Michael W. Fox

The firm's portfolio managers, research specialists and traders are organized into teams by asset class. SCM provides several different investment approaches to both its international and domestic equity portfolios. For its capital appreciation equity management, the firm emphasizes current economic environment and secular themes. In particular, long-term economic trends, Federal Reserve policy and market liquidity serve as a macroeconomic backdrop to the overall direction of the markets. For equity stock selection, disciplined, fundamental research with emphasis on the following characteristics are practiced: strong fundamentals, accelerating earnings and sales, accelerating return on equity, expanding market share, low cost producers, quality management and positive earnings surprises. Its bottom-up security analysis emphasizes management, cash flow, earnings growth, balance sheet strength, competitive position, discounted cash flow and relative p/e ratio.