Investment philosophy

At Cardale we apply a common sense approach to managing the money you trust us to invest. Our ultimate goal is to help you preserve and grow real capital value over the medium/long term together with the income generated thereon.

Following an in depth discussion we will structure a portfolio that best meets your stated investment objectives and by understanding your personal circumstances and attitude towards risk we will formulate a mix of asset classes that seeks to meet your expectations. We believe the ability to fair well in any economic environment is crucial, and that a sound diversified portfolio represents the most successful strategic approach in attempting to accomplish this. As a result we provide all our clients with the ability to diversify their portfolio across several asset classes, strategically them with a high level of skill and expertise.

It is our business philosophy that all clients are individuals, regardless of the amount of capital they have at their disposal, and should be treated as such.

Our investment process

The effectiveness of our bespoke service is dependent on the quality of our communications with you. The more we understand individual circumstances and requirements, the better equipped we are to assist in trying to achieve your investment objectives. That is why we appoint a personal investment manager to each account, to ensure that the person responsible for the day-to-day management of the portfolio is fully informed of individual circumstances, which may change from time to time.

Selecting appropriate investment opportunities requires time, judgement and access to quality research. As an independent firm with our own in house analysis capability we can do this efficiently and objectively.

At the core of our investment approach is our ‘top down' look at the economy and financial world. After looking at the ‘big picture' we analyse the various industrial sectors in order to select those which we believe will benefit most from the prevailing economic conditions. We then use a rigorous screening technique based on strict criteria, to identify potential investment opportunities. Following this we perform an in depth fundamental analysis designed to ensure the potential investment represents a secure and sustainable business proposition. The final part of our process is valuation as we believe it is important where possible to purchase stock trading at a discount to fair value. Only when an investment has satisfied all aspects of this process is it considered for inclusion as part of our investment portfolios.

Balancing risk and reward

Historically, stock markets have borne witness to the fact that high risk does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with high reward. At Cardale we try to satisfy a client's investment objectives through a combination of suitable asset classes. These can include:

·                     Equities

·                     Fixed Interest

·                     Collective Investments (Unit Trusts, OEICSs)

·                     Property

·                     Cash

·                     Hedge Funds

·                     ETFs

·                     Structured Products

·                     Commodities

As a firm, we endeavour to balance risk and potential reward in accordance with your expressed requirements. Each client has their own definition of risk and their approach to it. By understanding this, we look to build a portfolio that is tailored to both the client's time horizons and tolerance to risk. Our judgement of what is suitable will be reflected in the structure and content of each client's portfolio.

For some clients the return on cash is a suitable benchmark whereas for others the return of stock market  or private investor indices is more relevant. It is for this reason that at an initial meeting we will form a clear definition of risk that enables us to construct a portfolio tailored to each client's preferences and requirements with agreed parameters, as defined in our terms of business.