Titan Review

Titan Ratings at a Glance

Titans claims to be a “hedge fund in your pocket” and while they may not be creating complex models like Renaissance or AQR, they do provide a different take on the traditional online discount broker. Most online brokers like Robinhood and Webull that are geared toward the younger investing crowd leave a lot to be desired when it comes to professional management. But while legacy brokers often have high minimums for access to their active management services, Titan does not. In fact, you can get started with as little as $100.

Titan offers premier investment management, instant deposits, and a personal digital vault that you can manage separately. Clients can personally tailor their portfolio to include all of investment strategies or just a single one, with offsetting measures to hedge capital based on risk tolerance. You provide the blueprint and Titan picks the stocks. Here’s the rundown of their major strategies:

Flagship:  Titan’s flagship investing portfolio consists of 15-25 large cap US stocks. The average market cap of the portfolio’s selections is $700 billion. Titan selects companies for this fund based on their growth prospects and ability to potentially outperform market averages.

Opportunities: The opportunities fund focuses on small and mid-cap US stocks with excellent growth potential. With an average market cap of $13 billion, Titan uses this strategy to search for the market’s next “rising stars”. There are usually 15-25 stocks in the portfolio.

Offshore:  International investing isn’t ignored at Titan. The offshore portfolio consists of both emerging and developed market stocks from all over the globe. These international companies come as far as China and Latin America with an average market cap around $180 billion.

Crypto:  Crypto choices are lacking in many traditional investment management firms, but not at Titan. The crypto portfolio has 5 to 10 of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap and has produced tremendous returns since its inception last year.

Shorting:  Actively picking stocks occasionally means getting bearish on the whole market and Titan offers clients an avenue to hedge their investments should market turmoil approach. The Titan investment managers will short the market if they predict a downturn, but clients can tailor this sentiment by staying aggressive (only 5% downside protection) or getting conservative (20% downside protection). A conserative risk tolerance selection will remain 10% hedged even during bull market conditions.

ARK Invest Venture Fund Partnership: Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is now partnered with Titan, with this partnership described as a ”first-of-its-kind“ meeting of the minds that follows Titan’s upgrading of its private wealth management platform. The partnership allows investors on Titan to buy into the ARK Venture Fund for as little as $500–eliminating a barrier to entry that once allowed only millionaires to invest in private companies. Speaking on the new collaboration, Cathie Wood said, “ARK Invest focuses exclusively on technologically enabled disruptive innovation, not only in our research and investment strategies, but also our products and services,” and now, Titan investors can take part in that innovation.

Automated Stocks & Automated Bonds: Use these options to get automated help with your stock and bond portfolio. Titan offers this service with no management fee, ensuring that you can get a lower overall blended fee.

Live chat is the path to the heart of all customer service-oriented consumers. Email and phone support are fine, but responses are often delayed and nobody wants to wait on hold with a smartphone to their ear. 

Titan clients can reach out to a qualified representative through email, social media, or the live chat feature. The Help Center is also filled with articles describing different parts of the platform and offering insights on the investment world. The response time can be a little delayed right now, but Titan does a good job of providing multiple avenues for clients to contact them. If you’re looking for additional support you can book a phone appointment with the Investor Relations team.

Prospective customers can get started on Titan with just $500. Deploying a low amount of capital in an active investment management platform might sound appealing, but let’s consider the fees.

• Asset Value of $500-$24,999 = 0.90%
• Asset Value of $25,000-$99,999 = 0.80%
• Asset Value of $100,000+ = 0.70%

Charging less than 1% of AUM is certainly more affordable than the 2% charged by hedge funds (plus the common 20% performance fee), however 1% is still on the high side compared to the competition. Some robo advisors have fees as low as 0.25%, so you’ll need to review Titan’s investing strategies and confirm it’s worth the price to pay up. Active management will always cost more than passive, but you still need to get bang for your buck. 

$500 minimum: Titan offers a $500 minimum on everything except Flagship, Opportunities, Offshore, Crypto, Automated Stocks and Automated Bonds.

Cash management: Titan offers a cash management service to help you earn interest on unused funds, with an APY of 3.2%.

You’ll also get 25% off your fees for up to 2 friends you refer to the platform when they fund their account. You have 3 months from the date you fund your account to complete your referrals. After that, every referral offers a $50.

The Titan mobile app is the main platform used by clients. In fact, the service operates more smoothly on the app and you’ll have access to research libraries and customer service.

The app itself is sleekly designed and easy to use, even for novice investors or less tech-savvy individuals. Both iPhone and Android users are included too - it’s available at both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

SIPC insurance:  Client deposits are insured up to $500,000

Massive resources:  The Titan founding group is an experienced crew of savvy market pros. Co-CEOs Clay Gardner and Joe Percoco cut their teeth in the hedge fund industry and with major investment banks like Goldman Sachs. Their experiences are backed by strong tech and investing teams, plus plenty of venture capital - over $75 million in venture funding at the time of this writing. 

Articles, FAQs, research: You’ll be informed in real-time on stock buy or sell decisions and gain access to a bevy of educational materials. Learn about the different services offered by Titan or gain new knowledge of market structure and trading through their research.

Personal digital vaults: Operated by clients individually

Real-time video updates: Why did Titan buy or sell their most recent stock? You’ll get the explanation delivered in real-time video. Transparency in portfolio construction is always a good thing.

Titan will naturally appeal toward investors who are light on experience, so the platform needs to be intuitive. The team at Titan realized this and created a sleek app with easily accessible customer service and tons of resources. Signing up and funding an account is easy and if you need to withdraw funds, you’ll get them in 2-4 business days.

One of the best features Titan offers is the customizability of their investment offerings. Many robo-advisors force clients into a handful of ETFs or mutual funds, but Titan will actively pick stocks deemed appropriate for each investment strategy and clients can fine tune their exposure to each type of portfolio. Titan is also very transparent in their stock picking - each buy or sell decision is explained by the investment team so clients can understand why the move was made. Transparency doesn’t guarantee good results, but it’s good to see the team’s thought process expressed in plain terms.

Titan vs Competitors

Titan has some great options for investors, but they aren’t the only online advisor with active management portfolios. Before signing up with any broker or advisor, be sure to compare their offerings with competitors and choose the one that best fits your goals.

Titan fills a niche that’s currently underserved in the market. Many of the new investors who entered the markets in 2020 or 2021 want help with managing their investments, but can’t afford the services of high-end wealth managers. Whether it’s high fees or unreachable portfolio balances, active management for retail investors is usually out of reach. Titan attempts to even that playing field by acting as professional stock pickers for less capitalized clients. Just make sure Titan’s investment strategies match your philosophy and you can deploy enough capital to mitigate any fee inefficiencies.

***Disclosures:
The estimated annual Blended Titan Advisory Fee (“Blended Fee”) is based on our tiered advisory fee which ranges between 0.70% – 0.90%. The Blended Fee range weighs the strategies in a set of target portfolio recommendations, which includes strategies that are advisory fee-free (i.e., Automated Bonds) and strategies with a Titan Advisory Fee (i.e., Flagship), to produce a “blended” estimated advisory fee. In calculating the estimated range of the Blended Fee, Titan considers the full range of client risk tolerance, investment time horizons, and fee tiers available on Titan, and also assumes that clients are eligible to invest in alternative assets and Titan Crypto. The Blended Fee shown is an estimate, and not based on actual Titan accounts. The Blended Fee does not include any Strategy Expenses that may be charged by Third-Party Funds (i.e., Real Estate, Credit, etc.) in a target portfolio recommendation.
Please reference titan.com/pricing for more information.

Frequently Asked Questions