​​The Fund follows a disciplined, value-driven investment process rooted in the belief that investor biases create persistent market inefficiencies. By systematically acting on these inefficiencies, the Fund seeks to unlock opportunities for long-term capital appreciation. A core tenet of the Fund’s strategy is Towle’s independent, contrarian mindset, which actively challenges market consensus. Towle focuses on investments that are out-of-favor due to adverse business developments, industry-specific downturns, short-term earnings misses, unfavorable market sentiment,  or  other  temporary factors. The strategy emphasizes identifying opportunities ahead of anticipated catalysts where even modest improvements in profitability can drive significant earnings expansion and stock price appreciation.

The Fund’s investment universe starts with publicly traded equity securities listed on a U.S. exchange. Next, Towle applies proprietary quantitative screens to assess liquidity, short interest, historical earnings, performance, and other factors.  Companies primarily engaged in tobacco, liquor, or gaming are then excluded. Following this, additional screening criteria are used to evaluate the attractiveness of potential investments as described above. The Fund generally holds between 30 and 100 positions. The investment process tends to favor smaller companies – typically those with market capitalizations under $15 billion – operating in cyclical industries such as manufacturing, distribution, consumer products, transportation, materials, and energy, but may invest in companies of any capitalization in any industry. ​