Erik Metanomski is possibly the hardest investor in the world to impress. Since co-founding deep-value investment firm Lanyon Asset Management with co-portfolio manager David Prescott in 2009, the fund has set a new standard for how to invest: stay in cash.

For the best part of the past year, the Lanyon Australian Value Fund has held about half its capital in the bank, thumbing its nose at the many fully invested funds crawling over each other for the next blue-chip to offer a capital management initiative.