Akira Homma, CFA, CMT, CFTe, MSTA, FRM, CIIA, CMA is a Managing Director, Tachibana Securities, the leading Tokyo-based securities company specializing in Japanese equities.
Akira has over 30 years’ experience in investment management, having worked on both the buy and sell sides in Japan and Europe, as well at a U.S. global financial media company. He started his career as an equity analyst and subsequently worked as a quantitative analyst at Kokusai Securities (present Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities). On the buy side, he was engaged in the management of Asian equity portfolios at Lombard Odier International Portfolio Management (UK), as well as global multi-strategy and other funds at Gesindex. At Dow Jones Japan, as Senior Quantitative Analyst, he provided quantitative and technical analysis for institutional investors. Prior to joining Tachibana Securities, he acted as Head of Research and led global business development at Sieg Securities, Aizawa Securities and Tokai Tokyo Securities/Financial Holdings, performing wide-ranging duties including the production of fundamental, technical and quantitative analysis-based research reports, quantitative modeling, global alliance building, fund/manager sourcing, product structuring, and global marketing.
Prior to joining the board of directors of the CMT Association in 2020, Akira had accumulated over 17 years’ experience leading major organizations for investment professionals: i) five years serving on the board of CFA Society Japan, the professional body representing CFA Institute in Japan; ii) six years on the board of, and the last four years acting as Vice President (Asia Pacific) for, the International Federation of Technical Analysts (IFTA), a global market analysts’ organization with some 7,000 colleagues around the world; and iii) six years leading the Nippon Technical Analysts Association (NTAA), the largest Japanese market analysts’ association with some 3,000 members. At IFTA, he also acted as the Conference Director for IFTA 2015 Tokyo, one of the highest-rated IFTA conferences featuring 58 selected speakers (including 10 CFAs, 12 CMTs and eight Ph.D. holders) and the first IFTA conference officially supported by CFA Institute’s local society.
Akira holds the qualifications of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA-CFA Institute), Chartered Market Technician (CMT-CMT Association), Certified Financial Technician (CFTe-IFTA), Member of the Society of Technical Analysts (MSTA-STA (UK)), Financial Risk Manager (FRM-GARP), Certified International Investment Analyst (CIIA-ACIIA), and Chartered Member of the Securities Analysts Association of Japan (CMA-SAAJ).
As the first CFA/ CMT dual charterholder in Japan, he employs a multi-disciplinary approach to investment management, incorporating fundamental analysis, technical analysis, quantitative analysis and the behavioral approach, and has been advocating this approach for many years.
He received his MBA from IESE Business School (Barcelona, Spain), after graduating from Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan).
Besides the CMT Association, Akira is a member of CFA Institute, CFA Society Japan, the UK Society of Technical Analysts (STA), the Nippon Technical Analysts Association (NTAA), the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), the Securities Analysts Association of Japan (SAAJ), the Japan Association for Financial Planners (JAFP), and the Nippon Finance Association (NFA).