AlmostCFA

Member Since 08/12/2016

  • AlmostCFA 5 years ago on Diet Starts January

    “Don’t even try to tell me you didn’t eye fuck the Chilis across the parking lot from Best Buy on Black Friday.”
    this is an all-time great PGP line McGannon

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  • AlmostCFA 5 years ago on Day Traders, Volume V: I Have Questions

    I work as a Tech/Healthcare analyst for a long only large cap growth fund. I finished my CFA last year. Here are my answers for your questions which I’m sure will be much different than others.

    Normal Day – checking what happened in the markets over night, going through new sell side research (investment banks sell their research to companies like mine. they have better access to management teams and only cover a limited number of companies in a specific industry so they’re experts on a small niche. in comparison, I know a little bit about a lot of things in tech and healthcare), I’m spending time looking at new developments for companies we already own and deciding if it changes my original investment thesis, I’m also working on coming up with new ideas that fit themes I think I’ve identified (like datacenter/cloud computing investment), and other misc. things. Writing white papers and marketing pieces for client and potential clients takes up a little bit of time. I’m more busy during earnings season when I might have 4-5 conference calls to listen to and report on to my boss. My company is pretty chill and we’re a boutique so my work life balance is insanely good vs. the guys that work on the street or for elite funds.

    What I’m Reading/watching – Like I mentioned earlier I’m reading a ton of research from sell side shops, also looking at things like the WSJ, NYT, Barrons, IBD, Bloomberg etc. Twitter is surprisingly good if you follow the right people. There are some very good biotech twitter guys that cut through the sell side bullshit. I also look at business journals to pick up on things some people might be missing, like a company expanding into a new office or the opposite. CNBC is on the background but It’s mostly meaningless fluff, so I generally ignore.

    As far as running things up the chain. I make new buy or sell recommendations and my boss can decide what he wants to do with my opinion. If I’m doing my job well he should following my advice. 1) I’m following these companies more closely than he is, 2) I’m trying to frame my arguments in a way that I know he will agree with, 3) hopefully I’m right more often than I’m wrong. Sometimes he doesn’t listen to me and I’m right other times I’m wrong but the bottom line is persuasiveness. I manage a small account on the side for our owner that I can do whatever I want with but it’s nerve wracking and not really my main focus.

    Sorry for the long post. Bottom line, I do this every day and I have a master’s degree and professional certification that should qualify me. Here’s the thing though, if I’m right 55% of the time over my career I am absolutely killing it. It’s unfair to think that someone who is looking at an e-trade account for 20 minutes while they’re on the shitter is going to be better than a professional over the long term. Here’s the other catch most professional investors aren’t right more than 50% of the time. So you’re better off buying a cheap index fund and forgetting you even own it until you’re ready to retire.

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  • AlmostCFA 6 years ago on My Side Hustle Might Be Killing Me

    I’m an adjunct instructor at a local university satellite campus and it is a pretty solid gig for not that much time investment. Would recommend if you have an advanced degree and don’t hate college kids.

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