He doesn't look at his stock picks in isolation, but as players in a bigger, diversified portfolio. It's a tricky measure, but Hall sees it as a cornerstone of the fund. Hall looks for stocks trading at a discount to what he figures is the company's intrinsic value, and spends a good deal of his time trying to calculate that intrinsic value. He also keeps an eye on the bigger picture, and looks for companies in what he considers the right part of their cycles. Hall likes the outlook for Alcan's sector right now.
Demand is steady, while aluminum supply is constricting.
And Alcan pays the philosophy more than just lip service, he says. While Hall doesn't obsess about timing the market, he does look for companies positioned at the right part of their business cycle, and he likes the outlook for Alcan's sector right now. Demand is steady, while aluminum supply is constricting. Aluminum smelting consumes vast quantities of power, and power costs in the Pacific Northwest have forced some Alcan competitors to go off line. Alcan has been and will be a huge beneficiary of that.