Asset management is a great business, and federated investors has a balanced mix of funds that allows them to retain assets. They have a significant footprint in the money market business, which allows them to weather down turns when investors flee from stocks and risky bonds. Even during this tough downturn federated investors has increased the number of assets under management. I like the asset management business so much because the average investor is passive, often leaving their money in funds for years regardless of the performance. The business also requires little capital to speak of. The main expense is compensation for managers. It is easy for the business to grow because a manager can take in new money, without expenses increasing. It's just as easy to manage one billion dollars as it is two billion dollars. This gives big players like Federated a competitive advantage against the smaller more fragmented firms because they can spread the fixed cost of manager compensation over a wider base. The stock also pays a nice dividend, which takes some of the edge off of the volatility in the stock.