David’s role encompasses the research, development and implementation of Bellwood Capital’s equity investment strategies, proprietary models and systems.
We came across an interesting product recently launched by a South African company – the world’s first equity fraud insurance. This insurance covers investors against losses suffered as a result of fraud or management impropriety. The idea is that investors pay a small percentage of their portfolio value as a regular premium, and are then […]
We closed 3 successful investments in the last quarter: Robert Half International (+60% in 2 years), Kakaku.com (+84% in under a year) and Urban Outfitters (+82% in 2 and a half years). While Robert Half and Kakaku rewarded us from the outset, it was Urban Outfitters that gave most of our clients their first real […]
When it comes to long-term investment performance, two of the biggest advantages an investor can have are 1) a Strong Investment Process, and 2) Low Costs. We stress the importance of both in every presentation we do. They are two of the fundamental pillars around which we have built our business. Good investment managers should […]
In our June 2017 piece, What to Expect from a Good Portfolio, we demonstrated how the ultimate driver of long-term performance for a static portfolio is Sustainable Return – i.e. the fundamental growth of the underlying businesses, measured in terms of revenue, earnings, etc., including capital returned to shareholders. We also demonstrated how even the […]
In his recent study entitled Do Stocks Outperform Treasury Bills?, Professor Hendrik Bessembinder of Arizona State University came to the conclusion that of the nearly 26 000 stocks listed in the United States since 1926, only 42.6% have outperformed treasury bills over their lifetimes. Further, only 4% of these companies account for all net stock market […]
To draw reasonable long-term expectations for the market or a portfolio, one has to understand and assess the fundamental drivers of return. Total return comes from two sources: Sustainable return and revaluation. Sustainable return is the fundamental growth of a business (i.e. revenue growth, profit growth, etc.), including the capital returned to shareholders by way […]
When we put together a new portfolio, we always invest at least 70% into our best investment ideas, adequately spread across different industries and geographies. The stock market has been a leading source of long-term investment returns for the last century, and we don’t believe this is about to change. Further, although the market is […]
The most notable event of the 4th quarter was Donald Trump’s unexpected election victory – a victory that was supposed to send global markets crashing down. Instead markets have rallied strongly into the end of the year, much to the surprise of pundits everywhere. This apparent contradiction highlights a very important aspect of investment philosophy: […]
Diversification is quite simply the spreading of one’s investment across a range of assets, the goal being to reduce investment risk. Contrary to popular belief, diversification is a balancing act rather than a free lunch. To understand our approach to diversification, one first has to understand what drives investment return: The goal of investment is […]
When we first meet new clients, we like to take them through a presentation of our process so that they can understand how we manage their portfolios and what to expect over time. At the beginning of this presentation, we briefly discuss the importance of things like costs, transparency, alignment of interests and liquidity. While […]