Investment Strategies for Every Market Environment
Active Portfolio Strategies
6 Factors of Portfolio Construction
SAM takes an active and disciplined approach to constructing relatively concentrated portfolios. Our core strategies typically feature 30
to 40 positions that represent our best ideas after conducting deep fundamental research. We aim to create portfolios that will be
resilient in many different economic and market environments so that you remain on track to meet your financial goals.
Fundamental Research
Every position in our strategies is the product of deep fundamental research by the SAM investment team.
Investment Decisions
Investment decisions are based on favorable reward-to-risk ratios rather than an obligation to “check the box” for every investment category.
Portfolio Diversity
We expect our core portfolios to hold about 30-40 positions in total – diversified but still benefiting from our best ideas.
Investment Reactions
We favor liquid instruments that allow us to react quickly but may invest in less liquid situations when we are handsomely paid for it.
Balance
We look to own assets when they trade at a meaningful discount to intrinsic value.
Long-Term Focus
We build portfolios that are resilient to several different economic and market outcomes.
Your Investment Goals: A Blueprint for Success
When investing it’s important to have a goal-oriented approach. Investors typically have some combination of three investment goals:
Get Wealthy
Stay Wealthy
Generate Steady Income
Maintain Wealth
Generate Income
Grow Wealth
Balance
Maintain Wealth
Generate Income
Grow Wealth
Balance
Strategy Overviews
All-Weather
Objective: Provide balance across growth, inflation, and interest-rate environments.
Approach: All-Weather blends multiple asset classes – equities, real assets, high-quality bonds, and cash – into a single, thoughtfully diversified sleeve. Allocation weights reflect our assessment of macro scenarios and valuations, seeking smoother return paths and reduced reliance on any single outcome. Rebalancing and risk budgeting help keep exposures aligned with changing conditions.
Total Alpha
Objective: Pursue attractive absolute and risk-adjusted returns across market regimes using a broad opportunity set.
Approach: Total Alpha is a flexible, best-ideas strategy that can span styles, sectors, and geographies. We combine bottom-up equity selection with opportunistic exposures (e.g., cash, hedges) to manage drawdowns without surrendering upside. The mandate prioritizes asymmetric setups, where our estimated upside meaningfully outweighs downside, supported by catalysts and disciplined risk controls.
Tactical Select
Objective: Actively tilt toward our highest-conviction opportunities and away from rising risks.
Approach: Tactical Select applies a nimble, research-driven process to adjust sector, factor, and cash exposures. We lean in when reward-to-risk improves and get defensive when conditions deteriorate, using liquid instruments for speed and precision. The intent is to protect capital in difficult markets and compound more effectively across cycles.
Income
Objective: Generate dependable portfolio cash flow while balancing credit, duration, and equity-income risks.
Approach: Income blends dividend-paying equities, high-quality bonds, and select credit/structured opportunities (as appropriate) to produce consistent distributions. We emphasize balance-sheet strength, coverage ratios, interest-rate sensitivity, and diversification across issuers and sectors to help sustain income through varying rate and economic cycles.
Venture Growth
Objective: Capture outsized long-term growth by owning innovative businesses with large addressable markets.
Approach: Venture Growth seeks emerging leaders with compelling unit economics, durable advantages, and paths to profitability, purchased at valuations that reflect realistic execution. We balance upside potential with prudent sizing, paying close attention to cash burn, funding access, and competitive dynamics to manage the inherent volatility of growth investing.
Forever
Objective: Own a collection of high-quality, durable businesses we believe can compound value for many years.
Approach: Forever emphasizes competitively advantaged companies with strong balance sheets, robust free-cash-flow economics, and reinvestment runways. We aim to hold through cycles, trimming or adding as valuation and risk/opportunity shift, so clients participate in long-term compounding while mitigating obvious excesses. Position sizes reflect business quality, conviction, and downside analysis, with an eye toward after-tax outcomes and multi-year durability.
BondPlus
Objective: Enhance traditional core fixed income with selective, research-driven opportunities.
Approach: BondPlus centers on investment-grade bonds and may incorporate carefully underwritten credits, securitized assets, or duration tilts to improve yield or total return without compromising overall quality standards. Risk controls include issuer limits, sector balance, and continuous monitoring of fundamentals and liquidity.
Treasury Strategy
Objective: Seek safety, liquidity, and a baseline yield from short-duration U.S. Treasury exposure.
Approach: This sleeve emphasizes high-quality government securities on the short end of the curve. It can serve as dry powder for redeployment into risk assets, a ballast during volatility, and a tool to manage overall portfolio duration and liquidity.
Cornerstone
Objective: Deliver a core equity portfolio of high-conviction ideas with quality and valuation at the forefront.
Approach: Cornerstone focuses on fundamentally strong businesses – sound balance sheets, defensible moats, and sensible capital allocation – purchased at reasonable prices. We target 30–40 names, letting winners run while recycling capital from thesis-drift or valuation stretch. Risk is managed at the business level (earnings resilience) and the portfolio level (position sizing and cross-exposure).
Gold Strategy
Objective: Provide a potential hedge against currency debasement, inflation surprises, and market stress.
Approach: The Gold sleeve can use physical-backed vehicles and/or high-quality miners to gain targeted exposure. Sizing reflects our macro view and portfolio-level risk budgeting. We treat gold as a strategic diversifier recognizing its historically low correlation to financial assets during certain stress periods.
Putting It Together
As a SAM client, you’ll work directly with a dedicated Wealth Manager who takes the time to understand your personal financial goals, risk tolerance, and time horizon. From there, your Wealth Manager will design a customized plan that combines these strategies in a way that aligns with your needs. The mix may emphasize growth, balance, or income—or evolve over time as your life and markets change. Our investment team actively researches, rebalances, and manages exposures while your Wealth Manager ensures the portfolio remains tailored to you.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Discover how SAM’s active investment strategies can work for you. Schedule a call with our team to start the conversation.