I want to share the 40/40 goal which I need your help to achieve. Also, there are three videos in this email I want you to watch over the weekend, and I’m excited that the book tour will begin April 13 in Chicago!
Order Brian Nelson’s new book, Value Trap: Theory of Universal Valuation here.
By Brian Nelson
The 40/40 Goal
What is this said 40/40 Goal that I just dropped upon Valuentum members?Well, it is two things, and it is entirely up to our membership to achieve. The first part of the 40/40 goal is to generate 40 reviews on Amazon for our new book Value Trap: Theory of Universal Valuation. At the moment, we have 10 (which is awesome), so we’re already 25% of the way there! So, if you’ve read the book, I’d very much appreciate your reviewing it on Amazon, too. I think Amazon has some fancy algorithms where the number of book reviews counts, so I said to myself “I’ll just ask our members to make this happen for us.” What do you say?
Please review Value Trap here: https://www.amazon.com/Value-Trap-Theory-Universal-Valuation/dp/0998038490
Create review here: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review/
The other part of the 40/40 goal is so important. Our team will be releasing a survey in the coming months that will play a pivotal role in how we serve our institutional, financial advisor and individual members. Most tend to ignore surveys, but I really want you (need you) to participate in this one. Your answers, thoughts and comments will help us build a better future and provide direction to our strategic initiatives. After all, we exist only because of you, so please share your thoughts. So — how does the 40 come into play with this initiative? Well, most response rates to surveys are 5-10%, maybe less, but I think you can help us generate a 40% response rate. I know that you can — all you have to do is fill out the survey, and that’s that!
What do you say? Can you help us achieve the 40/40 Goal?
3 Videos to Watch This Weekend
#1
We have a team of analysts at Valuentum, putting to use all of the skills we’ve gained through the pain of the CFA curriculum as well as the experiences of our past. That means we do our best to help “nudge” (thanks Richard Thaler) members to the “right” types of things. Encouraging members to stay diversified as in the construct of newsletter portfolios, encouraging members to consider ideas within the newsletter portfolios (our favorite ideas), and emphasizing enterprise valuation and a margin of safety are a few indirect ways we do this.
That being said, the data and screens are still a vital part of Valuentum’s product offering (especially the price-to-fair value ratio). I can’t begin to tell you how my heart falls to my stomach, however, when I hear how much backward-looking data analysis permeates the analytical space. Though I do my part to explain the hazards of backward-looking analysis, I also understand and respect that many members pay attention to these types of things, for better or worse. However, when it comes to adding the most value to our members as in the newsletter portfolios or generating critical analytical-rich content, there are always trade-offs.
So, instead of updating the links on the left side of our website every other week or so (a soul-crushing, brain-dead exercise some 100-200 times each year), we provide a downloadable Excel (xls) file where members can use filter functionality. We want to focus our efforts on adding the most value we can for members. You should want us doing the analytical legwork, not spending time updating links for every possible Excel combination when you can take the reins and get exactly what you need much faster. As you can probably guess, the first video I want you to watch is how to filter in Excel. It’s so easy!
Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF9a5XuOu2w&app=desktop
#2 and #3
The second and third videos are somewhat related. The first video covers our website and methodology walk-through and it runs a little more than an hour. I walk through how to navigate the website, where to find information, and how our home page acts as a portal to other information on the website. I also show how the primary function of the website is through the Symbol search box, and how to find what you are looking for in the stock and dividend reports and beyond. Watch that video at the link here.
The third video is somewhat more advanced when it comes to financial statement analysis. However, I think no matter your level of investment knowledge, I am confident that you will get a lot out of the video. If you are new to investing, the most important thing is not to try to master everything in the video all at once, but to immerse yourself in the analytics and get a feel for what’s important and what’s not. It will help you on your journey through weeding out noise and focusing on the analytics and information that matters. Please watch that video at the following link here.
The Book Tour Begins
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the book tour for Value Trap starts in Chicago April 13th. Will you come visit me? Here is the tentative schedule for the remainder of 2019/2020. Can you believe it? I’d be super excited to meet you if you’re in town. I’ll have more details about upcoming events as the year progresses. If you have any other suggested venues/cities, please just let me know! Let’s make it happen. Here’s what I have penciled in at the moment.
April 13: Chicago (DePaul University, see image that follows)
May 11: Silicon Valley
August 3: Twin Cities
September 17: St. Louis
October, 2020: Phoenix
Hope to see you on the tour! If you want to see me in Chicago, contact Kevin Truitt at kevin.truitt@att.net or Kolita Keys at keys.lits@gmail.com.
Always my very best and thank you,
Brian Nelson, CFA
President, Investment Research
Valuentum Securities, Inc
brian@valuentum.com