Typical Windsor fare featured good companies with solid market positions and evidence of room to grow.

No solitary measure or pair of measures should govern a decision to buy a stock. You need to probe a whole raft of numbers and facts, searching for confirmation or contradiction.

Low p/e companies growing faster than 7 percent a year tipped us off to underappreciated signs of life, particularly if accompanied by an attention-getting dividend.

A low p/e strategy typically makes maximum mone} six to nine months before cyclical companies report better earnings. Predicting that point will tax an investor's understanding of an industry's dynamics and of overarching economic considerations.

Absent stunning growth rates, low p/c stocks can capture the wonders of p/e expansion with less risk than skittish growth stocks. An increase in the p/e ratio, coupled with improved earnings, turbocharges the appreciation potential. Instead of a price gain merely commensurate with earnings, the stock price can appreciate 50 to 100 percent.

It's easy to start debates about appropriate time horizons for calculating earnings growth. Five years worked for us. We were always poised to react to events that occurred in a shorter time frame, but, ultimately, long-term financial results drove Windsor's long-term investment performance.

Dodds succumbed to alcohol, the company went bankrupt, and three more lessons were impressed upon me at a young age: (1) when it comes to money, emotional attachment can fool you; (2) just because a company is down it is not always a wise investment,

One time, we delivered a compressor to Tecumseh Products in Tecumseh, Michigan. We got top dollar because they needed it right away.Working for my father at least taught me that you don't need glamour to make a buck. Indeed, if you can find a dull business that makes money, it is less likely to attract competition.

We never salivated for the last dollar in a major move (i.e., the oil stocks). Instead, we tried to take stocks from undervalued to fairly valued. We left "greater-fool" investing to others.