Many investment philosophies place valuation discipline as a core tenet of their strategy. Often these investment philosophies will utilise or cite aspects of classical investment theories from investors such as Ben Graham, Sir John Templeton and Warren Buffett, but in their application can become distracted by short-term investment horizons, themes, index composition, sentiment and over-diversification.

Investors should ensure they understand where their portfolio managers sit on the “value spectrum” to ensure they are aligned to their investment objectives, and that their portfolio manager is able to deliver true long-term alpha from their approach to value investing.

Consistent across all investment strategies at Oldfield Partners are the following tenets:

• Deep fundamental analysis to identify the intrinsic worth of a company stock
• Buying companies at a discount to the market and intrinsic worth, then selling when they reach a target value
• Patience to maintain an investment despite short-term market noise
• Focussed active portfolios that are contrarian from the crowd or a specific index