With the unique ability to spot inefficiencies across a number of different markets and asset classes, Chris Plaford has over 25 years of investment experience. He can source, evaluate and capitalize on inefficiently priced risk-adjusted-return opportunities like few others.

Chris Plaford attended Indiana University where he got his Bachelor of Science degree in finance. Even before college – while still in high school – he started getting involved in real estate. He bought a couple of multifamily apartment buildings despite having no cash by convincing the sellers to take a second mortgage. He recognized that he had a knack for finance and headed to Wall Street. After gaining experience working at Goldman Sachs and doing hedge fund work, Chris Plaford went to work for Balyasny Asset Management, a well-respected group in the hedge fund arena.

His Beginnings

He started out as a trader and worked his way up to Portfolio Manager, spending most of his time within the Healthcare division. Chris Plaford became a partner at that company, a group of funds with $8 billion of assets under management. Some of the individual funds that he managed grew upwards of $500 million, with total AUM under his supervision exceeding $1bill. He next served as the Chief Executive Officer of Clarivate Analytics, a startup that consults the biotech and pharmaceutical industries about how to raise money.

Aside from the healthcare industry, Chris Plaford has years of experience trading in other areas, such as real estate, fixed income securities, structured products, credit default swaps, convertible bonds, and equity derivatives. He retired from Wall Street in 2013 to focus primarily on real estate with his company, Capital Asset Properties.

Capital Asset Properties

Their niche is focusing on the huge lack of access to capital in the middle of the market. One of the reasons he is so attracted to this field is the fact that this area is hugely inefficient. Middle America is more capital-constrained, unlike investors on the East and West coasts. That means there is a $1-5 million segment of the marketplace, out of reach of mom and pops but under the radar of institutions, that is very underserved. CAP development and construction lending, as well as single-family communities and townhome projects, have their largest markets in Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Although Chris Plaford does not seek investment banking engagements as a livelihood, he is often asked to consult with companies about this topic because of his years of experience. After consulting with investors and companies in capital markets across multiple industries, he decided to form the consulting firm CAP Consulting LLC for all of his consulting projects.