Picking Top Stocks

This week's edition of WealthTrack is on a topic we can all use -- Picking Top Stocks, especially in an environment where a pitifully small percentage of actively managed funds manage to do better than simple index funds. Consuelo Mack interviews the author of the book "The Little Book of Picking Top Stocks ... How to Spot Hidden Gems."  Enjoy.  And enjoy the weekend.  

March 14, 2024 Dear WEALTHTRACK Subscriber,  Stock picking is not easy.  As we have reported numerous times on WEALTHTRACK, it's become more difficult over the years because there is so much more competition. Hundreds of millions of dollars are devoted annually to quantitative and fundamental research by humans and computers.  With few exceptions, active stock managers have underperformed passive index funds for years. According to Morningstar, only sixteen percent of U.S. large value funds and five percent of large growth funds beat their passive index fund equivalents over the past two decades. The figures were twelve and ten percent respectively for ten years and although better, less than a third outperformed over the last five years.     So imagine my surprise when I received a book about identifying top-performing stocks written by an award-winning bond analyst, whom I have known and respected for years. The book is The Little Book of Picking Top Stocks: How to Spot Hidden Gems. The author is Martin Fridson.   Fridson is the Chief Investment Officer of Lehmann Livian Fridson Advisors, an investment management firm specializing in income investing that he co-founded in 2013. He is the publisher of the “Forbes/Fridson Income Securities Investor” newsletter and author of Financial Statement Analysis: A Practitioner’s Guide.  Fridson made his reputation in the bond world. He’s been called the “Dean of the High-Yield Bond Market.”  In 2000 he was then the youngest person ever inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Society Hall of Fame.  In this weekend’s episode, Fridson explains his tested strategy for identifying top-performing stocks for the year ahead.  And in our online EXTRA interview, he reveals his passion for music and how it has helped his career on Wall Street. In addition to public television, the show can also be seen on our website over the weekend. The WEALTHTRACK podcast is available on SoundCloud as well as iTunes and Spotify Have a lovely weekend, and make the week ahead a healthy, profitable and productive one! Best regards, Consuelo Facebook WEALTHTRACK Site YouTube Channel As always, if you miss this week’s program, it will be available on our website. For those of you active on Facebook: You can connect with us on our Consuelo Mack  WEALTHTRACK  page.