Everyone wants to make money fast, but the idiosyncrasies of economic cycles and market conditions often make that a difficult task. There are many distractions, but one thing in particular is weighing on the minds of investors today: interest rates. They are nervous about stubbornly high inflation data and undecided if the US Federal Reserve will choose to raise interest rates a little or pause in next week’s meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee in the wake of the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank. But veteran investor Bob Desmond says he’s not “really thinking about it.” “We have never had a short-term view of the market. We prefer to look at the estimated value of our current portfolio. At current prices, we believe there is a reasonable chance of achieving our target of 8% to 12% annual return over the next five years,” he wrote in a note to CNBC on Tuesday. Desmond is the head of Claremont Global and a portfolio manager at the firm, which has more than $1 billion in funds under management. “I know it sounds boring, but we try and see where we think it will be in three to five years time. So we don’t move the discount rate every day depending on how the 10-year bond is doing,” he added. The discount rate is the rate of return that we use to discount future cash flows back to their present value. It is a commonly used metric in discounted cash flow analysis to inform investment decisions. Desmond said the company applies an 8% discount rate to its portfolio, which remains constant throughout the financial cycle.” We try to generate minimum returns above inflation for our clients. I think that if you keep moving the discount rate around every day, your valuations become very sensitive and may just be your whipsaw. So we try and see through cycles like that,” he said. Sticking to ‘Steady Eddies’ Desmond characterized the firm’s investment approach as “a bit boring.” “We’re always stuck on Steady Eddies and the resilience of big tech companies. We only have a portfolio of 10-to-15 stocks so we have to make sure that what we buy is very durable and we get really good ideas. what it will look like in five years,” he said. Key to Desmond’s investment decisions is the valuation of target companies. “What’s on our shopping list is anything that’s attractively priced,” he said. One of his top tech picks is Alphabet, which he says is “a margin story” over the next five years. The company is dominant in search engines and YouTube, and has a large cloud business, according to Desmond. He believes the stock is “very attractive,” given its current valuation. The company also owns shares in Microsoft and Adobe. “Adobe is something we have been doing for five years. It used to trade at 50- or 60-times earnings. It never even cancels in our strike zone. We got a chance last year. So that’s how we play. We will look at things and wait until the price enters the appropriate territory. “So, we have Alphabet, Microsoft and Adobe. From our point of view, we feel comfortable. They have great profits and a good income profile and a strong balance sheet. And I think the opportunity set for them has been very good for 18 last month,” Desmond said. He also likes Nike, calling it a “good margin uplift story,” as well as medical equipment maker Steris for its easy supply chain issues and record backlog.