Successful Investing V: Reasonable Expectations
Perspectives, by Mark Robertson, Managing Partner April 1st, 2024
Successful Investing — Getting Started (Continued). You’ve completed your stock study. Now what? How do we “see” the results? How do we emphasize what’s important? What is reasonable? Achievable? Imaginable? What are some sources of ideas — and how do we filter and focus on the Best?
Registration: You must register separately for each session; sign up for as many of the (4) sessions as you wish, using the registration URL listed with each session in the FULL SCHEDULE information below. Upon registering, you will receive a confirmation email with your access information. Use the information in the confirmation email to enter the webinar at the appropriate time.
Alternate registration sites are available at manifestinvesting.com and https:www.betterinvesting.org/chapters/mid-michigan/local-events.
Recordings: The sessions will be recorded and posted after the sessions to the Manifest Investing YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/manifestinvest/videos; you do not need to register to view the recordings.
FULL SCHEDULE (Times listed are for Eastern Daylight Time.)
Session 1: Gaining Confidence (Ken Kavula, Mark Robertson)
Date: Wednesday – April 10 — 6 PM – 7 PM EDT
Registration: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1131153811139447131
Mark Robertson and Ken Kavula together have over half a century of teaching people how to become successful investors. Investing is not rocket science! Novice investors need to learn a basic vocabulary and become familiar with reading a stock analysis based on an income statement. The BetterInvesting SSGPlus (Stock Selection Guide Plus) is one of Ken and Mark’s instruments of choice. Learning to READ an SSG is a crucial first step for a beginning investor. In this class they will be looking at some potentially pessimistic or exuberantly optimistic stock studies and deciding how to engage in a deeper discussion of the assumptions, analysis, and conclusions.
Session 2: Narrowing The Field (Ken Kavula, Mark Robertson)
Date: Wednesday — April 10 — 8 PM – 9 PM EDT
Registration: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8435003945781165654
Once a novice investor feels comfortable reading an SSG, the next step is to create a list of possible stocks they might like to choose to buy for an investment. Mark and Ken are great proponents of stock screening. Understanding the criteria chosen to screen a database is crucial to understanding the kind of stock ideas the screen might deliver. Our instructors will look at several simple screens and use them to demonstrate the creation of a short list of possible BUY opportunities.
Session 3: The Contenders (Ken Kavula, Mark Robertson)
Date: Thursday — April 11 — 6 PM – 7 PM EDT
Registration: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/772183055880142941
Ken and Mark are firm believers in using their investing time wisely. That means screened list not only might contain the names of a few desirable candidates but also the names of stocks that for one reason or another are not appropriate for purchase. Distilling a screened list down to a contender or two is an art in itself! You must have a good idea of what you are looking for and a real desire to meet that need. Your experienced instructors will try to help you “Keep it simple!” and focus on learning with each decision.
Session 4: Let’s Talk Stock: Stock Ideas NOW! (Suzi Artzberger, Charlene Hansen, Ken Kavula, Anne Manning, Mark Robertson, Matt Spielman)
Date: Thursday, April 11 — 8 PM – 9:30 PM EDT
Registration: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2298799975465849440
This final session is like dessert for investors. Join some of the Better Investing community’s best Stockpickers as they give you a few of their best ideas for study and consideration. Joining our panel are Suzi Artzberger, BI Director of Online Stock Tools and Information Technology; Charlene Hansen, Director with the BI Mid-Michigan Chapter and former president of one of the Mid-Michigan Model Clubs; Ken Kavula, Director with the Mid-Michigan Chapter, investment club President and former Chairman of the BIVA Board; Anne Manning, Director with the BI Houston Chapter and Mark Robertson, managing partner of Manifest Investing and former senior contributing editor to Better Investing magazine. We will promise at least ten good ideas to ponder.
Suzi Artzberger serves as Director of Online Stock Tools Suite, Information Technology and Data. The third generation in her family to belong to Better Investing and a member of two investment clubs, Suzanne Artzberger has successfully practiced the Better Investing method of stock selection and portfolio management for over 25 years. This and years of professional experience in project management, quality management, and information technology, gives Suzi unique insight to the technology needs of long-term equity investors. Her vision led to our current online stock analysis tools for investment clubs and individual investors. Suzi frequently speaks with audiences interested in learning the Better Investing approach to stock investing.
Charlene Hansen resides in Elk Rapids, Michigan, with her husband, Dennis, a retired Kroger Executive, and is a Director for the Mid-Michigan Chapter of BetterInvesting. Elk Rapids lies just north of Traverse City and is also the home to one of Mid-Michigan’s Model Clubs. Charlene is the President of this this club known as POVIC (Port of Value IC). POVIC has about 15 members, both men and women. In addition to her investing activities, she serves on the Elk Rapids Harbor Commission. Charlene enjoys golf, painting, reading and travel.
Ken Kavula (kkavula1@comcast.net) has served the modern investment club movement in a wide variety of leadership volunteer positions. He is a Nicholson award winner, a retired educator and is regarded as a small company champion and respected speaker nationwide. You might have heard him teaching on the TickerTalk program for BetterInvesting. Before retirement, Ken served as Principal of Genesee HS for 21 years. He lives with his wife Natalie near their two children and five grandchildren and he also belongs to four investment clubs, including two Model clubs and a family club. Ken and Natalie are avid theater goers and travel as much as they can.
Anne Manning joined Better Investing in 1995 and is presently an Associate Director with the Houston Chapter. She is grateful to the Beardstown Ladies, Better Investing volunteers and Manifest Investing for her investing education. Anne previously organized an investment club and was a member of two other clubs. Her hobbies include gardening, genealogy, crafts and travel. Anne and her husband, Bob, live in Magnolia, Texas. They love that their daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter live nearby. Anne has a BS degree from Auburn University. She is a former champion of our Groundhog Challenge stock selection contest. Anne often serves as a guest damsel on the monthly Investing Round Table and enjoys an exceptional track record of beating the market with her selections.
Mark Robertson (markr@manifestinvesting.com) is founder and Managing Partner of Manifest Investing, served as senior contributing editor for Better Investing and has worked with successful investment clubs and individual investors since 1993. He has appeared on National Public Radio, CNBC and ABC to discuss long-term investing. He has also worked with Smart Money, Barron’s, Money magazine and the Motley Fool and been covered by the Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch as well as a number of local publications.
Matt Spielman (reeshau@gmail.com) is a lifetime member of Better Investing and a member of the Houston Model Club. He has been an avid investor in individual stocks for 21 years. Matt retired in 2020 after a 27-year career in the automotive industry in engineering and information technology, capping his career with a 2-year assignment in Ireland. After that time away, he looks forward to exploring his new home state of Texas and the rest of the US.
What we do is different.
The modern investment club movement was a big tent … and a considerable bandwagon. Unfortunately, people’s capitalism and the stewardship of common stock OWNERSHIP has hit a bit of a speed bump, or worse. It’s pretty clear that some WD-40 is needed. The results achieved by the persistent are compelling. But too quiet.
What we do is different. We have no problem with things like discounted cash flow analysis — but we believe that we’re chasing fewer variables and that SIMPLER is usually better when it comes to the realm of investing.
“Mathematics is ordinarily considered as producing precise and dependable results; but in the stock market the more elaborate and abstruse the mathematics the more uncertain and speculative are the conclusions we draw therefrom. In forty-four years of Wall Street experience and study I have never seen dependable calculations made about common-stock values, or related investment policies, that went beyond simple arithmetic or the most elementary algebra. Whenever calculus is brought in, or higher algebra, you could take it as a warning signal that the operator was trying to substitute theory for experience, and usually also to give to speculation the deceptive guise of investment.” — Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor
Amidst the chaos, turbulence and avalanche of information, we find it rewarding and seemingly more reliable to focus on growth, profitability and valuation in a different kind of model. As is often the case, events like a prior Morningstar Investment Conference serves to remind about the value of being simple … and different.
The audience gasped when Keith Lee of Brown Capital Management confessed that in over 25 years of successful investing that he’s never owned a financial sector stock. In his own words, Brown is “sector benchmark agnostic.” Brown Small Company (BCSIX) has a 10-year relative return of +1.5%.
Keith Lee and Brown Capital Management are different. We like different.
The Mid-Michigan Chapter of Better Investing is an outstanding example of community investing. Known as a “chapter” that operates on behalf of the National Association of Investors, the goal is to share the potential of long-term investing with as many individuals as possible. A network of investment clubs and individual investors has been admirably served by a talented team of educators and counselors for decades. The excellence runs deep — centered on the time-honored lessons of the modern investment club movement for the past 80 years. The chapter runs a steady series of educational programs and supports the development of regional and nationwide opportunities for sharing. We’re better together.
Manifest Investing is a web-based investing system including research and features/tools for stock and fund screening as well as resources for portfolio design and management. The resources are completely based on our interpretation of the lessons learned, methodologies, techniques and disciplines promulgated by the modern investment club movement. The intent is to serve do-it-yourself investors, small groups of portfolio managers known as investment clubs and to support the efforts of those who want to work in a more informed manner with their professional investing advisors. The community and content stream generates a continuous flow of actionable ideas. We seek and deliver “elegant simplicity” by focusing on a small number of factors and characteristics that really matter. Features and regular webcasts (e.g. monthly Round Table, weekly Bull Sessions) feature demonstrations of analysis and methods. Our focus is on demystifying investing — particularly when it comes to the design and management of a portfolio — enabling anyone to experience successful investing with their personal investing or retirement plans. We endorse and encourage investment clubs as vehicles for support and group learning.