Hot hands eventually cool; that’s why you shouldn’t necessarily pile into 2012’s best-performing funds. But what about a fund like Tweedy, Browne Global Value (TBGVX), whose management has successfully navigated the treacherous global markets every year since 2008?

Between 2008 and 2012, TBGVX beat its benchmark, the MSCI EAFE Index, by an average of nearly 6 percentage points per year. This outstanding performance earned it a top 2 percent ranking in Morningstar’s foreign large-cap value category.

But when foreign stocks were all the rage from 2003 to 2007, TBGVX lagged its benchmark by a wide margin. Tweedy, Browne’s focus on value kept it out of the high-flyers, even though it posted calendar-year gains of more than 15 percent in all but one of these years.

No fund can outperform in every environment. And TBGVX is a standout because of its long-term results. Although the fund fell short of the EAFE’s returns from 2003 to 2007, it still trounced the S&P 500 over that period. And since its mid- 1993 inception, the fund has gained nearly 543 percent, more than tripling the return of its benchmark.

Just as important, the fund’s volatility of returns has been well below that of all major gauges: its peers, the EAFE, and interestingly enough, the S&P 500.

That’s a sure sign of consistent, top-quality management. Indeed, the four Tweedy, Browne managing directors who run the fund have each been with the firm for over 20 years, and one for nearly four decades.

Friends of Graham. Tweedy, Browne managers are disciples of Benjamin Graham, who literally wrote the book on value investing and later mentored Warren Buffett. As such, they focus on buying stocks priced at a big discount to their intrinsic value. They also like to see low debt and a high level of ownership by insiders. And like Buffett, once they buy, they hold for the long haul; the fund’s annual turnover has averaged less than 11 percent during the past five years.

Another strength is that the fund invests in companies of all sizes, so it offers greater diversification than many of its peers. Recently, about a quarter of the assets were in small and mid-size stocks.

The vast majority of the fund’s assets are allocated to companies domiciled in the developed world, with 76 percent of assets invested in Europe, 10 percent in North America, and 6 percent in Japan.

During the 2008-09 global downturn, TBGVX increased its energy holdings (recently 7.7 percent of assets) for the first time since the 1990s. Its stake in French oil supermajor Total SA (France: FP), bought near the 2009 market trough, is now the fund’s largest position.

In the third quarter of 2012, the managers added Swiss dental-equipment manufacturer Coltene Holding AG (Switzerland: CLTN). This small company has no long-term debt, gets more than a quarter of its revenue from fast-growing emerging markets, and it’s priced at about 1 times revenue.

Management often has a cash stash (12 percent of assets at yearend). And they also hedge foreign currency exposure. Both of these precautionary measures can be a drag on performance when the dollar is weak and foreign stocks are in vogue.

Nevertheless, the fund’s superior long-term returns and attention to risk avoidance make Tweedy, Browne Global Value a solid core holding for those wary of foreign markets.