An investment strategy in which companies are considered based simply on their own merit, without regard for the sectors they are part of or the current economic conditions. A person following this strategy will be looking very closely at the company's management, history, business model, growth prospects and other company characteristics: he or she will not be considering general industry and economic trends and then extrapolating them to the specific company. Followers of this strategy believe that some companies are superior to their peer groups, and will therefore outperform regardless of industry and economic circumstances. The purpose of bottom-up investing is to identify such companies. opposite of top-down.