Dear ,
Bristlecone Value Partners reached a benchmark this June:
our five-year anniversary as an independent, employee-owned firm. As much as
we'd like to celebrate, though, we're not in the mood. The past five years have
not brought our investors the returns we would have liked and, for this, we
feel sorry rather than celebratory.
Yet, on many other counts, we believe that we have achieved
much of what we set out to do when we formed Bristlecone. The vision we had and
the values we strived to exhibit five years ago have proven to be constant
guideposts in navigating a much more difficult environment than we could have
imagined. These principles are simple
and enduring, and bear repeating today.
Our first principle is to treat clients as long-term
partners:
- We
abide by a code of ethics that places our clients' interests first;
- We
treat your investments as we do our own. Partners, employees and their
families invest alongside clients;
- We
communicate frequently, openly, and honestly about our successes and
failures. We make an effort to articulate our investment process in plain
language, while presenting the potential tradeoffs between risk and
reward;
- We
are upfront and transparent about how much our services cost.
Our second principle is to base investment decisions on our
judgment of an investment's intrinsic value:
- We rely on reason and analysis, rather than emotion;
- We
focus on delivering long-term investment performance rather than
short-term results;
- We
do not heed the pressure to do what's conventional or go along with the
consensus. We believe that there is a price to pay for doing what
everybody else is doing;
- We
evaluate our mistakes and try to learn from them.
Reaching this anniversary despite a market downturn rivaling
the Great Depression offers some proof that our clients have bought into our
vision, and that we've earned their trust. For that, we are thankful. So, a little wiser and ever more humble, we
look forward to helping you meet your investment needs over the next five (and
ten and twenty) years.
Send us an email or call us to let us know how we are
doing.
Do you have friends who might enjoy this newsletter?
Click here to forward it. The information will only be used to send this email on your behalf and will not be used for any other purpose.
