Our Beliefs
The founding principles of our firm have been built on our Investment Philosophy.
We believe that investment decisions should be guided by the wealth of academic and empirical evidence available to us. It is this disciplined focus that provides the central investment principle of MASECO.
At MASECO, we focus more on investment exposures, discipline and cost rather than the capability of star managers or short-term performance of investment strategies.
This philosophy helps to provide clear guidelines and informs our BuildingBlock approach to portfolio construction.
Risk is rewarded in the long run
The capital markets reward long-term investors. While it can be tempting to make changes to a longterm plan in a bid to profit or avoid losses these actions are unlikely to result in excess returns. On the contrary, they may result in costly mistakes.
Stock picking doesn't pay
We are investors, not speculators; we base our decisions on real facts and analysis instead of trying to forecast the future price of a single investment.
Time in the market not timing the market
Common sense tells us to accept what we cannot control but to act on what we can control. This principle underpins our courage to adopt a contrarian investment approach when the rationale is strong and when conventional wisdom tells us to look the other way.
Diversification reduces portfolio risk
We see layers of risk beyond asset classes - fund manager, home country bias, currency or liquidity. We spend considerable time ensuring that our portfolios minimise the risks that do not deliver adequate returns.
Your Asset Allocation is critical
In building portfolios, we focus on what really matters, the strategic allocation of your assets. We work diligently to avoid your portfolio risk drifting significantly.
Small, Value, Profitability & Illiquidity premia pay
We pursue systematic approaches to efficiently and effectively exploit premia. These so-called market anomalies can add a dimension of higher expected return over an investment time horizon.
Tax efficiency and costs matter
Tax-managing portfolios can be overlooked by the investment management industry. We believe that we should be seeking to optimise after-tax returns enabling us to deliver personalised and tailored portfolios for each client. Material cost drag also stacks the odds against investors. The cheapest fund may not always the best, but cost should be near the top of the list of conditions when constructing portfolios.
Rebalancing is risk control
Rebalancing ensures a portfolio’s risk does not drift away from the targeted level. This systematic process replaces behavioural biases and increases the chance of narrowing the gap between time weighted and dollar weighted return.
