Covestor and CVIM Blog

Weekly Member Interview: Rita Mcquiston

This week's interview is with Covestor member Rita Mcquiston, aka Growthseeker. Rita is an active member of the AAII, regularly attending meetings in her home town of Portland. She has been trading for over 10 years based on IBD strategies, an approach that has seen her post an impressive 70% return since her inception on the site 6 months ago.

Rita focuses on the high growth momentum stocks recommended by IBD. She doesn't hold positions for long periods, looking for large liquid stocks that she can get out of quickly if the market turns.

In her interview Rita talks about some of the stocks she is looking at in today's market and the sectors of interest to her. She shares some of the books which have helped her to build her experience, a great set of recommendations for anyone starting out.

Rita juggles a busy work and family life with her an investing and is a great example of someone balancing active investment with everyday commitments . Right now she is short a number of tech stocks and although she doesn't have time to blog regularly is well worth following.  As always you can find her interview on the top right hand side of her fact sheet.

Weekly Member Interview: Jeff Pierce

This week's interview is with Covestor member Jeff Pierce, aka Zentrader. Jeff lives in Vancouver and is author of the stock blog Zentrader.ca. As well as having become a regular on Seeking Alpha, he was featured this weekend by the leading Canadian broad sheet The Globe and Mail, in a special report on his investing approach.

Jeff describes himself as a swing trader of momentum stocks with a holding period of anywhere from a day to a month based on technical analysis and market timing. He is a strong believer in buying high, and selling higher. It is a structured approach which has seen him generate a positive alpha of c6% since his inception on Covestor back in June.

In his interview with the Wall Street Transcript Jeff talks about how he got into investing and about the development of his market timing system that has had him out of the markets for the most volatile periods this year. Although he is based in Canada he largely trades in US stocks, gradually building up positions as he builds confidence that he has correctly identified a trend.

As well as being a great investor Jeff's interview highlights his experience. He shares some of the sources that he relies on as well as a number of valuable lessons he has learned along the way . You can find his interview on the top right hand side of his fact sheet.

Wishing you a Happy Holiday and a very happy and profitable New Year from all of the team at Covestor!

Weekly Member Interview: Jeff Boarman

This week's Wall Street Transcript Interview is with Covestor member Jeff Boarman, aka woodshedder. Jeff is based in Virgina and is author of the popular stock blog on ibankcoin.com, Technical analysis with Woodshedder.

Jeff is largely a swing trader based on technical indicators. The system he publishes on Covestor is ETF based. Jeff recently stopped trading discretionary strategies and started trading almost entirely mechanically. It is an approach which has kept him fairly exclusively short or in cash, giving him an exceptional 108% return since his inception on Covestor six months ago.

In his interview Jeff explains his trading system and how he has maintained such solid returns during the recent market conditions. He shares some of the rigor he applies to risk management in back testing his decisions, as well as the benefit he has gained in moving from percentage-based to volatility based-stops.

Jeff is currently ranked eighth on the site by annualized Sharpe ratio. His interview makes for great reading, particularly for anyone looking to develop a disciplined way to deliver consistent returns. You can find his interview on the top right hand side of his fact sheet

Weekly Member Interview: Patrick Jo Smith

This weeks interview is with Covestor member and rising star Patrick Jo Smith. Patrick has a background in finance, now working as a venture capitalist in Colorado, and spends ten to fifteen hours a week actively managing his portfolio.

Patrick has a dual investing approach, about half of his investments based on fundamentals and the other half on swing or momentum trades. For his momentum trades he follows short term technical indicators, attributing much of his success in the recent volatile markets to the latter approach.

In his interview Patrick provides more detail about his investing style, in particular the technical indicators he uses for his momentum trades. He also talks about the rationale for his current position in Frontier Oil, providing a valuable outline of the types of fundamentals he looks for.

Patrick has outperformed his chosen benchmark, the S&P 500, for all of the six months since he joined Covestor. He was out of the markets for a while and his recent performance in Frontier has reversed this trend but he is still ranked seventeenth on the site by Annualized Sharpe Ratio. You can find his interview with The Wall Street Transcript on the right hand side of his fact sheet.

Weekly Member Interview: Paul Casimir

After a short break, the interview series with The Wall Street Transcript is back. This week's interview is with Covestor member Paul Casimir, aka Yaktipper. Paul is an Internet programmer living in Wisconsin, who also blogs his investment activity on his own site Yakblog.

Paul picked up his passion for investing from his grandmother and has been investing on his own account since college. He describes himself as a short term investor who likes to look for companies with extraordinary stories, buying into the market fear or selling into the irrational exuberance.

In his Interview Paul talks about some of the stocks he is currently looking at and the influence that fellow member Tim Sykes has had on his recent activity.

Paul is currently ranked sixth on the site by Annualized Sharpe Ratio. You can find his interview, next to his impressive performance chart, on the top right hand side of his fact sheet.

 

Weekly Member Interview: Rashid Garuba

This week's Wall Street Transcript Interview is with Covestor member Rashid Garuba, aka retire48.  Rashid works as an architect in Georgia and invests as his primary hobby. You can read his daily market thoughts in his trading journal.

Rashid's trading style is about following economic and sectoral trends - and then focusing on what he is invested in. As a medium term technical trader he maintains a portfolio of up to about eight stocks at any given time.

In his interview Rashid discusses how important sector momentum is to his research. He outlines, as an example, the rise of commodities given the struggling US Dollar, stressing the importance of keeping an eye on both macro economic trends as well as the micro economic picture. 

Rashid tracks his portfolio on Covestor and is currently ranked sixth on the site by Annualized Sharpe Ratio.  You can find the interview - as always - on the top right hand side of his fact sheet.

Weekly Member Interview: Michael Arold

This week's Wall Street Transcript Interview is with Covestor member Michael Arold, aka sunshine_micha.  Michael works in marketing for a software company and trades part time on the side. You can read his daily market thoughts on his blog, Sunshine Trader.

Michael is a short term swing trader, holding his positions on average between two and fifteen days. He focuses on technical analysis, to not only evaluate his positions on the fly but also the overall market.

In his interview Michael discusses how he considers a concentrated portfolio to be more effective with his trading style than a diverse one. With swing trading he tends to focus on what is in trend right now, rather than worrying about the overall market. "There is always a bull and a bear market somewhere and that's where I'm playing." Says Michael.

Michael tracks his portfolio on Covestor, and promotes disciplined investing as a key to success. You can find the interview - as always - on the top right hand side of his fact sheet.

Weekly Member Interview: Fred Penney

Following on from great press coverage in his native Newfoundland, this weeks Wall Street Transcript Interview is with Covestor member Fred Penney.  Fred works as an engineer in the civil construction industry, and is also the author of stock blog Another Stock Blog.

Fred has been investing for around 20 years, and is a medium term investor. He focuses on small cap Canadian stocks, using filters to screen based on holding period.

In his interview Fred talks about the kind of stocks and ETFs he screens for, as well as sharing some of his criteria. He talks about the impact that the strong Canadian dollar is having on his investing - and highlights some of the books and people that have influenced his approach.

Fred tracks two different portfolios on Covestor, one of which has performed better than the other. He is a great contributor to Covestor and a disciplined investor. You can find the interview - as always - on the top right hand side of his fact sheet.

Weekly Member Interview: Tom Carlson

This week's interview is with Covestor member Tom Carlson, aka tmantrader. As Tom explains on his profile, he retired from corporate life in 2006 and now trades full time - managing both long term and short term accounts.

Tom is largely a technical trader, who having trained as an actuary, applies his background in data analysis to proprietary trading systems that he builds and back tests. In the account he shares on Covestor he is primarily a swing trader - holding overnight and for periods of 2 to 10 days.

In his interview Tom talks about his approach and some of the parameters he factors into his trading systems. He also shares a list of some of the books which have helped in to develop as a trader. Tom has had a fairly volatile ride in the markets since joining Covestor 6 months ago, but continues to outperform his chosen benchmark, the S&P 500.

As always you can put your questions directly to Tom on his fact sheet, and you will find his interview with The Wall Street Transcript posted in the top right hand corner.

Weekly Member Interview: Ward Kadel

This weeks interview is with Covestor member Ward Kadel, aka drxeno. Ward works as a Senior Research Analyst at Genentech, Inc. where he develops pharmacodynamic assays for oncology drugs that are about to enter, or are in, early clinical trials.

Ward holds a mixture of ultra-long ETF postions to balance his portfolio across sectors and industries, with the rest in short to medium long positions (1-2yr). His portfolio, largely held in his retirement accounts, has been closely tracking the S&P since his inception on Covestor back in June 2007.

Given his background in Biotech, Ward's stock picks are weighted towards investments in the sector. In his Interview he talks about how he applies his clinical background in screening through journal articles and trials to pick out potential Biotech winners. He doesn't see much upside in the near to mid-range future for big pharma - and shares his perspective on some of Biotech players that interest him.

Ward is the third most active commentator on Covestor - having updated his rationale for almost all of his positions so if you are interested in health care definitely worth checking out. You can also find his interview with The Wall Street Transcript at the top right hand side of his fact sheet.