Wealth Management Process

Our Advance & Protect investment process is a defensive strategy with an offensive mindset.  Its first mandate is to strive to protect investment principal against significant capital loss and drawdown. Next it looks to participate in the grander portion of potential market and sector upswings. Quantitative analysis is employed in our process to help uncover entry and exit points for each of our investment positions.

A good analogy for our process would be that of players on a sports team. Each investment position or "player" has its entry and exit points designated by a unique algorithmic formula, tuned to the peculiar charateristics of that player. Think of the algorithmic formula as the "coach."

Upon receiving an entry signal from the coach that player is "called onto the field" - purchased in the portfolio - and will remain in the game until an exit signal is generated as it begins to play poorly. At that time the coach "calls the player off the field" - the position is sold - and the player returns to the "bench" (cash).

If viewed in the context of the broader market (S&P 500), looking back over the last 80 years (1929-2009), the market has increased in value 71% of the time, while losing value 29% of the time (based on annual returns).* It's our feeling that if the market were to be our "player" we woud find it prudent to have that player sit on the bench for part of the game - specifically aiming to "sit on the bench" 29% of the game where it was not playing well (losing money).  At that time we'd be much happier to just hold the line, rather than give up yardage.

*Source: Morningstar, 2010. Indexes are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly. Past performance does not guarantee future results. This is an example and is not representative of any investment or acocunt. There is no way to determine the right time "to sit on the sidelines" or be invested in the market.