Building Portfolio Strategies for Multiple Possible Futures
We focus on finding quality companies that we believe can be the bedrock of your investment strategy, no matter what the future holds.
Our Portfolio Managers can’t see the future (we’re working on our crystal ball technology, but so far, no luck). Questions about what legislation will be passed, how much inflation may spike, how interest rates might change, or how international trade agreements will take shape are difficult for anyone to answer definitively.
But that’s OK! We don’t attempt to precisely forecast macroeconomic trends. Instead, we strive to find companies that we feel can weather any potential storm that comes their way, and take advantage of more bullish periods.
Our goal is to outperform our benchmarks over rolling 3-year periods, and keep your hard-earned savings compounding over time, so hopefully you can achieve the financial goals you’ve always dreamed of.
Here are some of the tenets our analysts and portfolio managers use in striving to consistently build resilient portfolio strategies for our clients.
Put quality first
Regardless of what’s going on in the markets, or in the world, we do our best not to own anything that doesn’t meet our quality threshold. We assess every holding against our Four Pillars of Quality, and consider only those that receive top marks from our team.
Look to forecast risk
We have to look not just at potential returns, but at possible risks that may impact the investments in our clients’ portfolios. We analyze risk, set probabilities, and allocate accordingly. We identify the major factors we feel might impact each of the holdings and we monitor them continuously, making regular updates to our thesis, and fundamentally asking, are we still on track? Are our clients invested in our highest conviction ideas? Do those ideas still have growth potential?
Study businesses over months and years, not days or weeks
We diligently monitor the companies’ performance, cashflow, new product announcements, shareholder meetings, mergers, acquisitions, and more. We keep careful tabs on the companies' industry environment and competitors in the space. We study potential investments for months, sometimes years. We do not invest based on the latest “hot tip.” We are investors, not traders.
Over time, we develop a thesis around where we think the company – and the stock price – is potentially headed, and we invest based on that thesis. We generally start with a relatively small position, then we wait… and watch.
If our initial thesis holds true, we may add to the position over time.
Winning should compound; losing should not
We monitor companies closely, and constantly update our thinking on their current and future potential. Sometimes, we have to be able to admit when a holding is not living up to expectations, and reallocate accordingly. At the same time, we need to be able to let the winners run.
We can’t simply sell and enjoy our profits, because the portfolios need to work indefinitely. We hunt for the companies we believe are poised to generate returns year-over-year and make sure our clients remain invested in them. Our goal is for our clients to benefit from compounding growth.
That means we may not beat our benchmarks every quarter, or even every year. Instead, we evaluate our results over rolling three-year periods, because we are focused on long-term growth, not simply short-term gains.
We are confident that in the long run, Quality should reign supreme, and that Quality stocks should be the strongest foundation for building resilient portfolios. We’d love to put this philosophy to work for your retirement or investment account.
