We pursue this mandate for endowments, institutions and families by allocating capital to managers across the spectrum of asset classes.

Comprised of a diverse, large and experienced group of investors,
the Seven Bridges team works to uncover attractive risk/return
opportunities across markets and strategies using
both qualitative and quantitative research.

The Challenge

The challenge was to find a path through the city that would cross each bridge only once. The problem stated that the path need not start and end in the same place, but that each bridge must be crossed completely. It was proven that the problem has no solution, but in so proving a valuable technique of analysis was defined, and thus the problem became secondary in importance to the approach taken.

We believe investment management poses a similarly unsolvable question. It is impossible to know which assets and strategies will have the best risk/return during any particular period, thus impossible to construct the ‘very best' portfolio for any environment. This can only be known ex-post with the benefit of perfect hindsight. Nevertheless, we undertake the process of asset allocation, strategy evaluation and manager selection to invest portfolios with what we believe are the best perceived risk/return characteristics. While no ‘right' answer can be found to the question of what assets to own at any one point in time, much is gleaned from the process of analyzing the problem. In our opinion, an investment portfolio, while never perfect, improves as we attempt to optimize risk/reward. As investors we are constantly learning, even though the problem is always 'unsolvable.'

The Seven Bridges of Konigsberg math conundrum is unsolvable. In proving it so, Leonhard Euler formed the basis for graph theory and presaged the field of topology. Thus, while there is no solution to the question posed, the process of analyzing the problem resulted in significant progress in the field of mathematics.

See Details of the Math Problem