Market Insights

The Value Investor Toolbox: Private Market Valuation

Underneath the umbrella of value investing lies a variety of techniques that aim to identify mispriced assets. At Prospector, we heavily utilize two approaches in the value investor toolkit that we believe can add value in any market environment: private market valuation (PMV) and free cash flow...

Ending the Year with an Attitude of Gratitude

At Prospector Partners, we’re winding down the year with thoughts of appreciation, gratitude, and optimism. That’s not to say we were unfazed by the events that contributed to volatility in the markets this past year. However, in the 25 years since founding Prospector Partners, we’ve seen that the...

Commodity Prices Remind Us Why We’re Allergic to Leverage

One major impact from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been to pour fuel on the fire of rising commodities. And, as we are often reminded during crises, it’s difficult to see around every corner, and predict corollary impacts from resulting volatility. 

January in Charts: Value Comes Back in a Big Way

It’s only a month, but value stocks have significantly outperformed growth out of the gate in 2022. While we won’t try to make a call on whether this is a long-term rotation, we don’t find the outperformance surprising, and see a few reasons why it could continue.

Market Quiz: How Close Can You Guess 2021 Returns?

Few would quibble that 2021 was a strong year for stocks. But how strong, and where did those returns come from? Take a guess on the 2021 returns for the four indices below, then scroll down to see the actual numbers, and our perspective on what it means.

Our Three Most Popular Blogs of 2021

As the calendar flips to 2022, we wanted to offer a quick look back at some of our most popular blogs from the prior year. They cover issues that are still salient today. Below you’ll find prior blogs on the emergence of meme stocks, the unusual dominance by large cap stocks, and the story of our...

You Can’t Talk About Risk Without This

Risk is a hot potato. (In more ways than one.) We can’t talk about risk until we define it and give it context.

YODA from Star Wars said, “Named must your fear be before banish it you can.”

We’re Not Afraid of the Tough Questions

Some portfolio managers shy away from the difficult questions. Not the team at Prospector Partners:

• How much money do you have invested in your portfolios?
• When will your strategy typically do well? When will it underperform?
• What was one of your bigger mistakes in the portfolio?

Markets within Markets: Three Charts that Put Stock Divergences in Perspective

Rarely can entire markets be characterized by a broad, sweeping statement. Instead, we often find there are “markets within markets” – pockets of the stock universe that are behaving quite differently than the broader group. Often, these pockets are the areas that offer the most opportunity for...

Defining Defensive: Low Beta, or Counter-Cyclical?

With U.S. equities closing in on records again, and with stocks in bull market territory for the better part of the last 13 years, many investors may wonder how “defensive” their equity portfolio is. It’s not an easy question, as there is more than one way to define it.

Our own definition of...