The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that Richard Rooney is underperforming the market and proud of it. The Globe's Andrew Willis writes that in an essay posted on-line, the co-founder of Burgundy Asset Management shared ideas from a speech he gave to fellow value investors about why he is excited to own stocks that most fund managers avoid. Burgundy -- a $27-billion fund manager sold by its employees this summer to Bank of Montreal -- trails almost all its peers on performance over the past one and four years. Rather than being a source of shame, the veteran investor called it a "position of enormous strategic power." Mr. Rooney's strategy is to buy and hold companies with "good balance sheets, reasonable growth prospects, intelligent capital allocation, and unchallenging valuations." That common sense, value-investing approach finally seems suited to the times. Apple, Nvidia and other Big Tech players are sound businesses, but they cannot keep up eye-popping stock performance. The shift to value investing Mr. Rooney has awaited may have already begun. The Globe's value picks include Power Corp., Quebecor, Finning and printer Transcontinental, all of which turned in more than 50-per-cent returns last year.