Investment Philosophy

FCIA conducts proprietary market and securities research in developing client portfolios, as we believe original research is an essential component for superior long-term capital appreciation.

FCIA’s fundamental analysis focuses upon the economic trends affecting world economies and industry sectors as well as upon the specific effects on competitive environments in industry segments and the performance of individual companies. Our comprehensive fundamental analysis is comprised of many factors.  Some of these factors carry greater or lesser emphasis at any given time, and their relative importance and conditions can change quickly.  These include macroeconomic conditions, the effect of government monetary or fiscal policies, changes in specific industry conditions, and changes in individual company competitive position or financial performance.

Behavioral Finance, Quantitative and Qualitative Techniques

FCIA uses quantitative tools and techniques primarily to help develop and optimize portfolio construction and to help measure and manage portfolio risk and the risk affecting individual securities.  Quantitative methods and tools are also an integral part of FCIA’s fundamental research, including statistical screening of potential investment candidates, comparison of various metrics between companies and industries, and comparison of various investment vehicles relative to benchmarks or each other.

FCIA’s qualitative research and analytical techniques are generally used as part of its analysis to interpret and assess the meaningfulness of the plethora of fundamental, statistical and technical information.  These techniques are applied broadly among and within asset classes and investment sectors, and then more narrowly among individual investment candidates.  Our qualitative analysis emphasizes behavioral finance concepts to assess and compare potential investments, gauging the psychology and market rationale for the current state of market sentiment overall and toward individual sectors and companies.  By doing so, we believe we can better anticipate possible future changes in sentiment that might affect the return potential of these classes, sectors and securities.