Sublime

Windsor was never fancy, fad-driven, or resigned to market performance. We followed one durable investment style whether the market was up, down, or indifferent. These were its principal elements:• Low price-earnings (p/e) ratio.• Fundamental growth in excess of 7 percent.• Yield protection (and enhancement, in most cases).• Superior relationship o

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.

Measured Participation established four broad investment categories:1. Highly recognized growth.2. Less recognized growth.3. Moderate growth.4. Cyclical growth.Windsor participated in each of these categories, irrespective of industry concentrations. When the best values were available in, say, the moderate growth area, we concentrated our investme

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.

Contrarian that I am, the format for this book is intentionally unorthodox as books on investing go these days. It is not about I lail Mary passes; it's about grinding out gains quarter after quarter, year after year. My kind of investing rests on three elements: character, goals, and experience.

Any service that systematically updates stocks can help. I'd go through new editions of Value Line every week. I don't read, much less follow, the valuations or predictions. I studied the numbers.

Then, as now, I assigned great weight to a judgment about the durability of earnings power under adverse circumstances.

I wasn't uncomfortable going into retirement. I had given Windsor my all. I was going out while I still had a lot left, which had been my intention.