ValueWorks
Charles founded ValueWorks with the goal to broaden availability of his conceptual value investing discipline in the retail and institutional investor communities. Charles leads investment research and portfolio management at ValueWorks and has final authority for all investment decisions.
Charles’ philosophy of value investing was born at the regional brokerage Gruntal & Co. During his tenure in Gruntal’s Research Department beginning in 1986, Charles honed skills covering risk arbitrage, the banking industry, and special situations. He notably spearheaded the addition of high yield bonds and distressed securities to the department’s coverage. In 1994, Charles joined Sterling Advisors, an investment advisory unit of Gruntal & Co.; he became Chief Investment Officer of Sterling the following year. In 1999 Charles merged this internal investment practice into the independent advisory firm M&R Capital. As Chief Investment Officer of M&R Charles began branding the composites he brought over from Sterling under a ValueWorks banner, laying the ground for establishing ValueWorks as a fully independent firm in October of 2001.
Charles received his Bachelor’s degree in History from Vassar College and pursued graduate studies in Economics at New York University. He received his CFA designation in 1989 and is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts. Charles has been featured in prominent print and broadcast financial media throughout his career. Charles is a lifelong New Yorker and an avid traveler. The only place he finds more engaging than NYC is the place on the map he is visiting next.
ValueWorks
Our name means a lot to us. We believe that value investing works because controlling quality assets at a discount to what they are worth earns attractive returns over time. This principle is the core of each investment decision we make. Every security is a financial instrument that represents some type of claim against assets. It is the work of every value investor to understand what those assets are, what they are worth, and what price they are paying to control them when they buy a security. We are value investors because we have conviction in the underlying logic of the approach. We have also had the benefit of testing this discipline through some extraordinary – and extraordinarily different – market periods. Value investing is not always easy, and is not always in fashion. It is a straightforward proposition but it requires both a high level of expertise and steadfast discipline to use it adeptly in all sorts of economic and market climates. At ValueWorks we have deployed this approach through periods of huge investor enthusiasm and euphoria, through periods of financial crisis and panic, and even through some moments of calm and investor ennui. Through it all, we have stayed with this discipline, and draw the simple conclusion that is in our name.