In his latest column for Canada’s Globe and Mail, Validea CEO John Reese looks at the performance of his guru-inspired Canadian portfolios, which just had their 4 year anniversaries.

Reese says that his Warren Buffett-inspired portfolio has been his best performer north of the border so far, putting up annualized returns of more than 17%. He also talks about the differing performances of his individual portfolios in the US and Canada. “The different performances of some portfolios in the U.S. and Canada are likely due to a mixture of differing market conditions and simple chance — these are all 10-stock portfolios, so any one portfolio can have a fair amount of stock-specific anomalies affecting it,” he writes.

“But looked at collectively,” Reese adds, “I think the long term results demonstrate that following the strategies of investing greats, like Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch, in a disciplined, systematic fashion can give you a leg up in whatever market you’re dealing with.” He looks at a few key lessons he’s learned from running quantitative strategies. Among them: Pick a strategy with a proven track record — and don’t tinker with it.