Forget About the Fed, Focus on Stock Picks

It is possible, believe it or not, to make money in stocks without obsessing about the Fed's next rate decision or the upcoming employment report.

"We don't tune out the Fed entirely," says Matthew Kaufler, portfolio manager for the Touchstone Value Opportunities fund. "It's just not a priority for us." Kaufler and his co-managers use a bottom up method for selecting stocks, focusing on a company's ability to generate and sustain a high level of cash flow.

From a shareholder's perspective, Kaufler's priorities seem to be very much in order. The $112 million fund is up 8% year to date, 2.5 percentage points better than the S&P 500. The fund has returned an average of 16% annually over the past five years, a hefty 4.6 percentage points better than the index. ...