Summary of David Rosenberg's Program at the Boston Security Analysts Society (BSAS)

By: Vitaly Veksler, CFA, and Michael Mullin, CFA 
   
On February 27, the BSAS welcomed David Rosenberg, Chief Economist & Strategist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc. in Toronto.  His reputation as one of the most accurate economic forecasters preceded him, and the event was sold out.  David Rosenberg delivered a presentation titled, “The Year of the Horse ... Breaking  Out of the Gates”.  Highlights of the presentation are listed below along with a link to the full recap of the presentation: 

• No Recession on the Horizon
• The U.S. Consumer Still Rules the Roost
• Lower Debt in Economy
• Unemployment is Down, but Not Only for the Right Reason
• Potential Capital Spending Boost
• Potential Inflation Increase
• Expected Returns
• Well-Positioned Sectors

 
To read the full recap of the presentation in the March issue of the BSAS newsletter, please Click Here

I had a pleasure of serving as the Industry Mentor for the Fletcher School / Tufts University team as it competed in the CFA Institute Research Challenge for the first time ever.   Pat Schena, Professor of International Business and Co-Head of SovereigNET, The Fletcher Network for Sovereign Wealth and Global Capital, was the driving force behind putting together this inaugural team and served as its Faculty Advisor.

The Challenge is an annual global competition for university students dedicated to promoting best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts.  The goal of the competition is for students to learn and demonstrate skills of an equity analyst.  As equity analysis triathletes, Fletcher teammates (Christopher Dunn, David Vercoutere and Braden Weinstock) had to value a stock, write an initiation-of-coverage report, and present their recommendations to a panel of judges.  

Professor Schena and I were very satisfied with the team’s performance.  During the inaugural year, the team went all the way to the “Final Four” final in Boston.  I really liked the Fletcher team’s desire to learn and to do well in the competition.  I was impressed when I learned that the teammates spent 27 hours straight as they prepared the final version of the equity initiation report.  And when they started this 27-hour journey, the guys had a very decent report already.  Their perseverance proved, once again, that to do something really well you have to work on it.  It is definitely exciting and inspirational when a team that you are advising brings spirit and stamina befitting The Iron Man triathlon athletes to the CFA Institute Research Challenge!

To read about the Fletcher team on the web site of SovereigNET, please Click Here

Beyond Borders Investment Strategies (BBIS) bought iShares MSCI Chile Capped ETF (Ticker: ECH) in January and February 2014 as Chilean stocks have been trading at significant discounts to their long-term historical valuation levels.  BBIS has found the expected returns for ECH to be 12% per year over the next 8 years. Valuations of Chilean equities have been negatively affected by an anticipated global oversupply of copper in 2014-2015.  In the attached report, I analyzed five positive drivers for the expected performance of the Chilean equities.  One of these drivers is local, but the other four are related to economic, business and political developments in countries thousands miles away from Chile, such as China and the United States.  The report also discusses risks to my expected return projections.  These risks emanate from political, economic, and financial domains.  To read the full report, please Click Here.