Altegris.com Members Area

Altegris Research and Investments Team

Focused solely on alternatives, the Altegris Research and Investments team is dedicated to sourcing, evaluating and securing capacity with premier hedge funds, managed futures funds and programs, and other alternative investments. This is designed to meet the needs of investment professionals and sophisticated investors. This team of experts specializes in detailed operational and investment evaluation for new funds and investment managers, as well as ongoing review and monitoring of existing funds and managers on the Altegris platform.

Allen Cheng - Senior Vice President & Chief Investment Officer
Allen Cheng brings over 20 years of hedge fund and alternative investment experience to his role as Senior Vice President & Chief Investment Officer of Altegris Advisors where he is responsible for the Research and Investments group. Before joining Altegris Advisors, Mr. Cheng served as Managing Director, Head of Fund of Funds Portfolio Management at Bank of America’s Alternative Investment Group. In this position, Mr. Cheng built and directed the hedge fund portfolio investment team and additionally oversaw numerous hedge fund products across diverse strategies. He has significant experience in the alternative investment industry, particularly in the area of identifying, selecting, and monitoring hedge fund managers across multiple investment disciplines. Mr. Cheng’s previous experience includes responsibility as Managing Director, Head of Research for Optima Fund Management, an investment advisory firm specializing in alternative investments. He began his alternative investment career at Moore Capital Management managing asset allocation and research for hedge fund multi-manager products. Mr. Cheng earned his B.A. in Finance from the University of Maryland and M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Lara Magnusen , CAIA® - Vice President, Director
With over 10 years of industry experience Lara Magnusen currently serves as Vice President, Director of Research and Investments for Altegris Advisors. Ms. Magnusen previously served as Director of Manager Research for Cabezon Capital LLC / Borton Hermeneutics LLC, responsible for monitoring and developing seeded managers. Additional experience includes her tenure as an Associate Portfolio Manager and Director of Investor Relations at Helix Investment Partners, a capital structure arbitrage hedge fund, as well as a several years as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. Ms. Magnusen holds a B.A. in Economics with a minor in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley. She also has an M.B.A. from the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego.

Tricia Zehr - Director, Product Development
Ms. Zehr has over nine years of financial industry experience. Prior to the formation of Altegris, Ms. Zehr was Director of Administration of the Managed Investments Division of Man Financial Inc, a subsidiary of the Man Group, in its La Jolla, California office. Ms. Zehr began her career as a financial consultant with Merrill Lynch’s Private Client Group in La Jolla, CA, where she served on a team of investment professionals focused on business lending and cash management, and estate and tax planning. Upon the separation from Man Financial and formation of Altegris in July 2002, she became a general securities principal and was responsible for supervision and compliance. In her current role as Director of Product Development at Altegris, Ms. Zehr works in the processes of initial and ongoing compliance, legal and regulatory review of products and money managers. She leads Altegris’ ongoing efforts in monitoring the administration of the investment products on our platform.

Eric Bundonis - Senior Research Associate
Mr. Bundonis joined Altegris from OneCapital Management Partners in New York. As a member of OneCapital’s investment committee, he was responsible for identifying, selecting, and monitoring investments for multi-manager funds of hedge funds serving institutional and high net worth investors. Previously, Mr. Bundonis conducted comprehensive qualitative and quantitative research on prospective and existing investments for one of the world’s leading family office investors, Auda Advisor Associates in New York. Mr. Bundonis graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont with a B.A. in History. He also attended the Post-Baccalaureate Program in Business at Columbia University in New York.

Ryan Hart , CFA, CAIA® - Senior Research Associate
Mr. Hart joins Altegris from Wachovia Securities, where he served as Alternative Investment Strategist, responsible for analyzing and recommending alternative investments. In this role, Mr. Hart also advised the investment network on the best utilization of alternative investments in client portfolios. Previously, he was a senior member of the investment team at Meritage Capital responsible for manager due diligence for fund of funds portfolios. Mr. Hart started his career at Franklin Templeton Investments where he performed quantitative and qualitative analysis on alternative investment managers and strategies while being a member of the investment committee. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of San Diego with B.S. in Business Administration in Finance.

Nicholas Maffeo , CAIA® - Senior Research Associate
Mr. Maffeo, Senior Research Associate, joined the Altegris team in September of 2005. His current role consists of analyzing and monitoring Altegris’ current managed futures platform, as well as searching for new and emerging managed futures talent. Prior to joining Altegris, Nick was a Compliance Analyst at LPL Financial, analyzing client accounts to look for anomalies. Nick also gained experience at Legg Mason, a global asset management firm. Nick graduated Cum Laude from Shippensburg University with a B.S. in Business Administration in Finance and a minor in Economics.

Marissa Williams - Research Associate
Ms. Williams’ role consists of helping to maintain the Altegris managed futures platform, as well as aiding the Altegris Research team with various analytical projects. Ms. Williams joined Altegris from Cabrillo Advisors, LLC., a boutique investment bank and financial advisory services firm. In her previous role as a Financial Analyst, she conducted business valuations for clients and was also responsible for supporting Senior Management on a number of middle-market merger & acquisition transactions by conducting extensive company and market research. She graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a B.A. in Political Science.

Read Investment Committee Bios

Read Team Member Bios

Contact Altegris directly

Altegris in the News

Key members of the Altegris team are regularly invited as guests and/or featured speakers at conferences, or are on the road researching alternative investments.

Read Recent Altegris News

Careers at Altegris

Know someone who may be interested in joining the Altegris Team? Click here to view current career opportunities at Altegris.

Register Today

Registration is the first step to get started. Register for membership today, and receive free reports and information about alternative investments.

Home > About Us > Our People > Research and Investments Bios

1200 Prospect Street, Suite 400, La Jolla, California 92037
Toll Free: 800-828-5225 | Phone: 858-459-7040 | Fax: 858-456-9209 | info@altegris.com

Alternative investment products, including hedge funds and managed futures, involve a high degree of risk, often engage in leveraging and other speculative investment practices that may increase the risk of investment loss, can be highly illiquid, are not required to provide periodic pricing or valuation information to investors, may involve complex tax structures and delays in distributing important tax information, are not subject to the same regulatory requirements as mutual funds, often charge high fees which may offset any trading profits, and in many cases the underlying investments are not transparent and are known only to the investment manager. Alternative investment performance can be volatile. An investor could lose all or a substantial amount of his or her investment. Often, alternative investment fund and account managers have total trading authority over their funds or accounts; the use of a single advisor applying generally similar trading programs could mean lack of diversification and, consequently, higher risk. There is often no secondary market for an investor's interest in alternative investments, and none is expected to develop. There may be restrictions on transferring interests in any alternative investment. Alternative investment products often execute a substantial portion of their trades on non-U.S. exchanges. Investing in foreign markets may entail risks that differ from those associated with investments in U.S. markets. Additionally, alternative investments often entail commodity trading, which involves substantial risk of loss. PAST RESULTS ARE NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS.

Altegris, a FINRA and NFA member, offers various alternative investments, including hedge funds, futures funds and managed futures and commodities accounts, that may operate in commodities markets and foreign markets, among others. Altegris and/or its officers/partners may have a financial interest in such alternative investments. In working with clients, Altegris acts in its capacity as an SEC-registered Broker-Dealer and/or as a CFTC-registered Introducing Broker and CTA. Although Altegris may give securities-related advice that is incidental to its securities brokerage services, it is not an Investment Adviser. When acting as an Introducing Broker for individually managed accounts, Altegris receives a portion of the commodity brokerage commissions you pay in connection with your futures trading and/or a portion of the interest income (if any) earned on an account's assets. CTAs may also pay Altegris a portion of the fees they receive from accounts introduced to them by Altegris. When acting as a Broker-Dealer, Altegris enters into selling agreements with hedge funds and futures funds that it offers (including funds sponsored by affiliates), pursuant to which Altegris, with respect to the interests it sells, is paid a portion of the management and/or performance fees charged by the funds or their managers in respect of those interests. Altegris may also provide ongoing managed futures consulting services to its clients for a monthly service charge pursuant to individual managed account consulting arrangements.