Rick has created a socially-responsible mutual fund company, specializing in quantitative analysis.

Longsplice Investments  is a socially responsible mutual fund company bringing market-neutral reduced volatility to mutual fund investors.  Our fund is long-short and picks stocks based on growth at a reasonable price (GAARP).  The portfolio uses a quantitative model designed from economic principles up, and back-tested.  Our ideal customer wants stock-like average returns with low volatility, while investing in socially responsible companies.

Buying just the best companies is a great start.  What happens, though, when the whole market goes down?  Even the best companies can drop precipitously on a bad day or in a bad year.
   
By buying the best and shorting (borrowing and selling) the worst (judged by the same criteria) stocks, the portfolio is substantially protected.  As long as the good stocks drop less (or on a good day rise more) than the bad ones drop (or even rise), then a long-short portfolio is making money.  The volatility (riskiness) of the portfolio is decreased compared to a typical long-only fund portfolio.