Minutes
Monthly Meeting, September 17, 2011
President Bob Welge brought the meeting to order shortly after 9 am.
Beginning with preliminary announcements, Bob drew members’ attention to the
availability of Chapter contact information and minutes for the August meeting
on the side table, and of coffee at the back table. Bob reviewed the chapter's
mission statement and acknowledged the efforts of the Chapter’s leaders:
Facilities Chair Craig Stoddard, and Treasurer Dave McMillin.
Bob also asked for volunteers to fill the currently-vacant Hospitality Chair
position.
Bob next announced the
schedule of future chapter meetings. October and December will be byes. On
November 5th, Herb Farrington will present Federal and State Income Tax Law Update. In January, Jonathan Lansner will tentatively present on January 21st.
Further details on these future events, minutes of previous meetings, and other
Orange County Chapter information can be viewed on Bob’s website http://www.robertsgeneral.com.
Bob then introduced today’s
speaker, Mathew McCall and his presentation Building
a Portfolio for the Next Five Years. Mathew is President of the Penn
Financial Group and Managing Editor of NicheETFInvestor.com. Mathew has a
top-down approach to investing, but he perceives there is a
disconnect between media headlines and the stock market.
He offered four reasons for
buying stocks now:
1. Good earnings, as
reflected in the current S&P 500's P/Es of 12.2 (for 2011) and 11.6 (for
2012), especially in comparison with the notably higher historical average P/E
of ~15.
2. If now isn't the time to
buy, when is?
3. Levels of short interest
are now the highest they've been in over 2 years
4. He favors taking a
contrarian view.
Matt favors investment in
emerging markets because of the following:
·
good
growth
·
while
they have greater political risk, it's not much greater than ours
·
their
growing middle class
·
they
enjoy advantages as producers of commodities
·
but
beware of the BRICs (
·
favor
Matt mentioned two additional
emerging market investment possibilities: (1) IShares
EEM, with its 46% investment in BRIC securities and 0.69% expense ratio, and (2) EG Shares Brazil
Infrastructure BRXX, which should benefit from the ~$1 trillion investment
needed for the World Cup Soccer Games in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016
(0.7% expense ratio).
Matt recommends that one have
diversified investments in commodities, in anticipation of future inflation or
hyperinflation. He favors gold as a momentum play as currencies decline in
value. He has a large holding of Yen (FXY) and mentioned DBB for obtaining
exposure to the base metals copper, aluminum and zinc, KOL for coal, FCG for
natural gas, and CUT for timber (70% of which is outside the US). Specifically to protect against inflation, he
mentioned SPDR Inflation Protected TIPS (US) and WIP (foreign --
As a play on increasing
demand for health care by baby boomers, Matt recommended (1) HCP, a REIT
holding healthcare-related properties and sporting a 5.4% dividend, (2) Allergan, and (3) NuSkin, NUS.
There are a number of small,
overlooked, niche ETFs that Matt feels are worthy of
consideration because they have very low correlation with US stocks, they add
diversification, and help remove single-company risks. Examples include the
aforementioned BRXX; CROP, the IQ global smallcap
agribusiness ETF with a 0.75% expense ratio; SKYY, an ETF focused on cloud
computing with a 0.6% expense ratio; and
Wisdom Tree's ALD, an ETF investing in Asian local debt, with a 0.55%
expense ratio.
For investors whose first
priority is capital preservation, Mr. McCall strongly counseled against buying
US Treasury bonds. Instead he recommends ETFs that
invest in corporate bonds (JNK, LQD), municipal bonds (HYD, MUB), or
international bonds (PCY, EMLC).
Matt emphasized the need,
once a stock has been purchased, to set stops, opining that for the typical
investor, "selling is the hardest thing to do."
Finally Matt listed 5 stocks
on his currently recommended watchlist:
·
Brookfield
Infrastructure Partners (BIP) is involved with ports in
·
Phillip
Morris International (PM) sells tobacco products outside the
·
IAC
Interactive (IACI) is an internet company that owns a number of websites, such
as Ask.com, Match.com and Evite.com, but with a PEG of only 0.5.
·
EG
Shares Emerging Markets High Income, Low Beta ETF (HILO) invests in
·
IPath
Grains ETN (JJG) invests in corn, soybeans and wheat, with an expense ratio of 0.75%
Investors with further questions
may want to visit Penn Financial's website
www.pennfinancialgroup.com, or Mathew's website www.MathewDMcCall.com, or call
877-383-7366.
Following the conclusion of
Mr. McCall’s presentation, President Bob Welge
adjourned the meeting at 11 am. As a bonus, interested members were invited to
continue discussion with Mr. McCall over lunch.
____________________
Recorded by Ed Sharman