“First, do no harm”

Our primary focus is on trying to not lose money. If an investor is daydreaming about a ten-fold return from a stock, that investor is unrealistically and dangerously focused. We believe that it is more profitable in the long term to consider risk as the most important component of investing and if portfolio management is approached this way that reward will follow. Furthermore, we believe that as fiduciaries to our clients, we should manage their money using an aversion to loss as our guide, not greed.

What we are and what we do:

What we are not:

We are medium to long-term investors and we manage stock portfolios for individuals, retirement plans and trusts.

We specialize in researching and choosing individual stocks and we diversify your stock portfolio by selecting 20 to 30 companies among as many industries as possible.

We do our own research and while we may integrate various parties’ research into our thinking, we do not base our conclusions on anyone’s thinking other than our own.

We find companies with low or no debt, consistently positive free cash flow, a good dividend, excellent management in promising industries, and a potential positive catalyst in the offing.

We are extremely price sensitive about when we buy a stock, often “lying in wait” for months or possibly years before taking a position at our target price. Then if a stock moves up, sometimes even just 10-20%, we often stop buying.

We “eat our own cooking” and very often invest in what we buy for clients, while making sure our clients receive the best possible trade executions.

We are conservative , highly focused and no-nonsense in our approach, yet we think we are very friendly and we love to treat people like they are our only client.

We understand that stocks may not be appropriate for all of an investor’s money and we invest according to each individual investor’s needs, situation and outlook. Very often a portfolio of U.S. Government agency bonds, F.D.I.C. insured Certificates of Deposit or tax-free municipal bonds are recommended to clients for whom they are indicated, in addition to a portfolio of income stocks.  However, we do not accept accounts that are comprised of only bonds, as we are primarily stock portfolio managers.

We do not attempt to be world beaters. Those who do often stub their toe. We think that a very reasonable way to invest is to target an annual total return around 10%.  Combined with cautious, wary and loss-averse stock picking, this conservative target often results in fewer losing stock positions.  And having fewer losing positions means having more winning ones: "First, do no harm" --- we try to "win by not losing". Unfortunately, we feel that this utterly elemental yet extremely critical concept is lost on many investors in the more pleasurable focus on how high a stock might go, rather than how low. A ten pound trout reaches that size by making darn sure what he picks up to eat is food, not a hook.

We are not financial planners. We simply do not have the time or mental capacity to study and research investments constantly and also be experts in taxes, estate planning, insurance, the minutia of retirement plan laws,  etc., etc.  However, we of course do informal financial planning as a necessary adjunct to our practice. Also, we can refer you to some excellent professionals in the above areas.

We are not hobbyists. Investing in stocks is our passion, pure and simple. We take investing your money very seriously but get our “kicks” out of correctly analyzing, carefully buying, and reluctantly selling stocks at the right time. Investing is not a part-time endeavor. Those who want to be hobbyist investors would be happiest at an online trading firm. We don’t feel investing is a bona fide hobby or an end in itself, rather, it is ultimately a means to greater personal freedom and peace of mind. We invest only for people who need us to help them and who can see the value of having a professional investor manage their stock portfolio.