STRATEGY
We complement our value-investing approach and rigorous reasoning process with an opportunity-sensitive, cycle-sensitive, and macro-sensitive mindset to find places where there are the most amount of fish. We learn from nature and complex systems when analyzing market, and couple such an understanding with the principle of value investing and margin of safety to generate outstanding risk-adjusted returns. We do not rely on style — quite in the contrary, we rely on systems.
1. We believe
at the bottom part of the capital cycle resides the most undervalued opportunities that deliver the highest risk-adjusted return. Capital cycle is one of the most predictable macro-features of a capitalist system, and we take advantage of it by snatching up undervalued companies with a durable moat when capital is scarce and valuation is low to take advantage of the mean-reversion process. This is the macro-view of our investment approach.
2. We consider
ourselves the students of nature and we believe in the philosophy of water. The investment landscape is a contour that morphs as a function of time. When the contour is placid and flat, we invest in a variety of high-quality business and adopt a decentralized strategy to protect against the general inflation of the market; when exogenous shocks happen and the contour is deformed in a substantial way, we substantially increase our concentration to take advantage of such opportunities. Preferably, our concentrated positions have a clear and present catalyst such as to enhance our capital efficiency.
3. In any given investment
we play both defense and offense, finding our philosophical underpinning in the practice of Tai Chi. Our defense is an objective assessment of the static state of the business hinged on moat analyses and competitive landscape dissection, such that our investments have an innate resilience in the face of cyclical adversity; our offense is an anticipatory gradual transformation of the value of the underlying asset, whether it’s cyclical upturn, business transformation through merger & acquisition, deleverage, and/or recapitalization.