Each year, we take time to try and thank those people, either personal or professional, that have helped me become better, either personally or professionally:
1.) Family and friends – as Ive gotten older Ive doubled-down on Trinity Asset Management, spending more time working on growing assets again and trying to insure this little venture succeeds (particularly after 2008, and early 2009), which has resulted in me spending less time with family and friends than I should be doing at this time in my life. Trinity started in 1995, and I squeaked it out and took in assets slowly until the Long-Term Capital Management Crisis in July – August, 1998, when client money started coming in over the gunwales, for the period from late 1998 to late 2000. Then the large-cap growth and tech collapse started. Pundits always talk about the “tech bubble”, but no one EVER mentions that Home Depot (HD) collapsed from $70 in late 1999, early 2000, to $20 by the first week of January, 2003. HD was hardly an internet darling. The point being its wasn’t just tech that came apart: HD, WMT, Clear Channel, etc. The point is healthy markets are a good sign (again), kind of like healthy vital sings for a doctor, and it gets people interested in professional money management.
For us, writing, blogging and tweeting is a form of research. It forces me to articulate a position or stance, and defend it, and in fact I often change my mind while writing an article. Writing is usually best done on weekends, holidays and such and off-market hours.
2.) Professional contacts: there have been so many:
- Jim Cramer: we started reading Jim and TheStreet.com (TSC) in 1998, and reached out to Jim in 2001 after the growth stock bubble started coming apart to get a broader exposure and become part of a bigger thought forum. Jim let me on TSC, and I was a regular contributor for (on and off) almost 10 years. Made many great contacts. A lot of talent flowed in and out of TSC through the years. I’ve always felt a lot of gratitude to Jim for giving me that first blogging and contributor start;
- Todd Harrison, Minyanville: we wrote for MV for the middle part of the 2000’s. Todd was kind enough to invite me to one of their summer forums, in Vail Colorado in 2006, where I sat on a “fundamentals” panel with Vitaliy Katsenelson and Fil Zucchi. Also met for the first time Jon Najarian and his wife. Great event. Lots of fun. Great contacts. Always feel a debt of gratitude to Todd for doing that…
- Jeff Miller: Founder and Portfolio Manager at NewArc Capital, Jeff was a contact and fellow contributor at TSC, Jeff and I corresponded frequently given he is a Chicago-area advisor. It was Jeff who encouraged me to start a blog on earnings-related issues, which has slowly gained steam since May, 2012. Jeff’s blog “A Dash of Insight” was voted one of the top 100 Financial blogs in 2012. It is an honor well deserved. Jeff is a Michigan-educated PhD in Economics, and a rigorous “thinker” about investing. He is worth the time every week to read his blog;
- Jon Najarian: After our dinner in Vail in 2006, I saw Jon around the neighborhood a few times after 2006, and finally realized we were neighbors. It was Jon who encouraged I get on Twitter and become a bigger part of social media, and he was exactly right. A CNBC staple, I always listen to his commentary. We don’t do options, at present, but I should. He and Pete’s new book is at the top of the list for Amazon orders in ’14. (long AMZN.) ( I actually think Jon set up my Twitter page, or had someone at his firm do it. One day I found I had a Twitter page, and I didn’t do it, and am pretty sure it came from Najarian.)
- Josh Brown: have never met Josh but he has been kind enough to give a shout-out to some of my work, and take the time to share his thoughts about the blog. He has had a meteoric rise in terms of media appearances, all well-deserved, since he consistently adds value on CNBC and on his “The Reformed Broker” blog. I constantly find myself emailing his blog to clients, etc. Over the last 18 months, on Twitter, at least in terms of the people I follow, there is no more prolific contributor of quality investment and trading info than Josh Brown. (We have a client in her early 70’s that referenced Josh’s Nine Financiers article which we forwarded, after he wrote it and posted to Twitter. She told me her father, in the early 1930’s, deposited $600 into one of the Chicago South Shore banks, the night BEFORE it failed. She also mentioned Sam Insull the utility guy as someone a friend said that was a good stock to own. at that time. This woman is VERY sharp and is not afraid of risk, but Josh’s article was a way to connect with her in a different way, even though she has been a client for over 15 years.)
- Phil Pearlman: although I’m no doubt one of many, Phil Pearlman has extended an invite to write for his new venture that will soon be up and running on YahooFinance. It was very nice of Phil to extend an invite. Sometimes these things are not a fit, but we’ll see how and if it works. Sounds like a great initiative.
On a sadder note, but still along the vein of the small world, somehow Blaine Rollins @361Capital got a hold of our earnings blog, and we were fortunate to have our earnings thoughts carried on the weekly summary that @361Capital distributes every week. A friend of mine saw it in Boston I hadn’t talked to in probably over 25 years, and we reconnected on LinkedIn. Jeff was a Princeton grad and ended up doing his MBA at the University of Chicago, (then went on to get his PhD at NYU in Finance) where we played rugby together on a local men’s side on the north side of Chicago. While in Chicago, he met a girl who was an au pair for a local family and ended up marrying her, and having at least two sons that I remember, before we lost touch. Anyway it was from our recent conversation that I found out his wife had died of cancer in the late 1990’s (she had to be in her late 30’s), and I had no idea it had happened. Without @361 Capital, and Jeff seeing the reference, we never would have reconnected. So soon, it is time for a trip to Boston to see an old friend.
Naturally, we are most grateful and thankful for clients. We’ve had many clients stay with us through the hyperbolic late 1990’s where fabulous amounts of money were made in short periods, but in hindsight were fraught with great risk, then to see the exact opposite happen from 2007 – 2009 was just horrific to live through. I’m a believer (now) that you never become a true investor until you’ve been through a bear market, and we’ve been through two. Yes, we lost some business, but we also had clients stay with us and continue to contribute to accounts.
Our numbers are not bad for long-term accounts, but we gave up a lot of outperformance from 2000 through 2010.
However, the important thing is we’re still around and clients still find value in the performance, service and communication.
Thank you too to regular readers. One lesson Ive learned after many years, and as the above details, is that you never know where the next kindness will come from, and from the kindness and consideration others have shown me, I try to do likewise as often as possible. Call it “pay it forward” or some other maxim, but I like to think of it as “do unto others”, a lesson taught by an important figure 2,000 years ago.
Thank you for reading, tweeting, and emailing. We expect 2014 will be another good year, in more ways than one.
Trinity Asset Management,. Inc.
Brian Gilmartin, CFA
Portfolio manager