CFA Society Pittsburgh Newsletter #25

What a pleasure it was to see so many of you at our quarterly social networking event on March 22nd at Olive or Twist! For those of you who haven't attended such events in the past, it's a wonderful opportunity to get to know colleagues in the profession on a more casual basis. Our next quarterly event will take place immediately after the CFA exam. More details to follow!

Congratulations to Penn State Behrend who will represent our society at the Americas Research Challenge competition in Seattle this week (April 6-8). Penn State Behrend was the winner of our society competition for the second year in a row and will present their valuation of F.N.B. for the judges out there. Fifty schools from North, Central, and South America will be competing for two slots in the global competition (four overall finalists) in Prague in late April. The Behrend team will present their valuation during the April 12th luncheon prior to the featured speaker. Good luck Penn State Behrend! A big thanks to Josh Armstrong and all the volunteers who make this event a success!

On May 17th for our annual Endowments and Foundations Conference! The 2016 conference brought together over 150 individuals for our largest event ever. Register now for the event!

- Dr. Greg Filbeck, CFA, FRM, CAIA, CIPM, PRM

President, CFA Society Pittsburgh

Upcoming Events

A Quantitative, Technical, and Behavioral View of the Markets

Please join us on

Wednesday, April 12, 2017 as we welcome John Kosar, CMT a 30 year veteran of the global financial markets .

John spent the first half of his career on the

trading floor of the Chicago futures exchanges, where he had the opportunity to learn

how the US financial markets work from the inside out. This experience, early in his career, became the foundation for his unique analysis, understanding of inter-market relationships, and global perspective. John incorporates a diverse and comprehensive

blend of technical and quantitative metrics that tend to be more intuitive and forward-looking than the typical Wall Street approach.

John is frequently quoted in the financial press in both the US and abroad including The Wall Street Journal,

MarketWatch.com, Barron's, Yahoo! Finance, CNBC.com, and Reuters. He can regularly be seen on U.S. financial television including CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg, and is a frequent speaker at financial seminars and events across the country presented by organizations including the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Society, the National Association of Active Investment Managers (NAAIM), the Market Technicians Association (MTA), and the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII).

John has been consistently recognized as a top U.S. financial market analyst throughout his career and was

awarded the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designation in 1999. John served as Vice President of the

Market Technicians Association (MTA) from 2004 to 2006 and was a member of its Board of Directors from

2002-2006. During his career he has been an analyst and trader for Asbury Research, Shearson American

Express, NatWest Markets, Greenwich Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank, and Bianco Research.

To register to attend the event please Click Here .

Also, prior to John's presentation there will be a quick presentation on FNB Bank by this years winning

Investment Research Challenge team, Penn State Behrend .

Left to right - Andrew Buzzelli, Austin Montevecchio, Ariana Gloeckner, Jason Pettner, Richard Kelly, and Greg Filbeck.

CFA Society Pittsburgh Advertising Efforts

Some of you may have seen the CFA Institute's recent ad campaign to raise brand awareness for the CFA Institute and its programs in national print media publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Pensions & Investments.

The Institute has also awarded local societies some project funding to pursue local brand awareness marketing in our own region. We've chosen to approach this endeavor targeting three primary audiences: high net worth investors, business and investment professionals, and targeted audiences of the general public.

Our first foray on this initiative was placement of a ½ page ad in the winter issue of the Pittsburgh Quarterly, a magazine oriented towards wealthier individuals. This issue also coincidentally contained ads for eleven Pittsburgh area firms which employ at least one CFA charter holder.

Our next effort will be a print ad in the June 2nd issue of the Pittsburgh Business Times which includes their yearly list of Regional Money Managers. We will have the strip ad on the actual list page as well as our logo posted on a line in the middle of the list.

For our outreach to the public, we're going digital and will be displaying a variety of "Sponsored Content" ads on LinkedIn directing interested parties to CFA Institute and local society web content. We'd love to hear from you if you see any of this content which is anticipated to be displayed throughout the month of June. We think this increased awareness is a great way to help us celebrate our 70th anniversary of CFA Society Pittsburgh.

CFA Society & Boy Scouts

The CFA Society of Pittsburgh will sponsor Boy Scout Personal Management Merit Badge on Saturday, May 6th.

Location: Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, Washington, PA.

Please contact the museum for more information, and to register. Space is limited.

Educator@pa-trolley.org 724-228-9256.

Currency Valuation & Purchasing Power Parity

Please make plans to join us on Wednesday, May 10th to listen to a very informative presentation on the global currency markets by Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman.

Marc joined Brown Brothers Harriman in October 2005 as the Global Head of Currency Strategy. Previously he was the Chief Currency Strategist for HSBC Bank USA and Mellon Bank. A prolific writer and speaker, Chandler's essays have been published in the Financial Times, Barron's, Euromoney, Corporate Finance, and Foreign Affairs.

Marc holds a Masters in American history from Northern Illinois University and a Masters in International Political Economy from the University of Pittsburgh. He has taught classes on International Political Economy at New York University since the early 1990s. In 2009, his first book, "Making Sense of the Dollar," was published by Bloomberg Press. Chandler's second book, "Political Economy of Tomorrow," was published in 2017. It traces the history of modern capitalism, arguing that some of the system's major challenges arise from how successful it has been.

5th Annual Endowments & Foundations Conference

We invite you to join the Chartered Financial Analyst Society of Pittsburgh and your peers from across the region for an informative and thought provoking day, May 17, 2017. We will bring together leading endowments, foundations, investment consultants, money managers, and subject matter experts for an in-depth discussion of the financial markets and their impact on endowment and foundation management.

This year's conference will again include a high caliber mix of national and regional speakers from investment organizations and the endowments & foundations community. Our CIO Roundtable will return by popular demand with a new cast of CIOs. A keynote lunch session with James E. Rohr, Retired Executive Chairman of the PNC Financial Services Group, will explore financial industry trends, as well as endowment and foundation community involvement - both hallmarks of his career.

Session topics will include:

Change Management - An Overview of What's Ahead for Investors
Defining Investment Success for Endowments and Foundations
Asset Allocation for Smaller Endowments and Foundations
The Changing Landscape of Hedge Funds
The Evolution of Alternatives Investing
Being a Long Term Investor
The Outsourced CIO Model

For a full agenda and reservation information please Click Here .

Highlights from Recent Events

Networking Social at Olive or Twist

On Wednesday March 22, we had another successful and fun networking social at Olive or Twist downtown. Please make a point of joining us at one of our future events.

Demographics, Healthcare & Sustainability

Unfortunately Michael Falk's flight was seriously delayed due to mechanical problems, and he wasn't able to join us on Wednesday, March 8, 2017 for a special look at Demographics, Healthcare & Sustainability. Instead we passed out his book , Let's All Learn How to Fish... to Sustain Long-Term Economic Growth , and had a relaxing social lunch.

Hopefully we will be able to reschedule Michael later this year.

Financial Literacy - The Missing Semester

On Thursday March 2nd the CFA Society Pittsburgh partnered in our 2nd annual Act 48 (continuing education) program for high school educators. Close to 60 high schools participated in this year's program, the stated goal of which was to empower and prepare Pennsylvania' High School students for the money choices they all will make. Thank you to Dave Immonen, Reed Natali and Jason Pettner, all members of the Society's financial literacy committee and each of whom gave a terrific presentation at the conference.

This program also helps to further introduce our High School speaking efforts, through which committee members visit and meet with local High School students. The team has presented at 16 High Schools thus far this school year with April and May expected to be our busiest months.

Collegiate Efforts: Stay tuned, the deadline for entries for the Society's 3rd annual collegiate financial plan competition is Monday March 20th. Twenty schools are participating in this year's competition and the review committee is excited to begin reading the student entries.

One of our new Collegiate initiatives is teaching 2-day financial plan seminars on local campus's, during which, participating students create a personal financial plan. This program is being piloted at the University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, LaRoche College and Penn State Behrend College. Thank you to Dr. Manohar Sukhwani for his meaningful efforts in helping to shape the program and also to Dave Immonen, Shane Nickolich and the student team at Penn State Behrend College for their volunteer efforts.

Annual Partner Sponsors

CFA Society Pittsburgh would like to thank its partnership sponsors for their support of the Society.

GOLD

Silver

Stock Pickers Contest

Update - 2/08/17 - 3/31/17

Contestant	Avg.	STK 1	STK 2	STK 3
S&P 500	3.17%
Malcolm Polley	4.05%	MYGN 16.10%	FII 2.87%	TGI -6.83%
Kim Caughey	1.14%	VZ 1.12%	URBN -9.08%	VFC 11.37%
Mike Halloran	2.71%	SLB -4.18%	JPM 2.40%	JNJ 9.92%
Shawna Aufman	-1.40%	FFIV 2.48%	PYPL 5.63%	SYNA -12.30%
Mark Rodgers	8.02%	WSM 14.16%	ALCO 0.57%	PKI 9.34%