At Lawford Investment, we belong to the school of “growth” investing but applying the “value” method, popularized by Benjamin GRAHAM. Value investing looks at the intrinsic value of a share rather than focusing on technical indicators, such as moving averages, volume, or momentum indicators. Determining intrinsic value is an exercise in understanding a company’s financials, especially official documents such as earnings and income statements.
Lawford allows you to manage your portfolio, according to your personal objectives by setting up an asset allocation (within your portfolio) to build your wealth over time thanks to long-term convictions.
We offer an asset allocation that combines both risk and return against the major asset classes of stocks, bonds and currencies. In addition, the diversification of your portfolio allows you to take advantage of all market opportunities while controlling their risk. We monitor your portfolio and offer arbitration based on our market analysis. We are convinced that investing isn’t about beating others at their game. It’s about controlling yourself at your own game.
Lawford’s DNA is fundamental investment, not speculation. It is based on three main criteria:
At Lawford Investment, we invest, we don’t speculate. We are long-term fundamental investors. Our conviction is that when it comes to investing, there are two alternatives: get rich slowly or get poorer quickly…
We look for companies or funds invested in companies with strong consumer brands, easily understandable businesses, robust financial health, and near-monopolies in their market.
We also look for companies or funds invested in companies that provide a good return on equity over many years, particularly when compared to rival companies in the same industry.
For us, a stock is not just a ticker symbol or an electronic blip; it is an ownership interest in an actual business, with an underlying value that does not depend on its share price.
The most realistic distinction between the investor and the speculator is found in their attitude toward stock-market movements.
The speculator’s primary interest lies in anticipating and profiting from market fluctuations.
The investor’s primary interest lies in acquiring and holding suitable securities at suitable prices. Market movements are important to him in a practical sense, because they alternately create low price levels at which he would be wise to buy and high price levels at which he certainly should refrain from buying and probably would be wise to sell. It is far from certain that the typical investor should regularly hold off buying until low market levels appear, because this may involve a long wait, very likely the loss of income, and the possible missing of investment opportunities.
On the whole it may be better for the investor to do his stock buying whenever he has money to put in stocks, except when the general market level is much higher than can be justified by well-established standards of value. If he wants to be shrewd he can look for the ever-present bargain opportunities in individual securities. Aside from forecasting the movements of the general market, much effort and ability are directed toward selecting stocks or industrial groups that in matter of price will “do better” than the rest over a fairly short period in the future.
Logical as this endeavor may seem, we do not believe it is suited to the needs or temperament of the true investor—particularly since he would be competing with a large number of stock-market traders and first-class financial analysts who are trying to do the same thing. As in all other activities that emphasize price movements first and underlying values second, the work of many intelligent minds constantly engaged in this field tends to be self-neutralizing and self-defeating over the years.
The investor with a portfolio of sound stocks should expect their prices to fluctuate and should neither be concerned by sizable declines nor become excited by sizable advances. He should always remember that market quotations are there for his convenience, either to be taken advantage of or to be ignored. He should never buy a stock because it has gone up or sell one because it has gone down. He would not be far wrong if this motto read more simply: “Never buy a stock immediately after a substantial rise or sell one immediately after a substantial drop.