"The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks."
- Mortimer Adler
Our clients aren't interested in their advisor having a "surface" level understanding. They know there is a meaningful difference between someone who talks a good game, and someone who's knowledge continues to grow and permeates their decisions.
Below is our collection of quips and writings on various topics we view important to being successful. We'll also include links to others' we feel are exceptional.
Investment Philosophy
“Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self-interest”
- Napoleon Bonaparte
The interpretation of future profits through the lens of fear and greed remain the underlying determinants in the market. As these emotions encompass new information, participants adjust their expectations leading them to overshoot, undershoot, and appropriately price assets at different times. The changes in market structure also play an influential role in asset prices as feedback loops, leverage, and belief systems (such as passive investing) influence behaviors. While prices are driven in the short-term by rapid absorption of information, longer term asset prices are driven by the deviation between profit expectations and how accurately those expectations reflect the reality to come.
We recognize both the wisdom of the crowd as well as the numerous behavioral biases that are shared among market participants. As such, we are neither purely active or purely passive. We are opportunistic. We have a hi hurdle rate when adding active positions and default to the basic premise that the natural state of markets is to go up, and we should appropriately position ourselves to ride this wave.
We believe portfolio construction is addressed through the balance of “risk assets” and “safe assets”, not the multitude of commonly accepted practices. This results in our ability to align our interests with our clients by holding exactly what they hold, while simultaneously addressing the differences in risk tolerance.