Familiarity and Contempt. Looking back over the years, the time of maximum disdain for the analysis and portfolio management principles practiced by many in the community ... is the time when they most needed to be heeded.

In response to a number of subscriber inquiries, we take a closer look at climbing "out of the box" and into the Jungle as we look at a slightly different approach to building expectations for companies like Amazon.

Selling was a popular topic during the recent NAIC national convention in Cincinnati. We'll summarize the presentation on Selling Better? (Relatively) made by Ken Kavula and Mark Robertson as part of the program.

Graduation season brings the annual reminder to "Stay Hungry" and to "Stay Foolish." Using Tin Cup for context, we explore what is possible when a young person accesses the potential (and deploys patience and discipline) in the early years of their professional career.

For now, we raise a glass to Dow 20,000. Press on.

We think a ubiquitous haystack is a path to opportunity and success. We’re reminded that we can’t achieve proper balance unless we’re continuously searching for the next promising well-managed small company.

Excessive adjustments to reported earnings can be disruptive. How much does GAAP versus Non-GAAP matter? What flavor of earnings seems to provide the most representative forecasts?

We’ve long believed that the collection of findings and recommendations in the Individual Investors Manual represent the wisdom of 50 years of successful investing with much of the content supplied by George Nicholson.

The quest for excellent small companies never ends. From Bio-Reference Labs to NavTeq to Buffalo Wild Wings … growth succeeds. We believe that we deliver maximum value when we expose actionable ideas for consideration and analysis. Check out our weekly updates on the Forum as we sift for suitable nuggets.

Successful investing is turbocharged by the power of a few basis points over time as we launch some studies into potential selling disciplines and best practices. We hope to build some very actionable portfolio management ideas.

The debate of growth vs. value strategies will never end. Some believe that carefully-selected growth will prevail while others point to the long-term results of value-based investors. We think they’re both right and actually practice both approaches.

How useful are target prices? We'll continue to explore the utility of analyst consensus one year estimates but this one year perspective on Goldman Sachs threw us a March Madness sized curve ball.

A group of investors heeding the lessons of Graham, Babson and Nicholson has at least one leg up on the crowd and a better than average opportunity to generate exceptional returns.

Building expectations. It's a large measure of what sets our community of investors apart. How much value is there in 1-year forecasts?

Welcome to the junction of Imagination and Vision. A big part of what sets our community of investors apart is visual context while building and monitoring expectations.

Over the years, our quest to seek promising small companies has yielded the likes of BRLI, IPCM, CYBX and substantial rewards. This month, we're proud to present the Manifest Investing 50 Best Small Companies for 2016. Explore. Enjoy.

It’s been the theme of the MANIFEST 40 since that first collection was published ten years ago. By discovering the best companies while investing with your friends, we believe that we all have a leg up on the “average investor.” The performance observed over the last ten years validates our hopes and expectations.

Stock-based alerts already make a difference, Brian Hayek celebrates dividend divas, and Ken Kavula delivers a portfolio analysis primer.

"Opportunities present themselves every day - to everyone. You just have to be alert and ready to act.” -- Marc Ostrofsky This month we begin coverage of Alerts as vigilance tools and continue to feature our portfolio design and management resources.

This month, as we update the most widely followed stocks, we're reminded of strength in numbers and how often our community of investors experiences long term success. Ken Kavula spends a few moments with keeping score and our target of beating the market.