John Davi

John Davi spent 20 years on Wall Street , 10 at Merrill Lynch and 10 at Morgan Stanley , doing institutional research and portfolio construction before launching Astoria Advisors in 2017 and the PPI ETF. His transition from sell-side research to running his own firm reveals both the advantages of an institutional pedigree and the grinding reality of building distribution as a small ETF issuer.

From Sell-Side Research to Buy-Side Entrepreneur

John started his career in quantitative research in the late 1990s, when "it was all about single stocks and fundamental research and being an Institutional Investor-ranked analyst , that was the big thing in research." But his orientation was always macro and portfolio construction focused. "From the start, it was always about how do you build portfolios that deliver unique sources of risk and return for institutional investors."

The jump to running his own firm was deliberate. "The goal was to join the buy side and to be an entrepreneur, and I just thought that it'd be helpful to do both at the same time." Astoria now services other RIAs and independent advisors looking for outsourced solutions , strategic asset allocation, quantitative stock selection, and now two ETFs.

The PPI Strategy: Inflation-Sensitive Investing

PPI is built around the thesis that inflation would be structurally higher and stickier than consensus expected. The portfolio construction framework starts from a core-satellite approach: core tickers that "in theory shouldn't change at all ever," and satellite positions that can shift based on where they see the economy in the cycle.

John describes the rebalancing approach as "strategic with our tilts , we're not tactical. We do look at where we are in the cycle and various indicators, and then we try to strategically tilt once, twice a year." Concrete examples: adding high-quality corporate credit through SPIB when the economy looks vulnerable to recession, allocating to long-duration treasuries (SPTL) for convexity in a recession scenario, and using international high-quality dividend ETFs (IHDG) to add beta with a quality screen.

He also highlights the trillion dollars of fiscal stimulus that surprised markets in 2023 , "the SNAP program extension, Medicaid, the student loan program, plus the Silicon Valley Bank crisis adding to the Fed's balance sheet." These factors contributed to a much more resilient economy than consensus expected.

The Media Game: Being Right and Being Visible

John's distribution strategy leans heavily on media presence , consistent CNBC appearances and a growing social media following. The feedback loop is explicit: "You've got to have a good call, you've got to be out there a little bit, and then you've got to be right. Nobody wants to put you on TV if you're wrong constantly."

He credits his team with enabling that presence: "It's not just me , there's a team behind me that empowers me. We've got three CFAs on staff, a full sales and marketing department." The media creates a branding flywheel , visibility builds audience, audience builds awareness, and awareness supports asset gathering. Twitter (now X) plays a growing role: "Once you start getting built on Twitter and people start following you, these media personalities will acknowledge you."

The Volume Objection and Portfolio Construction Philosophy

Like every small ETF issuer, John deals with the frustrating "it doesn't have any volume" objection from advisors. His response is direct: "Volume is not indicative of liquidity. Let's move on past that." It remains an education problem that the entire emerging issuer community faces.

On portfolio construction, John makes a clear distinction: "Not enough people make active bets in portfolios." He advocates for being willing to take meaningful positions when the data supports it , not just running generic 60/40 allocations with slight tilts. Whether it's overweighting inflationary assets through PPI or building sector-specific quality screens through ROE (their newer fund), the philosophy is that genuine active risk is how you generate genuine active return.

In a personal touch, John mentions his wife is from Pittsburgh , Brad's home base , and he's there at least once a year. The ETF world is smaller than it looks, and personal connections matter as much as performance data when building distribution at Astoria's scale.

The institutional research background creates both opportunities and challenges for the ETF business. On one hand, 20 years of publishing research built relationships with media and institutional investors that most small ETF issuers would kill for. On the other hand, the institutional world rewards analysis, not asset gathering , and the transition from one skill set to the other requires a fundamentally different approach. John's team of three CFAs, a sales and marketing department, and dedicated analysts reflects the infrastructure needed to translate institutional credibility into ETF distribution. The research produces the content, the content drives the media presence, the media presence builds the brand, and the brand ultimately drives assets. It's a long chain, and every link matters.

Key Takeaways

• John Davi spent 20 years on Wall Street , 10 at Merrill Lynch and 10 at Morgan Stanley , doing institutional research and portfolio construction before launching Astoria Advisors in 2017 and the PPI ETF.
• His transition from sell-side research to running his own firm reveals both the advantages of an institutional pedigree and the grinding reality of building distribution as a small ETF issuer.
• John started his career in quantitative research in the late 1990s, when "it was all about single stocks and fundamental research and being an Institutional Investor-ranked analyst , that was the big thing in research." But his orientation was always macro and portfolio construction focused.
• "From the start, it was always about how do you build portfolios that deliver unique sources of risk and return for institutional investors." The jump to running his own firm was deliberate.

Listen to the full conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.