Many people have forgotten why they invest in the markets in the first place. Instead of looking at financial markets as a place where their money can be quietly and safely put to work for them, some investors now regard them as not much more than short-term gambling emporiums where desperate people hope to suddenly strike it rich. While this strategy may pay off for a very short period of time for some people, everyone knows that the casinos win overall.
At Mark James Capital, we are not card dealers. Instead, we are a team of highly-dedicated investment professionals who use our heads on behalf of our clients. We rely on the facts, not on whispers and innuendo, to find the real opportunities that will make money for our clients every day of the year.
Before we put any funds into any investment opportunity, we analyze it thoroughly and make a decision based on those fundamental factors that signify both value and integrity. We examine the underlying business model and compare those goals with the actual results on record to see if company management really has a plan or is just freelancing their operations in response to short-term factors.
This is not to say that superior opportunities do not yield superior results. It is our entire purpose to ferret out these hidden gems and bring them to the attention of our clients. We do so on the basis of solid research and an iron dedication to the principle of locating promising opportunities before they become widely known elsewhere. There is a time when an investment makes sense and a time when its advantages have already been fully understood and exploited. For us, we are looking to place funds in the hands of those who can use them to significantly increase growth and return value to investors. To help understand this process, here are some of the factors we tend to use when looking for a new investment opportunity.
• Our first criteria is to find a business or idea that is currently viable yet offers a much greater return if it is fortunate enough to receive the capital it needs to expand.
• When Mark James invests in their operations, there is an expected level of return which we anticipate receiving. Because our expectations are high, we are very careful to make sure that the opportunities we embrace have a realistic chance at meeting them.
• Because there are many promising business concepts germinating in the MENA region, we prefer to focus our efforts here—where our understanding of the environmental and business conditions is greater than that of others who are not based in the region. This gives us a first mover advantage over others who are based in other areas of the world and tend to follow events in their own back yards.
• We are looking for investments that will profitably yield far into the foreseeable future rather than risk seeing our clients get caught in a bubble that is just reaching a top but will soon fall back down again.
Simply put, we believe in a disciplined and data-based methodology when it comes to investing. While a fast bump in profitability is always welcome, we do not structure our philosophy around these short term considerations, but instead prefer to look for something that will make as much sense tomorrow as it will today.
