Strategic Investor Radio

Ever effervescent and lively, Dr. Mira is an Economist raised behind the Iron Curtain in a Communist country, now a Columbia University trained PhD in Economics and accomplished speaker and presenter t/o So. Calif on the economy, and Co-Director of the Woods Center for Economic Analysis and Forecasting @ Cal State Fullerton, Dr. Mira shares her insights on the U.S. Economy.  You won't want to miss this interview - It covers lots of ground, w/worthy insights about the economy throughout.

Gary, a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering, spent decades in this field, including time w/NASA.  In 1994 he started Harloff Capital to create investment strategies and manage assets. His focus is on market selection and rotation, not individual stocks.  Listen to his views of how to select those markets he believes are the most likely to rise in the near future.  Any equity investor should find this interview to be very interesting.

Listen to Michael, the Chief Investment Strategist for SSGA, which is the 3rd largest money manager in the world, w/ over $3 Trillion in Assets Under Management and the founders of the SPY ETF in 1993, the S&P 500 Index ETF, the first ETF and the largest traded security in the country.  Michael discusses his "3 Surprises" forecasts for 2020 and their Sector Rotation strategy.  Michael is in demand by the media and his ideas/views are sought after repeatedly.  You'll find this to be interesting.

Started by Dr. Andrew Rudd, former Professor of Finance @ Cornell Univ, Advisor Partners focuses on providing niche services in tax efficient investing and SRI, all with advanced technologies and proficiency in these areas. They perform tax harvest strategies as well as SRI investment selection tailored to the specific portfolio and goals of each client.  Listen to Rahul tell how they do it.

Passed in 2017, as part of the tax reform act, Qualified Opportunity Zones present a unique opportunity to achieve partial Capital Gains Tax relief by re-investing gains into geographical areas that are typically less attractive to development projects.  Listen to Dan Fullmer, Chief Investment Officer, to understand this new opportunity.  Focusing on the Intermountain West's lesser populated areas, they develop Multi-Family units for Qualified Opportunity Zones.  Investors should be aware of this new opportunity.

Always to be counted on for applicable data, reliable forecasts and lots of opinions, Dr. Bob Dieli, PhD out of U. of Texas, publisher of his newsletter, No Spin Forecast, answers our questions re: the economy.  It is always interesting to hear his views, comments and thoughts, which are definitely needed at this time.  Sit back and listen, and be prepared to take notes.

APMEX, the American Precious Metals Exchange, is twenty years old, does about $1 Billion in revenue yearly, w/over 200 employees, offers about 20,000 products in the precious metals space and is the dominant precious metals physical dealer in the country.  Ken discusses the importance of having a portion of one's portfolio in precious metals as a diversifier, primarily gold.  Listen to Ken discuss this important aspect of most every investor.

Mike is the Senior Analyst @ Weiss Ratings and Editor of the "Safe Money Report," the flagship publication of Weiss Ratings.  He's been making market and stock recommendations w/Weiss since 2003- In other words, he's a brave man.  Using fundamental and cyclical analysis in his evaluations, he uses their database of filters in their quantitatively based data on stocks, ETF's, etc.  He discusses the importance of safety/conservative/defensive approaches, plus growing dividends, to include non-traditional stock analysis - REIT's, Closed End funds, MLP's, etc.  Anyone interested in investing will find this to be very interesting.

Dave is the founder and owner of TimerTrac.com.  They offer a website to subscribers/ investors/advisors that offers asset managers and their strategies, provides a description of their investment strategy and gives their performance record.  TimerTrac can calculate the performance for as long as the asset manager has been w/TimerTrac.  This is a distinct advantage for the asset manager, who can now show a confirmed and verified track record of performance to show to prospective investors.  These asset managers are typically professionals in or from the industry.  With 500 plus strategies from 100 - 200 asset managers, this can be very interesting stuff.  Hope you enjoy it.

Guy is the Portfolio Manager of Shelton's Tactical Credit Fund, and seeks to create Alpha thru active management of credit positions. With interest rates at super lows, and $15 Trillion in negative interest rates, to create profits in the credit marketplace has become exceptionally challenging.  Guy discusses Shelton's strategy, resulting from his thirty plus years of experience in the credit marketplace, and how they seek to generate profits today.  With many investors' asset allocation to fixed income being 20% plus of their total allocation, this is an important aspect of their investment strategy.  We hope it is helpful.

Ali, a Harvard MBA, has been managing Long/Short strategies for over 17 years, and was awarded the Portfolio Manager of the Year in the Alternatives Category by Morningstar in 2014, and started Invenomic in 2016. Long/Short strategies can be a productive surrogate for fixed income investments in today's low yield environment.  To understand Long/Short strategies this interview can provide significant insight into this important approach to investing.

The Fall Conference of RITA is coming soon, and those interested can receive info on it thru this promotional podcast.  Trust companies, Investment Advisors and investors comprise the majority of the attendees are encouraged to attend.

Self-Directed IRA's have existed for decades but their popularity continues to grow and create more participants and fans. They make investing in many non-traditional investments in IRA's possible (private investments, private equity, metals, real estate, private enterprises, et al).  Listen to Mary Mohr, founder of RITA, the association for the trustees who do the record keeping and reporting (it's more exciting than it sounds) for these transactions, who promote and make possible these investment opportunities, as she discusses this important but less known niche of the IRA investment world.

Listen to Jason, founder of Beach City Capital, tell their story of their unique business model of partnering w/land owners w/existing multi-family units to replace and upgrade these units w/new and improved ones. Anyone interested in real estate in So. California will find Jason, BCC's strategy of partnering w/current land owners, pre-lease arrangements and Opportunity Zone focus to be very interesting.  Learn what "Co-Living" is in these types of facilities.  We hope you enjoy it.

With the lead time to develop, build and sell residential units in the 3-5 year range in California it is no wonder that the pace of residential development has slowed and that the housing shortage continues to escalate. Listen to Mike Cutbirth, founder and CEO of Triad, discuss their business model of purchasing land that is already pre-approved for residential development, reducing the gestation period to under a year.  This unique approach to selective purchasing offers many advantages to investors, and anyone interested in investing in real estate will find this interview to be very interesting.  We hope you enjoy it.

Ever the raconteur, previous guest Ted discusses the investment strategy of Incline - a systematic manager, combining futures and equity investing, agnostically, both long and short. Focused on diversification, they seek to reduce risk thru non-correlated investments.  This is a very interesting conversation re: the commodities and their role in creating risk averse portfolios.  

Former bankers, Freedom Financial makes first position loans to Real Estate professionals who bring value added commercial projects to the community and returns to investors.  Bringing their expertise to the western U.S., he discusses the opportunities and value that exist in this geography and why clients come to finance companies such as theirs as opposed to banks.

Millenium Trust is the Custodian of over $26 Billion in Alternative Investments, held in trust and valued as required by the IRS. Listen to this 5 minute interview w/Ted as he tells us stories of their clients and services.

Listen to this 5 minute interview w/George, out of Switzerland, discusses opportunities to invest in Venture Capital thru Blockchain and cryptocurrency tokens, allowing investors to invest small amounts into these funds and projects in a liquid investments.  They offer a very interesting business model that does not follow any traditional path.

Listen to this 5 minute interview with Bill Kelly, CEO of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association, discusses Alternative Investments, CAIA and the opportunities they bring to the investment world.  Bill is always interesting and a delight to listen to. 

Listen to Rob, CEO, and previous CEO multiple times plus corporate board member for several companies in the industry, discuss this niche in the pharma world.  A publicly traded company, focusing on the delivery system of medications, w/systems offering less toxicology and fewer side effects. W/a proprietary system they offer a delivery system that is unique and is not processed thru the stomach.  Many investors should find this interview and company to be very interesting.

Trained as an architect, Ed transitioned into the world of investments over 25 years ago, w/some major and high profile asset management firms. Focusing primarily on Gold, Ed discusses the place for this precious metal in investors' asset allocation. W/over $10 Billion in assets, Sprott offers some tax advantaged opportunities in certain situations.  There are several ways to own Gold and Sprott does most of them.  Any investor should find this to be very interesting.

An Engineer and mathematician by background, Francisco has spent the past 20 plus years applying the skills and experience to investing that he learned from the technical and analytical background for which he had been trained.  Focusing on the process of evaluating stock selection thru Fundamentals and Momentum, they analyze the earnings and revenues acceleration and momentum of various stocks, and seek to go Long on those w/strong scores and Short those w/Low scores, ranking each one according to over 70 data points. This is an original creation by Francisco and Cognios and listeners will find it to be very interesting.

Karlin, a longtime contributor to a wide range of multifamily/real estate investment publications, including Kiplinger, Globest.com, Multi-Housing News, et al, and a Principal @ IMG, discusses value-added real estate opportunities.  They look to improve not only properties for residences, but also communities and neighborhoods.  Looking to grow over time, rather than the more immediate fix and flip strategy, IMG focuses on Multi-Family because they see continued opportunity there, like the risk reward ratios, and are experienced in this segment of the real estate world.  They focus on six to seven metropolitan areas, with facilities that are 150 - 350 units, w/equities of $12 - 18 million.  Listen to Karlin tell their story, discuss their challenges and work to temper investors' expectations.

Ted discusses the benefits of using Alternative Assets in IRA acct's - Millenium Trust custodies these typically illiquid assets, a service that the larger custodians often do not offer for the assets desired.  Examples of such investments are stock in private companies, trust deeds, commercial real estate, private credit, etc.  Any investor with funds in IRA's of any type will find this to be enlightening and interesting.  

Sanford, founder and CEO, discusses their value added strategy in real estate investing, primarily in Orange County.  With a narrow niche focus of 5-50 unit multi-family apartment buildings.  Buying units priced below market, upgrading, raising rents, managing for some months then selling is their Modus Operandi.  Anyone interested in real estate investing will find Sanford's insights and comments to be very interesting.  

BP Capital is the public arm of the investment strategies of Boon Pickens , with a focus on oil, natural gas, et al.  Toby, Managing Principal and Portfolio Manager for BP Capital, tells their story ( with a very pleasant southern drawl) discussing their unique approach to energy investing. With the energy sector playing such an important role in the U.S. economy and the investment community, and the opportunity to hear how Boon does things, you won't want to miss this. 

Tony is co-founder and president of Brandometry, which invests via the Brand Value Index, looking to benefit from investing in companies who have built/managed companies with strong brand recognition, which is now considered to be intangible assets.  Large Cap U.S. Equities are the components of the index, and includes about 50 companies, with a strategy that is long only, no leverage, and equal weight among the components.  This is a unique strategy that many investors who focus on mutual funds and ETF's will find to be very interesting.

Graham tells about Innovator ETF's unique Defined Outcome ETF's, designed to protect the assets from downside exposure while seeking to capture a significant portion of any upside.  This "Buffer" strategy follows the strategy used in Structured Notes and Equity Index Annuities, but with some significant differences.  Any investor concerned about losing principal value following a 10 year Bull Market should find this interview to be very interesting.

Listen to Dr. Paul Glance, a PhD in Engineering, following a career in automotive engineering, found a second career in creating investment strategies. For a couple of decades he provided Long & Short market timing signals for mutual funds and now he offers his portfolios and timing signals directly to advisors and investors. With performance of his trades confirmed and verified thru TimerTrac.com., he offers four different strategies, all using ETF's. For a deep dive into some very interesting strategies using Quantitative Analysis, Buckingham Pi Theorem and other complex signals, listen to this interview.

Dr. Anderson, with a Ph.D in Finance, and President of Griffin Capital Asset Management,  is focused on real estate investing, has a combination of real estate industry and academic experience, using research driven strategies, applying modeling, quantitative testing, and back testing in developing projects and investment vehicles, typically using REIT structures.  In addition, they invest in real estate securities, looking always to diversify investors' portfolios in the real estate area.  Listening to Randy is always a treat,  educational and enlightening. To learn about real estate investing, listen to Randy.

Listen to Dave, a Louisiana boy, discuss how he educates and coaches how to trade stocks and ETF's, with lots of personality and fun.  Having worked as a trader for Hedge Funds for years, given speeches and presentations t/o the world, he is able to lead his students to follow charting patterns and analysis.  A trend following/momentum, discretionary trader, he trades primarily stocks, with some ETF's, and known for his "Bow Tie" pattern.  Listen to Dave discuss market trading in a very interesting way.

Peter's been in the precious metals industry forever, and discusses the opportunities and challenges of this industry.  Gold has been in demand as an investment for thousands of years and many advisors have touted its productivity and place in investment portfolios for the typical investor for decades.  Peter knows the industry, the players and the products of precious metals and offers us his insights into this very important segment of the investment world.  

Jan, founder, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer, tells the story of Arixa, who makes real estate secured bridge loans to home and commercial renovators.  With over 800 transactions totaling over $700 million, Arixa focuses on coastal California's major urban markets, with loans of less than two year duration and a margin of safety of about 40%.  He also discusses the new "Opportunity Zones" program recently established by the U.S. Congress.  Anyone interested in credit/fixed income investing should find this interview to be of significant interest.   

Listen to the review and prognosis of Charley, together w/Sam McDermott, for the very rough 2018 and moving forward into 2019.  The Podcast is audio only - We'd be happy to send you the visual charts - Just let us know @ [email protected].  Hope you enjoy it.

Bernard, co-founder and Chief Investment Officer, discusses their unique strategy to mitigate risk while seeking to benefit from capital growth. Focusing on mitigating the downside risk, the 90/10 strategy applies 90% of the portfolio very safe, short maturity fixed income for maximum safety and applies 10% to higher risk positions.  Hence, only 10% is at risk, using Call Options to maximize potential return.  This is a very interesting approach to investing that is quite unique in the marketplace that most investors will find to be very interesting.

Listen to Troy, who analyzes the expected future movement of the U.S. Stock Market.  Using Fundamental and Technical Analysis plus leveraged ETF's, Troy seeks to exceed returns of a "Buy and Hold" approach to investing by identifying when to use leveraged ETF's and when to exit to Cash.  He divides the market into Long Term, Intermediate Term and Short term, and recommends accordingly.  In addition, he quantifies the historical price changes during various time periods following breakouts and breakdowns of various sectors, etc.  The results are very specific and can be very helpful and often defy conventional thinking.  A very interesting conversation re: a subject of interest of most every investor.

Listen to John, Portfolio Manager of the Tactical Credit Fund, discuss this unique fund strategy, starting with the whirlwind days of the credit crisis of 2008.  Using four    of the credit markets - Using four asset buckets - 

Joe founded and is the CEO of Synergy, services other RIA firms by providing 18  investment strategies, a Hedge Fund, marketing and practice management.  Joe discusses their "Sailboat" strategy, a rules based tactical allocation/Sector Rotation model, using about a dozen signals, and its role in their array of strategies. For Advisors, he also discusses the "E-Myth" principle of working on a business as opposed to working in a business.  

Listen to Joe, Director of Education & Business Development @ the OIC, w/over 24 years in the Options industry as a market maker, w/Options Express, Schwab, et al,  educating institutions on risk mitigation and enhanced performance using Options.  Since 1992 the OIC has provided increased awareness, education and promotion of exchange listed Options for investors, Advisors and institutions. Joe discusses strategy diversification thru Options vs. product diversification. Retail investors, Investment Advisors and institutions are using Options at a rapid rate of increase year over year.  Using Options, one can: 1) Decrease Risk w/o increasing capital; 2) Leverage assets, define and balance the risk; 3) Apply tools to solve problems that could not be solved in other ways.  This is a very interesting conversation that investors/Advisors should find to be well worth the listen.

Listen to Bob, CEO of Equinox Funds, a family of Mutual Funds using Commodity Trading Advisors and their strategies, expanding into equity strategies.  Their initial fund, the Frontier Fund, was the original Managed Futures category offered thru the format of a liquid, low minimum Mutual Fund, and later launching the first portfolio of multi-strategy CTA's in a Mutual Fund.  We discuss the opportunity to  diversify into Commodities, and their approach to invest into them without having to liquidate fixed income and equities. We also discuss their unique fee arrangement for their Ampersand Fund.  Anyone looking for diversification and possible enhanced returns thru Commodities should find this interview to be very interesting.

Arthur Lipper, entrepreuner, author, lecturer at many universities, investor, consultant, discusses a new way to provide working capital to private, early stage businesses, called Revenue Royalties.  He discusses his e-book - "Revenue Royalties" - www.RexRevenueRoyalties.com., which is an alternative for these businesses to raise working capital thru Royalties based on Revenues, as opposed to selling an equity portion of the busines.  A fascinating idea of Arthur's that is a unique way to provide this needed resource and funding opportunity.  Certainly cutting edge, we are sure our listeners will find it to be very interesting and thought provoking.

Griffin, a math and quantitative economics major in college, worked immediately for a quantitative Hedge Fund,  and has now moved into the Cryptocurrency space, co-founding the hedge fund Scow Capital.  Combining a computer science background with an investment background, they focus on the Blockchain technology, and the disruption it can, and is expected to bring into various sectors of the economy.  Listen to hear how they are approaching this volatile, challenging marketplace, which is fully expected to be an integral part of the future of industry and finance.

With a couple of decades experience behind him in trading and investment management, Brian discusses trading in today's markets.  As the author of the book, "Technical Analysis Thru Multiple Time Frames," Brian looks at the importance of several pricnicples in trading:  1-"Risk/Reward or Perceived Edge;"  2 - The importance of Magnitude over Frequency of profitable trading;  3- The importance of Support & Resistance and the time frames he uses;  4 - The price ranges of stocks that he likes to trade, and why;  5 - How to deal with Earnings Report periods as a trader;This is a very interesting conversation that anyone interested in trading would find to be interesting and insightful.You can catch Brian on Youtube, under the  title of "Thermal1" - Hope you enjoy it.

As a researcher, Brett evaluates investment opportunities to invest for a steady income stream.  His published "The Contrarian Income Report" and "Hidden Yields" reports identify Closed End Funds, REIT's, and other investments that offer outsized yields.  Cherry picking opportunities among stocks in these and similar areas, Brett offers yields that are not often seen today.  Looking to generate income thru yields while seeking to increase the equity value as well, he discusses their methods of identifying those stocks who are likely to have an increasing stock price in addition to the outsized dividends.  Anyone interested in cash flow investing should listen to this interview.

As part of the Arbor family of companies, including the 30 year old publicly traded mortgage REIT, Arbor Realty Trust (ABR), ArborCrowd offers real estate investing opportunites to Accrdited Investors online. Adam is Co-Founder and Managing Director of ArborCrowd, and they are able to leverage their connections and experience in the mortgage real estate industry to offer investment opportunities to investors.  In a unique position to build upon the relationships, network and opportunities that they find thru their mortgage business, they seek to select among the best opportunities in these real estate investing projects and offer them to investors thru ArborCrowd.  Due to the Jobs Act of 2012, this opportunity is now available.  Focusing on secondary and tertiary markets, they seek to offer value add work force/multi-family properties to investors.  For the fixed income portion of one's portfolio, listeners will find this interview to be most interesting.

Listen to Edward, responsible for investor relations, discuss their unique strategy to create profits for investors thru short term bridge loans on real estate.  For Accredited Investors, they receive referrals from banks on cases where the banks cannot lend, they make loans on properties (often owner occupied), secured by the real estate thru a first trust deed, with a typical shorter term duration of 1-3 years.  Compared to the risk/reward ratio of traditional fixed income investments, most investors needing income investments should be very interested in this conversation.

Dr. Ball, with a PhD in Economics from MIT and the current Dept. of Economics Chair @ Johns Hopkins University,  wrote his book to address the Lehman Brothers failure, which was the pivotal event in triggering the financial crisis of 2008.  Addressing a continuing controversy of whether Lehman should have been rescued or allowed to fail, he spent four years researching a plethora of public records to determine if the legal and political climates would/should have allowed for the rescue of Lehman. His insights are very interesting re: this critical and pivotal event, the genesis of a market development that contributed to a major financial crisis.  We thoroughly enjoyed doing the interview and are confident that our listeners will find it to be enlightening, balanced, and insightful on this historic and impactful event.

Welcome back Dave - Dave was the very first guest that we had on Strategic Investor Radio, back in October, 2014.  His patience with us in those early days was greatly appreciated and we are always glad to be the beneficiaries of his insights into the world of investing.  He has an MBA from U. of Chicago and is the Portfolio Manager for Cedar Capital, specializing in portfolio construction, typically within a quantitative framework and the ways in which Alternative Investments work within a portfolio.  Using a recently created index by Thomson Reuters, focused on Venture Capital and Private Equity investments, with about 6000 Private Equity firms and 28,000 Venture Capital firms, this index offers diversification into these markets typically not available to the private investor. Any investor will find this conversation to be not only interesting but focused on a subject that is very helpful and important to them.

As President and Chief Investment Officer.  Using their proprietary investment strategy they call ROTAROME. Focused on investing vs. speculating, he much prefers investing over speculating. He is fcused on the business, vs. the stock price, which he considers to be investing, as opposed to speculation, which would be a focus on the stock price.   He uses the ROTAROME method of stock analysis as a metric to determine which businesses to focus on and purchase.  ROTA measures the business itself and ROME seeks to evaluate and measure the relative "Cheap or Expensive" current price of the stock. They seek a high number in each over a period of time.  This is a very interesting method of analysis and interview.  We hope you enjoy it.