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Directors:
President -
Greg Filbeck, CFA,FRM,CAIA,CIPM,PRM
Vice President-
George Emanuele, CFA
Treasurer -
Joe Lantz, CFA,CAIA
Research Challenge-
Josh Armstrong, CFA
Secretary-
Jim Herrington,CFA, CAIA
Programs & Media Relations-
Chris Wiles, CFA
Membership Outreach -
Cale Grove, CFA
Financial Literacy/University Outreach -
Gene Natali, CFA
Executive Administrator -
Caryn Loehr
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Presidents Message:
2017 is off to a great start! Last week, the CFA Society Pittsburgh held its Market Outlook Conference - a highlight each year. We are very appreciative of our five corporate sponsors and the leadership of Chris Wiles who lined up and moderated the panel. In this newsletter, Chris provides highlights of the event.
In addition to the great monthly programming, our university and high school outreach will be in the spotlight this quarter. The CFA Research Challenge takes place March 1st and our annual financial plan competition will wrap up in late March. This year, the financial plan competition extends well beyond Western Pennsylvania as we have opened it up to other societies in the region and beyond! We also will have another networking/social event on March 22nd!
We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming event!
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate at contact me at [email protected].
- Dr. Greg Filbeck, CFA, FRM, CAIA, CIPM, PRM
President, CFA Society Pittsburgh
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Annual Stock Pickers Luncheon
Please join us on
Wednesday, February 8, 2017 for our annual Stock Pickers luncheon.
This is a fun event where we recognize last years winners, and hear the top three selections from each of this year's contestants.
The contest started last year on February 17, and the S&P 500 returned 16.19% from then to year-end. Last years winner was Malcolm Polley of Stewart Capital Advisors with an average total return of 66.90%.
We actually had four of the five contestants outperform the S&P 500, and if you purchased all 15 recommendations you would have made
32.73%. An excellent year for our stock pickers.
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Demographics, Healthcare & Sustainability
Please join us on
Wednesday, March 8, 2017 for a special look at Demographics, Healthcare & Sustainability with
Michael Falk, CFA and Partner of the Focus Consulting Group.
Today's economic growth challenges will become greater in the future because of the world's aging population, fertility trends, and current entitlement policies. Those challenges could be overcome, however, with thoughtful public policies and a culture that fosters responsibility and appreciation. Michael Falk's CFA Institute Research Foundation Book, Let's All Learn How to Fish...
to Sustain Long-Term Economic Growth
, reconsiders what makes us "healthy, wealthy, and wise." It focuses on how we might reimagine health care, retirement, and education policies to usher in a new ERA (... from Entitlement to Responsibility with Appreciation) of sustainable long-term economic growth.
The Focus Consulting Group helps
investment leaders leverage their talent. Mr. Falk specializes with helping investment teams improve their processes and execution techniques as well as helping firms with their strategic planning. In his past, Michael was a Chief Strategist at Mauka Capital, LLC, a global macro hedge fund, as well as a CIO in charge of manager due diligence and asset allocation for a multi-billion-dollar advisory practice. His background includes extensive asset allocation research, portfolio development expertise and deep working understanding of both behavioral finance and retirement issues.
Michael is also part of the CFA Institute's Approved Speaker List, and teaches on behalf of the CFA Society of Chicago in their Claritas program. In the past, he was a contributing member in the Financial Management Association's (FMA) practitioner demand driven academic research initiative (PDDARI) group, as well as taught at DePaul University as adjunct faculty in their Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Certificate Program. He is frequently quoted in the financial press. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Retirement Counselor (CRC) designations
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Highlights from Recent Events
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Market Outlook Dinner
On
Wednesday, January 11, 2017 we held
our annual Market Outlook dinner at The River's Club.
As usual we had a great audience with about 175 attendees! We also were fortunate enough to have five sponsors this year:
American Century Investments
FactSet
Fidelity Investments
PNC Wealth Management
T.Rowe Price
Every year investors are faced with a myriad of risks and opportunities, but for some reason 2017 seems a bit more uncertain than others. Fortunately we had a great panel to field our questions and offer their insights.
Our Panelists:
Ed Clissold, CFA - Ned Davis Research Group
Ed Clissold is the Chief U.S. Strategist for Ned Davis Research Group.
Ron Muhlenkamp, CFA - Muhlenkamp & Co
Ron is the founder and president of Muhlenkamp & Company, Inc.
Bill Stone, CFA - PNC Asset Management Group
Bill Stone is executive vice president and chief investment strategist for PNC Asset Management Group.
Richard Weiss - American Century Investors
Richard Weiss is senior vice president and senior portfolio manager for American Century Investments.
Our Moderator
Chris Wiles, CFA - Rockhaven Capital Mgmt.
Chris Wiles is the founder and chief investment officer of Rockhaven.
The first question of the night was whether or not the panelists agreed with the consensus view that the S&P 500 would appreciate this year by 5.5%. Both Ed and Bill thought the S&P would hit 2,400 for a 7% gain, while both Rich and Ron thought the 5.5% gain was fair.
All panelists felt that interest rates were headed higher as inflation begins to accelerate.
Ed prefers mid-cap stocks for 2017. He doesn't feel they've run as much as small-cap and that they will benefit the most from lower tax rates.
Ron believes that computer hardware companies will benefit from increases in capital spending. He also likes Federated Investors as his single best idea.
Bill thinks that overseas markets will outperform the U.S., especially Japan. He also prefers dividend growers over dividend yielders.
Rich feels that the best bet for 2017 would be to buy Volatility, especially VIX Futures.
Overall I'd say that our panelists were rather hopeful that the new administration would be much more business friendly, but that a lot of this is currently reflected in valuations. Some upside possible, but limited.
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Real Asset Investing:
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
On
Wednesday, December 14th
, we welcomed Pittsburgh native,
Michael Underhill,
of Capital Innovations back to the 'burgh to share his observations on the markets.
Michael is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Capital Innovations investment process and is focused on the strategic direction of the firm.
Michael expressed his views that the level of Economic uncertainty is at record highs, and the outlook for inflation and higher interest rates is certainly up.
He also believes that although President-elect Trump and President Reagan may have some policy similarities, Mr. Trump is inheriting a vastly different economy and markets. Namely both debt levels and market valuations are at record levels.
He believes that portfolios should be structured fairly defensively with a diversified mix of assets that do relatively well in an inflationary environment, such as; TIP's, Commodity Stocks, REIT's, and Precious Metals.
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| Annual Partner Sponsors
CFA Society Pittsburgh would like to thank its partnership sponsors for their support of the Society.
GOLD 
Silver  |
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Stock Pickers Contest
Update -
2/17/16 - 12/31/16
| Contestant |
Avg. |
STK 1 |
STK 2 |
STK 3 |
| S&P 500 |
16.19% |
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Malcolm
Polley
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66.90% |
NSR
47.85% |
LOCK
131.78% |
WEB
21.06% |
Kim
Caughey |
43.42% |
PNC
39.14% |
NTCT
54.87% |
RPM
36.24% |
Mike
Halloran |
16.69% |
C
49.40% |
GILD
-19.86% |
KMI
20.55% |
Chris
Teachout |
37.30% |
KMPH
-81.20% |
SLCA
219.68% |
CMG
-26.59% |
Bob
McGee |
-0.65% |
CNC
-1.93% |
EPAM
7.00% |
CEA
-7.03% |
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