The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that the winning philosophy of investing greats Warren Buffett, Ben Graham and others boils down to buying good companies at cheap prices. The Globe's John Reese writes in the Strategy column that while the concept is simple, a rather fascinating dynamic is at play within what Mr. Reese calls the "Quality-Value Synthesis." Mr. Reese says it involves what happens when value and quality components are separated. Over the past several decades, numerous studies have shown that cheaply valued stocks outperform the broader market over the long term, confirming Mr. Graham's "buy it cheap" philosophy. Mr. Reese says you might expect the same to be true of quality stocks, but it is not. A recent study of stocks picked using dozens of different "quality" factors over a 50-year period found results that were "indistinguishable from random occurrences." The study found returns improved by combining value factors with quality components. Based on the investing approaches of Mr. Buffett and others, Mr. Reese recommends buying Metro, Royal Bank of Canada, Maple Leaf Foods, Stella-Jones, Magna International, ShawCor, Pacific Rubiales Energy and WestJet Airlines.