To deliver a more consistent, repeatable, and less volatile experience, Tandem seeks to identify companies with these four key attributes:

• Consistent fundamental growth as measured by consistent growth in earnings, revenue and cash flow through any economic environment
• Consistent dividend growth (if paid) because of the consistent fundamental growth
• The business should have a uniqueness, dominance, or competitive advantage
• Consistency in and depth of management

Our investment process is based on math. It removes human emotion, interpretation and bias by following this 3-step process:

• quantitative analysis: Proprietary ratio computation to screen across a 3,000+ stock universe plus mean reversion to identify attractive points of action
• semi-quantitative review: detailed review of quantitative findings to ensure accuracy of data
• human implementation: results reviewed and implemented, and action is then taken by the Investment Team

As a long-only manager, there are only five actions we can take, all of which are driven by our proprietary ratio and mean reversion.

1. Buy: a stock meeting our criteria that is “unsustainably undervalued” will be incepted
2. Add: a core holding may be added to when it is “undervalued”
3. Hold: a core holding that is within a “normal” valuation range will be monitored and held
4. Trim: a core holding may be trimmed when it is “overvalued”
5. Liquidate: a core holding will be liquidated when it no longer meets our fundamental criteria

As portfolio managers, we are not concerned with conforming to an industry norm. To us, Willing to be Different means:

• we take seriously the notion of buying low and selling high, with the discipline to wait
• we seek to deliver a more consistent, repeatable and less volatile experience than the market
• we aim for low volatility and low downside capture
• we are willing to hold cash when few buy opportunities present themselves
• we buy stocks when they ought to be bought — not because we sold something