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This is the 4th in a series of articles that attempt to identify relative value discrepancies between two closely related securities. So far, the first three have been modestly successful in aggregate, though it's a little early to be drawing conclusions:

• 3/14: Buy Met-Pro (MPR), Sell Nalco Holding (NLC)
• 4/18: Buy Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Sell Allergan (AGN)
• 5/3: Buy Columbia Sportswear (COLM), Sell UnderArmour (UA)

I will eventually do a review of each of these, but the first one is slightly negative now (after a great start) while the other two are equally positive.

John Reese is an expert in analyzing the investment criteria of "legendary" advisors with time-tested strategies. And one market approach that may be of particular interest to investors during the current period of market turmoil is the value strategy developed by Benjamin Graham. (For more on this strategy, see our other post, "Three Rules of Value Investing".)

John Reese is an expert in analyzing the investment criteria of “legendary” advisors looks at Benjamin Graham. 

In his exceptional Validea, he notes, “Benjamin Graham – considered the greatest investment guru by Warren Buffett -- built his reputation by using an extremely conservative, low-risk approach to investing.”

“To Graham, preserving one's original capital was every bit as important as netting big gains.

Last week, I shared the background and overall asset allocation for my recently introduced “Conservative Growth/Balanced Model Portfolio”.  You can refer back to the article or visit my website to learn more.  As I stated in the previous article, the equity component of the portfolio is overweight relative to the S&P 500 in the Industrial, Consumer Discretionary and Financial Sectors.  I previously shared my basis for taking these exposures.