To find what matters faster, Tom O'Hara turns to Quartr Pro
"Quartr Pro has massively enhanced my research workflow. It has eliminated the manual grind and lets me focus on the actual thinking part of investing."
Tom O'Hara didn't take the typical route into finance. Before managing equity portfolios at GAM Investments, he was a guitarist in a Sheffield band, an economics grad with no family ties to the industry, and a witness to the collapse of Northern Rock – his first employer. But it's precisely this unconventional background, combined with over two decades of experience navigating the capital markets, that shapes his pragmatic and refreshingly human approach to investing today.
A platform built for deep thinking
In an industry overwhelmed by alerts, price movements, and email overload, Tom's challenge is not a lack of information – it's filtering what actually matters.
"I've got nearly 54,000 unread emails in my inbox. Bloomberg is always on, but I try to ignore it. Most platforms induce panic or promote taking short-term decisions. Quartr Pro does the opposite – it helps me slow down and think."
Tom first discovered Quartr through the free mobile app during the COVID lockdowns when he wanted to listen to an earnings call while running in the park. It was the first time he realized investor materials could be intuitive, mobile, and designed with the end-user in mind. Fast forward to today, and his entire team now uses Quartr Pro daily on their desktops – not to track prices, but to find the information they need faster.
Faster prep, better decisions
Managing a concentrated portfolio of 30-40 European stocks, Tom's day-to-day includes everything from macro analysis and stock deep-dives to management meetings. Quartr Pro helps him save time at each step.
The AI functionality is brilliant. I can ask it to summarize a transcript, pull out key themes from an earnings report, or suggest questions ahead of a meeting. More recently we've been building forecasts, charts and even code directly in the AI chat, or 'vibe modelling' as we call it, in order to convince ourselves we're pioneering and cool. We've also been saving optimised prompts into a library.— Tom O'hara, Portfolio Manager, GAM Investments
Tom recently used Quartr Pro to prepare for a meeting with a major luxury goods company.
"The suggested questions from the AI were so good, I briefly considered not turning up and just letting the bot handle it," he jokes. But in all seriousness, what it really delivers is speed and precision in the research process – surfacing the right angles faster and helping Tom get to the heart of the investment case without the usual noise.
More edge, less admin
For Tom, the real value of Quartr Pro is simple: getting to meaningful insight faster. It's not just about escaping cluttered inboxes or clunky databases – it's about removing the noise that slows down deep research.
"It's a tool that gets you straight to the substance. I can interrogate supply chains, margins, or go-to-market strategies in seconds – which is great, because I tend to ask those questions even at weddings."
While his team conducts regular company meetings, it's the quieter, focused research time in between that makes the difference – and that's where Quartr Pro helps most. "I try to reserve bandwidth for the companies that will move 50% over a year or two. That's where the value lies. Quartr helps me spend more time there."
Filtering the signal from the noise
In a market increasingly dominated by short-term flows and computer-driven trades, Tom believes human judgment and long-term thinking are now a true edge. Quartr Pro doesn't replace that – it amplifies it.
"Markets have never been more chaotic. But Quartr Pro helps me stay anchored – it helps me think better and act slower."
He's also quick to point out that conversations – not spreadsheets – are often where conviction is formed. "There's no substitute for being in the room with a CEO. But I don't want to waste that time asking about something I could've got from Quartr in five seconds."
"Better listeners, better thinkers, and more curious investors."
For someone who still riffs on stock names (Airbus becomes Airbust, Solvay becomes Dissolvay), Tom combines deep investment knowledge with a refreshing dose of humor. But underneath that is a deep commitment to helping his clients achieve long-term outperformance – not by chasing every data point, but by focusing on what really matters.
"Quartr Pro hasn't just improved our efficiency – it's helped us become better listeners, better thinkers, and more curious investors."