In this episode of The Money Game, Phil and I talk about the Availability Heuristic and why we are more likely to invest in certain types of companies depending on where we live. This is a really interesting phenomenon that makes a lot of sense. I'm lucky that I get to avoid this bias more than others simply because of the process I use to perform my analysis. It's a solution to a problem I didn't even know I had! This is a short one that I think is worth a listen just to learn a little bit more about yourself.
I was lucky to spend a few weeks in Europe earlier this month meeting with customers, colleagues and old friends. For me it's easy to get up in front of a crowd and talk about the charts that I've been staring at every day for over a decade. I can practically draw them for you at this point. Where I really win is in meeting with investors and traders from completely different cultures both before and after my events. I just got back from a trip to Athens, London, Paris, Amsterdam and Dublin. Between meetings, interviews and presentations, I was able to learn a lot from other investors and gain new perspective on things. That's the point of all this. If we're not going out of our way to learn, then what are we doing?
In this conversation, I sit down with our very own Sean McLaughlin to talk about some of my experiences on the road.
Earlier this month I was invited to come speak at the Hellenic chapter of the CMT Association in Athens, Greece. We had a much bigger crowd that I expected. I've had the opportunity to speak at many of the chapters around the world, including all over Asia, North America and Europe. I felt this was one of the better Q&A Sessions we've had. We were able to get the audio so I wanted to share that with you today. Some of the audience questions were not as clear as we would like, so bear with us. Hope you enjoy!
Paul Ciana and I go way back to 2006 when him and I were studying for the CMT exams together. Today, Paul is the Chief FICC Technical Strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research. In English, that means everything outside of equities. It's nice to see your friends succeed and watching him crush it is definitely one for the good guys.
Back in March I climbed up the Highlands Bowl in Aspen for the first time. 4 or 5 turns in my skis popped off and I tumbled down the entire mountain. About 100 yards later, there I was hanging off the side of the cliff waiting for ski patrol to come help me. Miraculously, it took them less than 20 minutes to find us and bring my skis down to where I was. Even though I was perfectly fine, my body overreacted to the existential risks and the primitive parts of my brain took over the duties of what other parts usually handle. I've had similar feelings before after experiencing a bad loss in the market. Phil does an amazing job in this one in explaining the differences and similarities between these two types of risk and why my body reacted the way it did.
This week on the podcast we have the pleasure of chatting with Craig Johnson, Chief Market Technician at Piper Jaffray. I've known Craig for a long time and love the work that he puts out. During the day he speaks to buy side clients all over the world. As a past president of the CMT Association, he has surrounded himself with some of the best minds in the history of technical analysis. His perspective based on who he speaks to and his experiences throughout his career make me want to listen when he has something to say. In this conversation we discuss the rest of the year for U.S. stocks and sectors. There's a part in this episode that focuses on breadth and what we're both looking for moving forward. Inflation, or lack thereof, is something he's watching, so we talk about Gold, Oil and other inflationary factors that could impact stocks and bonds. We covered a lot. I really enjoyed this one!
This week we have a special guest on the podcast: Eddy Elfenbein of Crossing Wall Street and PM for the $CWS Exchange Traded Fund. This is a show about Technical Analysis so I think it's important to also include some of the masters of Fundamental Analysis to tell us how they find charts and technicals helpful in their process. Eddy is one of the original Financial Bloggers and I have a ton of respect for him and his work. He is a pioneer in both social media and portfolio management. I love how he explains his appreciation for Intermarket Analysis and Relative Strength as useful tools throughout his process. As many of you know, these two are near and dear to my heart so it's cool to see the Fundamental community embracing them in similar ways. This was a fun conversation!
