Are you a trader or an investor? It's a question that echoes across many conversations here at Seeking Alpha and beyond. The working assumption of most investors is that trading and investing are generally mutually exclusive. Brian Fletcher and Mike Richards want you to rethink those assumptions.
Brian and Mike come from quite different investing backgrounds. Brian, who resides in North Carolina, spent years as a fundamental analyst and investor, with success buying up beaten down banking sector assets. Mike, who is located across the pond in London, cut his teeth using various forms of technical analysis - Elliott Wave, Fibonacci levels, Hurst Cycles and more - through his site Timepriceanalysis.com. The two met through a different investing forum about five years back and as they say, the rest is history.
Brian and Mike have taken their unique brand of multi-disciplinary investing to a new level with the recent launch of their Seeking Alpha Marketplace service, The Active Investor. With aspects of their analysis that touch on technical analysis, fundamental investing, behavioral economics and portfolio management, there is something here for practically every type of investor - particularly those interested in buying and selling the major asset classes. Many of the trade recommendations come in the form of ETFs that any retail investor can easily buy or sell via their brokerage platform for little or no commission.
What stands out particularly throughout this conversation is how risk averse Brian and Mike's approach is. It is the investing equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath, Primum, non nocere - or First, do no harm. The result is an overall approach to investing/trading that is difficult to pigeon-hole.
What follows a wide-ranging conversation about how to be both an intelligent investor and trader.
3:00 - Investing background and strategy. How did Mike and Brian meet?
8:00 - Detailed description of Mike and Brian's approach to investing
10:00 - Description of Hurst Cycles and what they add to a balanced approach to risk management
16:00 - Discussion of investment skew
25:30 - Trader vs. Investor: Important distinction? Two sides of the same coin?
28:45 - What does it take to be a good trader?
33:15 - Favorite trading platforms
38:30 - Using fundamental analysis to identify opportunities
44:00 - When trading based on technical analysis, does liquidity matter?
49:15 - Stock ideas based on technical analysis
52:00 - Recommended instruments: S&P (SPY) (SDS) (SH), crude oil (UCO), natural gas (UNG)
58:30 - Concerns about geopolitical risk (or lack thereof)
