VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 1
I thought it appropriate to use this forum to introduce myself, and then I promise not to talk too much about myself in the future. I am the newest member of the Armor team. I’m a career-long investment manage-ment professional and by the time you read this, I will have been officially named the Chief Investment Officer of Armor Investment Advisors.
Jeff isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He’ll still be working in the office directly next to mine. We have planned this transition for quite some time to allow Jeff to take a reduced role in the day-to-day investment operations and to instead spend more time on the areas of investment manage-ment that he enjoys the most, and possibly to play a few more rounds of golf!
As for me, I live in Apex with my wife and three children. I spend most week-ends either on the sidelines of my boys’ soccer games or playing Barbie Dream-house with my five-year old daughter. Occasionally, I get to take a break and watch my beloved Colorado Buffaloes play college football. They typically lose but I remain a faithful alumnus, nonetheless.
After graduating from The University of Colorado in 2000, I started my invest-ment career at T. Rowe Price in my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. My job was to answer the phones and provide callers with real-time stock quotes.
Believe it or not, back then one had to pay for an allotment of updated stock quotes. My how things have changed! Online investing was a relatively new thing at the time, and it brought a lot of new investors to the markets. They didn’t know it then, but this was the beginning of a bear market that would last for more than two years and shave nearly 50% off the value of the stock market.
This time period would bring an end to the high-margin buy-anything day-trading strategy that had worked well for so many novice day-traders during the dot.com boom of the late nineties. Looking back, cutting my teeth in the midst of a bear market had a real effect on my investment philosophy.
Little did I know it wasn’t the only time I would endure a 50% drop in the stock market. An even bigger problem was coming. A few years later, I was investing on behalf of clients of one of the largest financial institutions in the country when the world experienced the great financial crisis. I have no problem admit-ting that I was not someone who foresaw the severity of the problems manifesting for years that ultimately metastasized through our financial system and brought about a near collapse of our capital markets.
I’ve since heard many claim to have seen it all coming who I suspect actually did not. Regardless, at that time I was also pursuing an MBA at Goizueta Business School at Emory University. That MBA turned into a study of the financial crisis as well as the governing dynamics of economics and investment manage-ment. I place great value on both the real-world and formal education that I received at that time. My pas-sion for studying the enormity and inter-connectedness of our global economy continues today.
The economy would recover, and the markets would go on to enjoy the longest bull market run in the histo-ry of our country, ending at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. And then it would recover yet again…
So, looking back, there are many lessons learned that now shape my investment belief system. First and foremost, I believe in managing risk. Simply put, I’m a worry-er. Inevitably, there will be another mar-ket-jilting crisis or problem that few of us see coming, and things can move quickly, so we need to in-vest accordingly. We should not wait for periods of heightened volatility to plan for heightened volatili-ty.
We will diversify investment across investment types, geographies, sectors and industries because dif-ferent asset classes behave differently during different stages of an economic business cycle. We can then tactically overweight or underweight our exposure to those asset classes when it makes sense.
At the same time, throughout my entire career, it was always a good time to have a bias toward high-quality stocks. Stocks of companies that are shaping our economy and generating increasing amounts of free cash flow tend to provide more reliable returns that outpace the negative impact of inflation over time. Investing in companies with strong balance sheets and consistent earnings is a principle that seems easy to remember but is somehow forgotten or ignored by many.
At Armor, this is nothing new. In fact, as I was writing this, I was handed a copy of one of Armor’s quarterly commentaries written over fifteen years ago by Walt Sheffield. “We believe that it is possible to reduce risk (volatility) in an investment portfolio by diversifying among asset classes that tend to rise and fall at different times. We also believe that we can do this without sacrificing long term investment performance.” Exactly! I look forward to continuing the tradition of sound investing started by our founders almost two decades ago.
On a personal note, I am honored to be a part of the Armor team and serve as the steward, watchdog, and chief worry-er over the investment portfolios that you’ve entrusted with us. It is a responsibility that I take seriously. I look forward to meeting with each of you personally to discuss our investment strategy in further detail. Please know that if you have any questions or concerns, my door is always open.
Nothing contained in this post is intended to constitute legal, tax, securities or investment advice, nor an opinion concerning the appropriateness of any investment, nor a solicitation of any type and does not guarantee future results. The information contained in this post should not be acted upon without specific legal, tax and investment advice from a licensed professional. Past results are not indicative of future performance.
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