Mix Up Your Investing Strategies and Boost Your Portfolio

I just returned from the Cabot Wealth Summit in Salem, Massachusetts, where I had an opportunity to meet many of our subscribers. I love the Summit, as it gives me a chance to have some in-depth discussions with investors, which 1) helps me find out how they are using our newsletters in their investing strategies and 2) what additional information they would like us to provide to help them reach their financial goals.

And I felt that this year was the best conference yet—for both questions.

My topic was: Mix up Your Investing Styles and Boost Your Portfolio. From my many years speaking at Money Shows across the country, I have frequently found that investors are not very well-diversified. They often stick to one investing style, which is great when that style is in vogue, but not so great when the market rotates. Consequently, the first questions I asked our subscribers were about diversification. I have to say I was surprised—and greatly pleased—that most of you—while certainly favoring one particular strategy—be it growth, value, dividends, small caps, or options—actually utilize a combination of investing strategies to build your portfolios. In other words, you are diversified!

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And that was fantastic, because that meant my presentation was right on target!

I first discussed the process/content of my two newsletters, Wall Street’s Best Investments and Wall Street’s Best Dividend Stocks.

• Review about 1,000 submissions per month from more than 200 contributors
• Select investment ideas based on fundamental and technical criteria
• Daily Alerts feature the investments with the most potential at that time
• Daily Alerts plus additional selections in Wall Street’s Best Dividends and Wall Street’s Best Investments monthly issues

Next, I talked about our mission, or how investors can best use the newsletters:

1. To gain exposure to new investment ideas
2. To see updates on investments that may already be in your portfolio
3. To gain information on sectors in which you may already be invested, as well as updates on competitors to your holdings

And I pointed out the reasons for mixing up your investing strategies, or diversification:

• To Limit Volatility & Risk
• To Limit Downside
• To Balance Returns and Risk Over Time

Next, I shared these tips on how/why to diversify your portfolio:

1. Sector
2. Market Cap
3. Growth & Value
4. Correlation
5. Domestic & International
6. Short-term & Long-Term
7. Tax Considerations
8. Estate Planning

And lastly, I cited four of our contributors as examples of how to use our investment newsletters to build a diversified portfolio:

• Growth & Income: Richard Moroney, Dow Theory Forecasts
• Big Picture, Cycle Investing: Gray Cardiff, Sound Advice
• High Yield: Ian Wyatt, High-Yield Wealth
• Speculative Growth: John McCamant, Medical Technology Letter

Here are a few of the stocks I used from each of the contributors:

Additionally, I segmented the majority of our contributors as to their investment strategies and preferred sectors: Growth, Value, Energy/Utilities, Technology, Biotech, Income/Dividends, High-Yield, Resource & Commodities, Low-Priced Stocks, International, Special Situations, Canadian Stocks, Options, ETFs & Mutual Funds, and Trading.

And finally, I ended my presentation with “Putting it All Together”—my advice on the extra steps needed to build a balanced, diversified portfolio:

• Fundamental Tests: Debt/Equity, Cash Flow, Earnings & Sales Estimates, Catalysts
• Technical Tests: Momentum, Moving Averages
• Stop Loss Limits
• Price Targets

I hope this will give you a better understanding of my newsletters, and how you can utilize them to augment your portfolio to make sure you are diversified. After all, we know the market never sticks with one favored investing style for very long!

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