“When classifying securities into styles, investors group together assets that appear to be similar, in the sense that they are perceived to have a common characteristic.” A characteristic can be an obvious one such as “the country in which the security is traded, the industry in which the firm operates, or a permanent legal characteristic.” Other times, a less obvious characteristic is used as the basis for a style, such as securities with that characteristic are found to have performed well historically. “Value investing" in equities emerged as a distinctive style over the last century following the work of Graham and Dodd (1934) on high dividend yield stocks, and the spectacular performance of some of the investors who followed their advice.”