Your Capital, Managed with Structural Discipline.
Every Trade Verified. Every Loss Disclosed.
EPIG is a three-layer managed investment strategy that keeps 70–85% of your capital structurally protected while compounding tactical futures income and asymmetric options returns. Built on the S&P 500. Executed in Interactive Brokers. Shared with full transparency.
All data from Interactive Brokers execution reports. Updated weekly.
What Is EPIG?
EPIG stands for Enduring Principal-Protected Income & Growth.
It is a rules-based, managed investment strategy with three layers:
Layer A holds 70–85% of your capital in SPY, high-quality equities, and cash equivalents. This is your structural floor — designed so the vast majority of your wealth is never at risk.
Layer B overlays a small tactical position (3–5% of capital) in S&P 500 futures with defined 20-point stops. This generates systematic income through high-frequency, low-risk trades.
Layer C deploys 3–5% into asymmetric options positions during market dislocations — limited downside, outsized upside potential. Deployed selectively, not constantly.
The result: a strategy engineered to target 16%+ CAGR across full market cycles while keeping original capital at risk below 5%.
Managed for You
We execute every trade. You review performance.
Verified via IB
Every fill carries a unique Interactive Brokers TradeID. No backtests. No paper trades.
Fully Transparent
Both wins and losses are published. The dashboard hides nothing.
Three Layers. One Integrated System.
Each layer serves a distinct structural purpose. Together they create a managed portfolio that protects, generates income, and compounds — without requiring you to make a single trade.
The Structural Floor
70–85% of your capital is held in a diversified core of SPY (S&P 500 ETF), select blue-chip equities, and cash equivalents. This layer provides market participation during bull markets and shifts toward cash during corrections exceeding 10%. Your principal’s first line of defense.
The Income Engine
A 3–5% overlay of defined-risk S&P 500 futures trades (MES and ES contracts), each with a hard 20-point stop. Systematic entries target high-probability setups. Over 150–200 trades per year, the positive expected value compounds into meaningful income regardless of market direction.
The Convexity Sleeve
A 3–5% allocation to options positions (primarily vertical spreads on SPY, QQQ, and select equities) designed to capture outsized moves during market dislocations and episodic pivots. Limited downside. Substantial upside. Deployed selectively — not constantly.
The Conventional Approach vs. the EPIG Architecture
Buy-and-hold S&P 500 investing is simple. It is also structurally constrained. EPIG is designed to neutralize those constraints.
| Dimension | S&P 500 Buy & Hold | EPIG Managed |
|---|---|---|
| Market Exposure | 100% constant | <5% tactical, rest protected |
| Drawdown Risk | 30–50%+ in major corrections | <10% engineered target |
| Lost Decade Risk | Real (2000–2010: ~0% return) | Market-neutral income sleeve |
| Entry Timing | Returns depend on P/E at entry | P/E independent by design |
| Liquidity | Fully invested at all times | 50–90% accessible at any time |
| Transparency | Quarterly brokerage statements | Every trade published weekly |
| Who Manages It | You (or a passive index fund) | Ekantik Capital (active, rules-based) |
Key Insight: EPIG does not attempt to predict markets. It harvests returns from high-expected-value windows and sits in protected positions the rest of the time. The edge is not in any single trade — it’s in the system-level compounding across hundreds of disciplined trades per year.
Asymmetric by Design.
EPIG’s architecture is built around a single principle: protect first, then compound. Here’s how.
85–99% of Capital Is Always Protected
At any given moment, the vast majority of your portfolio sits in SPY, cash, or Treasury bills. Only 1–5% is deployed in active tactical positions. This means a total wipeout of every active trade would impact less than 5% of your capital.
Every Trade Has a Hard Stop
Layer B futures trades use a 20-point hard stop. Layer C options trades risk only the debit paid. No trade is ever entered without a predefined maximum loss. There is no scenario where a single trade causes outsized damage.
Automatic Shutdown Protocols
If drawdown exceeds predefined thresholds, the portfolio shifts to a defensive posture automatically. This is not discretionary — it’s rules-based and broker-enforced. The system protects you even if the manager is unavailable.
Access Your Capital Whenever You Need It
No lockup periods. No redemption windows. No penalties. Because the majority of your capital sits in SPY and cash, you can access it on any business day. EPIG is designed for people who want both growth and flexibility.
What This Is Not
EPIG is not risk-free. All investing involves the possibility of loss. Drawdowns may exceed targets during extreme market dislocations. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The protections described above are design features, not guarantees.
We believe the best way to earn trust is to be honest about risk — which is why we publish every loss alongside every win.
The Person Behind the Portfolio
Hiren Desai
Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Ekantik Capital Advisors LLC
The Question That Started It All
I wasn’t working in finance. I was a management consultant at Deloitte focused on cybersecurity — analyzing risk, designing resilient systems, and documenting failure modes.
But I became obsessed with a personal question that had nothing to do with my day job:
Is there a way to invest without losing money in downturns, while still capturing upside when markets rise?
I looked everywhere. Mutual funds gave me market beta with fees. Hedge funds promised alpha but came with hidden drawdowns. Systematic strategies either chased returns and accepted volatility, or preserved capital and gave up growth.
No one seemed to be engineering a system with risk control as the foundation, not an afterthought.
I couldn’t find what I was looking for. So I started building it myself — nights and weekends at Deloitte, while still working in cybersecurity. What began as curious part-time exploration became an obsession I couldn’t ignore.
The All-In Decision
In 2008, I made the decision: I quit Deloitte to pursue this full-time.
The part-time tinkering wasn’t enough. I needed to go all-in. For 5 years, I did nothing but market modeling — no corporate job, no safety net, just pure research and system development. I studied market behavior across regimes, ran simulations, documented failure modes, and built what I call Reality Models: a structured approach to protecting capital while capturing growth.
The best metaphor is building aircraft autopilot software. During development, you’re not trying to impress anyone with smooth test flights. You’re deliberately stress-testing the system, finding edge cases, documenting what causes failures, and refining controls until behavior is predictable.
Early prototypes crash in the simulator — not because they’re broken, but because that’s how you find what breaks them. You document failure modes before passengers board.
My cybersecurity background taught me that resilient systems are built by studying what breaks them, not by hoping they work.
What Could This Mean for Your Portfolio?
Model your own scenario using real 2026 trade data from verified IB fills. Adjust portfolio size and see per-strategy breakdowns.
Project Your Year-End Returns
LiveSee how YTD performance across all three strategies could compound through year-end. Powered by real 2026 trade data from verified IB fills — adjust portfolio size and explore per-strategy breakdowns.
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Open Performance Projector*Based on YTD performance extrapolated to full year. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
These projections use actual trade data. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Schedule Your Founding Member ConsultationFrequently Asked Questions
This Opportunity Has a Capacity Limit.
EPIG is a managed strategy, not a product. Each founding member receives direct access to the portfolio manager, custom strategy integration, and lifetime benefits that cannot be replicated at scale. That is why membership is limited to 25.
Schedule Your Founding Member Consultation