Agenda

Philip Springer on …
Total-Return Investing in a Changing, Complex World

Growth or income? Why not both? Not so long ago, you bought stocks for growth and bonds for income. But now bonds barely pay. Yet the right stocks and equity substitutes can give you solid growth and income while keeping your risk down despite sluggish economies, sky-high government debt and dysfunctional politics.

Mr. Springer’s presentation will cover three important areas. First, a focused overview of the current investment environment. Second, the types and characteristics of the best total-return investments to own now, including specific recommendations. Third, asset allocation and portfolio-management guidance to help you grow and protect your wealth in any investment environment.

Robert Rapier on…
Profiting from the Long- and Short-Term Energy Trends

Discover which long-term energy trends will fuel your portfolio over the coming decade and which short-term trends you should take advantage of now. Energy industry veteran Robert Rapier will make the clear case for permanently higher oil prices and continued growth in the use of alternative sources of energy, including solar, wind and ethanol. Robert will also point you to today’s profit opportunities behind low natural gas prices and high gasoline prices.

You will get the names of specific energy companies to buy now. Plus, you’ll gain insights into Robert’s proven process for vetting energy companies, from both an engineering and a financial perspective, to ensure your money is safe and properly positioned for growth.

John Reese on…
Systematic Investing with the Strategies of Buffett, Lynch and Others

John P. Reese walks investors through the systematic stock selection approaches of history’s greatest investors: Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch and Ben Graham. Reese will discuss each strategy, their most important investment criteria and the recent and long-term performance of each of his proprietary guru-based models. You’ll gain insights into proven value investment strategies, long-term investing concepts, quantitative equity analysis and guru-based modeling. Mr. Reese is the author of two books on guru investing, the owner of two patents in the area of automated stock analysis and a graduate of Harvard Business School and MIT.

David Dittman on…
Canada and Australia

Buying and holding dividend-paying stocks backed by solid businesses: It’s an investment strategy that knows no borders. And at a time when the U.S. dollar is under assault, it’s more important than ever to diversify out of assets backed by the buck.

Canada and Australia, former jewels of the British Empire, are our two prominent stops on this all-important world tour. In both the Great White North and the Land Down Under, investors will find relatively stable governments, fiscal and monetary sanity, manageable debt levels and, most importantly, copious natural resources.

Mr. Dittman will discuss Canada and Australia in the context of a rapidly changing global power structure, and how individual investors can use these markets to build wealth and protect their assets at the same time.

Jim Fink on…
Small- and Mid-Cap Stocks: The Time to Invest Is Now

With history as our guide, we know that the first year of a Democratic administration is a winner for small caps. And so is inflation. The government says inflation is low, but Mr. Fink will tell you why they’re wrong… again. And he’ll show you how to profit from both value and momentum stocks that benefit from these market conditions.

Most importantly, Mr. Fink will share with you his proprietary six-point Safety-Rating System that helps keep you out of trouble. With his system, capital preservation is paramount.  Discover the methodologies of Piotroski, Beneish, Altman and more in order to keep your hard-earned money safe while positioning you for market-beating returns.

You’ll get Mr. Fink’s six favorite value and momentum stocks to buy now, plus a short list list of others he’s got his eye on.

Benjamin Shepherd on …
Profiting from Emerging Markets

Investing in emerging markets continues to thrive despite Europe’s economic crisis, as population growth and increasing consumer spending in those countries continues to expand. While the United States continues to struggle with persistently high unemployment and a soft dollar, other parts of the world are benefiting from those very same conditions.

Ben Shepherd will show you where to look for investment opportunities outside of the United States. As the editor of Global Investment Strategist he scours the globe looking for up-and-coming businesses in countries that are growing at a far greater rate than the developed world. He will also explain some of the unique risks associated with global investing, and how you can diversify your portfolio to minimize these risks while taking advantage of the outstanding returns they offer.

Jim Fink gives guidance on options …
Using Options to Insure Your Portfolio

People insure their house, their car and their health against catastrophe. But investors rarely insure the value of their stock portfolios against negative black swan events, whether they involve individual stocks such as Enron or general market crashes that occurred in 1987, 2002 and 2008.

Mr. Fink will introduce option strategies that investors can use to protect their portfolios from disaster at a surprisingly low–even no–cost. Learn about put spreads, collars, butterflies, the VIX and LEAPs as a stock replacement, and–most importantly–how to determine the amount of option insurance you need and which underlying indices to use, given the size and character of your portfolio.

George Peacock on...
If It Ain’t Working, Don’t Fix It: A Proven Approach to Asset Allocation

What exactly is wrong with the current state of asset allocation? Why is “risk tolerance,” a bedrock of the financial planning and investment community, a chimera?  And, if the mainstream tools are wrong and even dangerous for investors, what is the best approach to diversification in today’s uncertain global economic environment?

Most investors know that they create their wealth through exploiting market inefficiencies and targeted speculation.  They then protect that wealth through effective diversification. And it is this part of their portfolio, the diversified fortress, that allows for even more wealth-creating investing such as that promulgated by Investing Daily’s outstanding analyst team.

In this session, we will discuss two effective diversified portfolio solutions to the now-permanent global market uncertainty.  First, we will examine the success of Harry Browne’s “Fail-Safe” portfolio, a portfolio strategy that has returned between 9 and 10 percent a year for the last 40 years with its worst single year loss being around  -5%.  Second, we will discuss an updated version of his successful strategy, incorporating investments not available when his ideas were first put forth.  Finally, we will outline a diversified portfolio strategy based upon the writings of finance professors Zvi Bode (Worry-Free Investing and Risk Less and Prosper) and Eugene Fama, of Efficient Market Hypothesis fame.  These two portfolio possibilities address the flaws of what passes for financial planning and diversification today.

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” — Thomas Paine

2013 State of the Society

You’ll get a quick update from our Chairman, Phil Ash, regarding the financial well-being of the Society and any plans for the coming year.  This is also your chance to request and help shape new services. Our Wealth Society Director, Jim Pearce, will then walk you through the Wealth Society portfolios and our philosophy for creating the best portfolios to weather any storm. We seek your feedback to further tailor the objectives of this service.