The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Validea Capital manager John Reese says he has spent more than a dozen years studying history's most successful investors such as Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch and Benjamin Graham. In a special to The Globe Mr. Reese writes that he found the most common factor these successful stockpickers looked at when buying shares was not price-to-earnings ratios or earnings growth rates or returns on equity. Mr. Reese says it was debt. Of the 11 investing greats Mr. Reese bases his investing strategy on, at least nine used debt as a key component of their approaches. The bottom line is that the vast majority of these highly successful investors were leery of companies that carried a lot of debt. Inmet Mining gets strong interest from Mr. Reese's Graham-based model, thanks in part to the fact that it has just $17-million in long-term debt. Its current ratio (current assets divided by current liabilities) is over eight -- four times higher than the two-times target Graham used, a sign that the company is flush with liquidity. Value was also critical for Mr. Graham, and Inmet seems to be offering plenty. It is trading for just 10.7 times trailing 12-month earnings per share.