Black Cypress conducts independent, original research on each of its investments. Other investment managers may perform limited research of their own or may depend heavily on the research provided by brokerage firms. They may purchase securities based on estimates and targets that aren’t their own and therefore they take no responsibility for their accuracy and outcome. We believe investment success requires research and analysis independent of others.
It is Black Cypress’ goal to preserve capital and to compound investor assets across market cycles and in all market environments. However, at times it pays to take on additional risk exposures that may create unrealized losses in the near-term. While we constantly seek both positive absolute and relative performance, Black Cypress will not sacrifice long-term opportunity to avoid short-term emotional distress.
Black Cypress determines an independent value for each of its prospective investments and only invests when the security is trading at an appreciable discount to that value. Reference to history, competitor, industry or index values is of secondary concern. Our investment process is called “absolute” value because securities must stand on their own merit as an investment. Relative value managers, on the other hand, attempt to pick the best securities in an industry or index without concern that the entire group may be overvalued. Black Cypress only buys securities it deems undervalued in an absolute sense, not merely undervalued relative to other securities.
Black Cypress has a long-term focus that looks beyond a security’s often short-lived current trouble or record-beating performance. Our competitors, bound by short-term performance expectations, make decisions based on what may happen in the next couple of quarters. We instead concern ourselves with a security’s long-term earning power and its asset base--not whether a company will beat earnings estimates in the next quarter. We believe our unrestrained time horizon leads to better-controlled emotions, lower turnover and superior decision making in the face of panic or irrational exuberance.
At Black Cypress, our professionals invest all of their investment assets in the same programs as our clients. We receive no commissions or fees for making trades, selling particular products or placing clients at preferred custodians. Our interests are thus dually aligned: we invest alongside our clients and charge management fees that are transparent and promote the generation of positive returns while limiting all possible costs.