Investment Approach
Quality, bought well. And sold with discipline.
This isn't a house view about how markets work. It's a description of how I actually make decisions — what makes a company a candidate, what makes it worth buying at a given price, and what makes me sell it.
You should know that before you hand someone your portfolio.
How I decide
Six things that govern every position.
Quality first
I start with the business, not the chart. Balance sheet strength, durable earnings, a defensible position in its market, and management with a record of sensible capital allocation.
A cheap stock attached to a deteriorating business isn't value. It's just cheap, and it usually gets cheaper.
Price decides the return
The best business in the world is a poor investment bought at the wrong price. I want quality companies at points where the market has marked them down — out of favour, oversold, or temporarily mispriced against what the business is actually worth.
That requires patience on entry. Most of the time the answer is to wait.
Knowing when to sell
Almost nobody in this industry will tell you how they sell. It's the question that matters most to anyone who has already built their wealth, so here it is.
I sell for two reasons. The position has run beyond what the fundamentals support — the thesis worked, the price now reflects it, and the risk in holding has changed. Or the thesis has broken — the business has deteriorated, or the trend is against it in a way that looks likely to persist, and the original reason for owning it no longer holds.
Both are decided against the case for owning the position, not against how I feel about it on the day. Selling well is where most of the value in this job actually sits.
Themes, where the structural case is clear
Some of the most attractive opportunities are structural rather than company-specific — gold, uranium, and particular growth themes where demand is being reshaped over years rather than quarters.
Where I want that exposure I generally take it through exchange-traded funds rather than a single company, because the theme can be right while any individual business in it is wrong. And when I take a thematic position, I size it to matter. A one percent holding can't change your outcome.
Index where I don't have an edge
I don't claim an edge everywhere, and I'd be sceptical of anyone who does.
For broad international equity exposure I use low-cost index and factor-based ETFs, because I don't believe I add enough value picking individual offshore stocks to justify the cost of trying. My work is in Australian equities, in the thematic positions, and in the decisions about when to hold and when to sell.
Being clear about where I do and don't add value is more useful to you than a claim to add it everywhere.
Every trade has to earn its cost
An active approach means transacting, and transacting costs money — brokerage, spread, and tax. That cost is real and it compounds against you.
So a trade has to be worth more than it costs to make. I'd rather hold a good position through noise than manufacture activity, and you should expect me to explain the reasoning behind any transaction I recommend.
These are judgements, and some will be wrong.
Everything above involves forming a view, and views are sometimes mistaken. Some positions won't work. Some will be sold too early and some too late.
What I can commit to is that every position has a stated reason for being in your portfolio, that I'll tell you when that reason no longer holds, and that you'll never be left wondering why you own something.
"Selling well is where most of the value sits, and almost nobody wants to talk about it."
— Simon Fritsch, Founder
In practice
How this works, from the first conversation.
Every client engagement begins with understanding what you already hold and what you need from it. From there, the framework is agreed in writing before anything is bought or sold.
Understand what you already hold
What's in the portfolio, what it cost, how it's structured, what income you need from it, and what the tax position looks like. For most new clients the existing holdings and their embedded capital gains are the starting constraint, not a blank page.
Set the framework
The split between broad index exposure and active positions, how large any single holding is allowed to become, and what level of volatility is appropriate for your circumstances. Agreed with you, in writing, before anything is bought or sold.
Build the position deliberately
Direct Australian shares held on CHESS under your own HIN, and selected ETFs for international and thematic exposure. Transitions from an existing portfolio are staged with the tax consequences considered, not executed in a single day for convenience.
Monitor, and act when the case changes
I follow each position against the reason it was bought. When the thesis is intact I leave it alone. When it's been fulfilled, or broken, I act — and I tell you why before I do.
Discuss your portfolio.
If this is how you'd want your money handled, it's worth a conversation.