The website for the National Aquarium in Baltimore states that a nautilus, along with the cuttlefish, squid and octopus, are all cephalopods, meaning ‘head-foot,’ so named because the feet (tentacles) are attached to the head.

The chambered nautilus lives in tropical waters extending from the Andaman Sea east to Fiji and from southern Japan to the Great Barrier Reef. This animal usually lives where the slopes of coral reefs descend into deep waters. During the day, it resides in dark cool waters at depths from 900 to 2,000 feet and ascends to shallower waters (300 to 500 feet deep) at night to feed.

Despite the simplicity of the chambered nautilus shell, Holt-Smith Advisors believes it is a symbol of key investment related concepts.

These concepts include:

• The nautilus shell spiral is concentrated at its core and expands exponentially. Our equity products are concentrated on a limited number of selectively chosen stocks.  Our goals include compounding returns over the years to provide attractive results for our clients.
  
  
• The nautilus creature is uniquely able to control its buoyancy because of its shell design, which allows it to ride the tides of stormy seas.  Financial markets are often stormy.  We seek to control the risk, defined as volatility, of our investment strategies by actively managing the portfolio’s structure.  Sailing towards your financial goals is easier when your portfolio can weather the storms.
  
  
• The nautilus shell is so strongly constructed that it withstands rapid changes in pressure without imploding.  Our portfolios are carefully constructed to withstand market challenges.
  
  
• The nautilus lines its shell with mother-of-pearl, creating value as it grows.
  
  
• Its architecture is considered one of nature’s most perfect designs, a logarithmic spiral which combines both art and science.  Judgment (the art) and logic (the science) are crucial for successful investing.
  
  
• Taking nearly twenty years to reach maturity, the nautilus is unusually long-lived.  A solid investment philosophy must consider a long-term time frame.
  
  
• The nautilus shell grows chamber by chamber as the wall of each section seals off the previous created segments.  Our goal is not to give back earned returns.