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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-
Lisa Brignoni, CFA
Membership Outreach -
Cale Grove, CFA
Financial Literacy/University Outreach -
Gene Natali, CFA
Executive Administrator -
Caryn Loehr
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Welcome to the
27th edition of our newsletter! With this newsletter, we would like to officially extend congratulations to
Lisa Brignoni, who will assume a position on the board vacated by the resignation of
Chris Wiles. Welcome aboard Lisa - and thank you Chris for your three years of service to the board, for all the great programs you brought our way, and for initiating and continuing this newsletter!
With the June luncheon, we have officially wrapped up the 2016-2017 fiscal year. The Board will be launching the 2017-2018 year on July 24th with a four-hour retreat. At that retreat, we will review our past year, update our strategic plan, and plan for the upcoming year. As such, we welcome any feedback you might have about this past year - and ideas you might have as we plan ahead!
Please feel free to contact me at
mgf11@psu.edu with your thoughts!
- Dr. Greg Filbeck, CFA, FRM, CAIA, CIPM, PRM
President, CFA Society Pittsburgh
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Summer Recess
On behalf of the board, we hope you have an awesome summer, we look forward to seeing you all again this fall.
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Highlights from Recent Events
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Dear Chairman: The Rise of Shareholder Activism
On
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
we welcomed
Jeff Gramm
to Pittsburgh to talk about shareholder activism.
Jeff Gramm manages Bandera Partners Hedge Fund, and teaches value investing at Columbia Business School.
Jeff reviewed his recently published book,
Dear Chairman: Boardroom Battles and the Rise of Shareholder Activism
and answered many questions from our members.
On the rise of passive indexing and the role it plays in boardroom battles, Jeff says it matters what firms are doing the voting. Some of the biggest index shops take a very active and thoughtful role in voting their proxies, while some of the smaller ones may not.
In response to another question he said that social networks are changing the nature of public opinion and are clearly impacting the C-Suite as well as shareholder awareness.
He doesn't believe its a good thing for markets if companies can issue shares without voting rights, but they'll continue to do so as long as the regulators and markets allow them.
Jeff's book is available at Amazon, and it might make for a good beach read.
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5th Annual Endowments & Foundations Conference
On May 17th, 2017, we held our 5th Annual Endowments & Foundations Conference with an audience of record size. Leaders from regional Endowments and Foundations, investment consultants, money managers, and subject experts participated in a full-day, interactive, educational, conference, covering critical investment and governance issues.
Keynote speaker Jim Rohr and Jim Herrington
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Currency Valuation & Purchasing Power Parity
On Wednesday, May 10th we listened to a lively 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 said that ever since Bretton Woods currency has been used as a weapon, and that there is a very strong linkage between currency and productivity. He believes that the dollar is currently too strong on a purchasing power parity basis, and that the Euro is 25% undervalued, the Yen 20% undervalued, and the Sterling 15% undervalued. That said he is still a dollar bull, and expects the Euro to fall another 15-20% versus the dollar. Regarding Bitcoin and other Crypto-currencies Marc won't consider them money until you can pay your taxes with them.
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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 -
2/08/17 - 6/14/17
| Contestant |
Avg. |
STK 1 |
STK 2 |
STK 3 |
| S&P 500 |
6.24% |
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Malcolm
Polley
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22.18% |
MYGN
39.53% |
FII
8.20% |
TGI
18.81% |
Kim
Caughey |
-6.64% |
VZ
-3.47% |
URBN
-31.58% |
VFC
15.14% |
Mike
Halloran |
0.82% |
SLB
-15.96% |
JPM
1.33% |
JNJ
17.08% |
Shawna
Aufman |
4.34% |
FFIV
-6.52% |
PYPL
26.93% |
SYNA
-7.39% |
Mark
Rodgers |
15.65% |
WSM
5.39% |
ALCO
21.25% |
PKI
20.32% |
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