AAII Pittsburgh Chapter Meeting Presentations

Presentations beginning with the November 8, 2008 AAII Pittsburgh Chapter meeting are available to download when the speaker provides us with an electronic version of the presentation. The meeting list has the most recent presentation at the top of the list.

Archived presentations are also available from the Chapter's Yahoo group

Previous Meetings

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Donald Cassidy - Improving Your Skills in the Fine Art of Selling

Investors typically find buying stocks easier than selling them. Don Cassidy this evening will examine and illustrate key challenges individuals face in selling profitably and will offer an antidote to “buy-and-hope” propaganda. His talk on this subject at the 2009 AAII National Conference drew a crowd of over 200.

Don’s behavioral-finance approach will focus on what makes selling hard and how to overcome its problems. He will describe practical solutions, outline a procedural checklist, and provide concrete suggestions on setting sell-rules and avoiding common mistakes.

PRE-MEETING: Larry Coudriet - Neuroeconomics Can Make Your Rich

Few activities make intelligent, educated people feel so stupid as does investing. Tonight’s presentation offers insights from the emerging field of neuroeconomics—blending neuroscience, psychology, and economics—that strives to understand better how our minds function and how to reign in self-defeating impulses. Come and see examples how we as investors daily balance the “thinking” and “feeling” parts of our minds; how anticipating gain (greed?) can warp our decisions; how we make predictions; how we rate (and overrate) our skills; and how we’re feelingright now can affect our assessment of risk.

March 16, 2010

Mary Ann Davis - Increase Your Income with Covered Calls

Writing covered-call options against securities you already own provides a way to generate income, a tactic particularly useful in the present period of low interest rates. Writing covered-call options is a conservative strategy, in contrast to the speculative approach of buying options.

Mary Ann will fully explain the philosophy behind a call-writing program and will demonstrate detailed examples of how the process works. Her presentation will include the ways she personally practices this art. She will discuss the added income return rates available and will show that these can be maximized by selling calls fairly near to maturity several times per year.

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PRE-MEETING: Herb Geissler - Surviving the Bear

While winter is almost over, the Bear has been awake and growling in the equity markets for months, and we should expect him to dominate for quite a while. As Herb Geissler shows in tonight's "Basic Training" session, investors need not hibernate for the duration, however. Herb will describe simple guidelines and techniques for exploiting investment opportunities and surviving the Secular Bear decade profitably.

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January 12, 2010

Charles A. Smith - Deleveraging and the Long Unwinding Road: We're Breathing Again ... But for How Long?

Discussion focused on several interrelated topics:

• If you overload the horse, he quits - A summary of policy efforts so far and their results, some intended, some not.
• The "couch potato" recession - How this recession is similar to, yet profoundly different from, the Great Depression.
• A job or a house, you choose! - Why are some local real estate markets crashing and some not? Pittsburgh vs Cleveland.
• Where are you Mr Banker? - The bankers are AWOL ... with good reason!
• Outlook for 2010 and key trends - Estimates of fair value for the S&P 500 for calendar year 2010.

November 17, 2009

Ronald H. Muhlenkamp – What’s the “New Normal”? — Economics, rules and markets

As investors suffered through a painful recession during the last two years, Ron Muhlenkamp has studied unfolding developments in the economy and financial markets. Starting from an analysis of recessions and bailouts, he has identified key signposts of the change, including various leading and lagging economic indicators.

During his presentation, Ron will continue that inquiry — examining shifts in consumer spending and corporate balance sheets, exploring credit markets and the state of financial institutions, discussing the Federal Reserve actions — and will begin to describe the “New Normal” and its implications for individual investors.

September 15, 2009

Janet Brown – Position Your Portfolio to Consider Changing Market Leadership: Upgrade to the Winning Funds and ETFs

The challenge: How do I make money in this year's frustrating, mercurial, market? How do I make up for last year's losses? At this meeting, Janet Brown will explain her Upgrade strategy - investing in those mutual funds and ETFs that currently lead the pack, staying with them as long as they continue to excel, and progressively moving to new leaders as they emerge.

March 17, 2009

Herb Geissler – The Only Three Questions That Count.

Are you ready to manage your own stock portfolio? Herb will show you how, with relatively little time and effort, you can consistently outperform more than 80% of the professional money managers. First, he will demonstrate “benchmarking” geared to your personal preferences and risk tolerance. Then he will show you how to consistently beat that benchmark by “answering the only three questions that count”.

January 20, 2009

Stuart Hoffman.

No electronic presentation available.

November 8, 2008

Tom McClellan – Understanding Market Liquidity.

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