Risk philosophy · 5 min read
The floor before the ceiling
Chasing the upside feels like the productive work of investing. But the portfolios that actually compound are built somewhere quieter — at the floor.
Read Leadership
Founder · B.U.Y. INVEST
Flavio Melis
Founder of B.U.Y. INVEST. He writes on systematic asset allocation, diversification by risk source, and valuation-disciplined equity investing.
Flavio Melis is the founder of B.U.Y. INVEST GmbH, an independent Swiss investment firm based in Adliswil and founded in 2022. At the firm he is responsible for investment strategy, portfolio construction, and risk architecture.
He began investing in public markets in 2019 and developed the B.U.Y. Basic Strategy, a systematic multi-asset framework designed to generate yield within clearly defined risk parameters. The strategy was actively managed through the 2020 global market dislocation and the 2022 interest-rate tightening cycle, across materially different market regimes.
His work focuses on translating macro conditions and structural market dynamics into robust, implementable investment frameworks — diversifying by risk source rather than by asset label, and grounding equity decisions in business quality and valuation before price.
He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Bologna and an MSc in Corporate Finance from Nova School of Business and Economics. He works in English, Italian, and Spanish.
Areas of focus
What he works on
Systematic asset allocation & all-weather construction
Developer of the B.U.Y. Basic Strategy, a systematic multi-asset framework that sizes exposures by risk across growth, inflation, deflation, and stagflation regimes.
Diversification by risk source (risk parity)
Argues diversification must be measured by underlying risk source — government duration, gold, long volatility — not by asset label, as set out in 'A high yield is not diversification.'
Risk-first portfolio construction & drawdown math
Builds from the floor before the ceiling: a 50% drawdown requires a 100% gain to recover, so capital preservation precedes upside, as set out in 'The floor before the ceiling.'
Equity valuation discipline (EV/EBIT over P/E)
Treats a low P/E as a verdict, not a reason, favouring an EV/EBIT test against the full capital structure, as set out in 'When cheap is a trap.'
Shiller CAPE & the Excess CAPE Yield
Reads the Excess CAPE Yield as a decade-long lens on the equity risk premium, not a market-timing signal.
Index concentration & 'passive is active'
Shows that market-cap weighting takes valuation as given and, at today's concentration, tilts investors toward the most-appreciated names, as set out in 'The question index investors don't ask.'
Insights by Flavio Melis
Published research notes
Valuation discipline · 5 min read
When cheap is a trap
A low price-to-earnings ratio looks like an opportunity. Often it is the market telling you something you have not yet understood.
ReadMarket valuation · 6 min read
What the Excess CAPE Yield is telling us
One quiet number carries more information about long-run equity returns than almost any forecast you will read this year. It is worth understanding what it does — and what it does not — say.
ReadActive vs. passive · 5 min read
The question index investors don’t ask
Buying the index is one of the best default decisions in finance. At today’s concentration, it is also a more active — and more valuation-blind — bet than it looks.
ReadMarket view · 7 min read
The quiet consensus
From value investors to the great all-weather houses, the most respected money is not sharing a forecast. It is sharing a posture — and it is the one we already run.
ReadPortfolio construction · 5 min read
A high yield is not diversification
A corporate bond looks like ballast: fixed income, a yield above governments, not a stock. We think that intuition diversifies nothing.
ReadFrequently asked
About Flavio Melis
- Who is Flavio Melis?
- Flavio Melis is the founder of B.U.Y. INVEST GmbH, an independent Swiss investment firm in Adliswil founded in 2022. He is responsible for investment strategy, portfolio construction, and risk architecture at the firm.
- What is Flavio Melis known for?
- He developed the B.U.Y. Basic Strategy, a systematic multi-asset framework designed to generate yield within defined risk parameters, and writes on systematic asset allocation, diversification by risk source, and valuation-disciplined equity investing.
- What topics does Flavio Melis write about?
- His published research covers risk-first investing and drawdown math, EV/EBIT versus P/E valuation, the Shiller CAPE ratio and the Excess CAPE Yield, index concentration and passive investing, all-weather posture over prediction, and diversification by risk source.
- What is Flavio Melis's educational background?
- He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Bologna and an MSc in Corporate Finance from Nova School of Business and Economics.
- How does Flavio Melis approach diversification?
- He argues diversification should be measured by underlying risk source rather than by asset label — looking to government duration, gold, and long volatility as genuinely uncorrelated sources — because a corporate-bond credit spread is largely equity risk in a different wrapper.
- What is the B.U.Y. Basic Strategy?
- It is the systematic multi-asset framework Flavio Melis developed: an all-weather construction that sizes exposures by risk to generate yield within clearly defined risk parameters. It was actively managed through the 2020 global market dislocation and the 2022 interest-rate tightening cycle.
This page is for informational purposes only and is directed at professional and institutional investors within the meaning of Art. 4 FinSA. It is not investment advice, an offer or solicitation, or a forecast of future returns, and is not directed at retail clients or US persons. Past performance and prior valuation levels are not indicative of future results.