Successful investing is not achieved by continually chasing the hot stocks of the week or attempting to time the markets.  Nor is it achieved by finding investment gurus who can accurately predict when the market will turn up or down. Investment gurus simply do not exist.  Investment success is best achieved through strict and consistent adherence to a disciplined investment philosophy through both up and down markets and by ignoring market “noise” – the financial publications that perpetuate the false belief that by listening to them you will become an insider to information that gives you some advantage over Wall Street and the rest of the investment community. They don’t make investors wealthier, they make them more confused. Not surprisingly, noise investors significantly underperform the markets.

At Grecu Capital Management, our strict adherence to a philosophy of broadly diversified portfolios, risk management and asset class investing has helped our clients avoid making costly mistakes while providing them with the peace of mind that their financial future is secure.
Our investment philosophy is academically based and is about taking advantage of the most current thinking available today and designing portfolios that use this knowledge successfully.  It is a strategic, long-term investment philosophy that allows our clients to step into the world of rational thought and empirical evidence – and out of the world of emotional, senseless trading and stressful attempts at market timing.

If you have a serious mindset about the future of your own money, then broadly diversified asset class investing is the only rational, intelligent approach to obtaining consistent long-term investment results.

Our Key Principles and Beliefs
Markets work. 
Markets work and, for investment purposes, assets are fairly priced.  Though prices are not always correct, markets are so competitive that it is unlikely any single investor can routinely profit at the expense of all other investors.  Research by Dr. Eugene Fama Sr. at the University of Chicago and Dr. Kenneth French at MIT strongly supports this belief.

Reduce risk through dissimilar price movement diversification.
Simply investing in assets that do not tend to move together will lower risk while increasing returns.  The world's markets do not move in tandem.  By combining asset classes with low correlation to one another in the appropriate proportions risk can be reduced and performance can be enhanced.  This observation by Harry Markowitz forms the basis for Modern Portfolio Theory and earned Markowitz the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1990. 

Portfolio Structure explains performance. 
Diversification and reliable asset class exposure determine results in a broadly diversified portfolio. In the landmark study "Determinants of Portfolio Performance," published in the July-August 1986 issue of the Financial Analysts Journal, Gary P. Brinson, L. Randolph Hood, and Gilbert Beebower concluded that the Asset Allocation Decision (what markets to enter, which segments of the market, and in what proportion) accounts for over 94% of the performance results investors achieve.  Attempts to either select individual securities or time market movements contributed very little to investor performance, and in most cases had a negative effect.

Don’t attempt to time the market. 
Charles D. Ellis said it best in his classic book on Investment Policy titled Winning the Loser’s Game – “The evidence on investment managers’ success with market timing is impressive – and overwhelmingly negative.”

Invest for the long-term.
“He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year” – Leonardo da Vinci.  We believe that investment success is measured in years, not months or days.

Ignore market “noise.”  
The vast majority of Wall Street and the financial media only excite and confuse investors. Wall Street brokerage firms want investors to keep buying expensive and profitable in-house products.  The media is out to sell magazines, newspapers, or airtime.  Neither is interested in informing and educating investors.

Use tax efficient strategies. 
Taxes are the single largest expense investors face.  Taxes swamp any other cost related to the management of your taxable assets.  A tax efficient strategy will maximize your net return after taxes which is the measure that really counts.

Control costs. 
We believe the cost to invest is critical in portfolio construction.  Portfolios are constructed to represent the asset classes and markets we target at the least expensive cost.