"The Intelligent Investor"

[Julia]

Have any members used this publication? If so, how relevant have their suggestions been? The current issue is mostly "Sell" recommendations.

Julia

[ghotib]

Have any members used this publication? If so, how relevant have their suggestions been? The current issue is mostly "Sell" recommendations.

Julia
<blink>I thought you meant the Benjamin Graham book; or possibly the newly released book "The Intelligent Australian Investor" (Chris Leithner). I gather you're talking about a journal? Obviously I haven't used it.

Not to hijack a thread or anything, but has anyone read The Intelligent Australian Investor? Any comments.

Ghoti

[DTM]

Have any members used this publication? If so, how relevant have their suggestions been? The current issue is mostly "Sell" recommendations.

Julia

I think its quite a good recommendation for the next couple of weeks.

[bvbfan]

I tried them on a 3 issue trial last year, I think they are ok but not what I was looking for.
They concentrate on the large caps and that doesn't match with my investment style

I think they may still offer the 3 free issue trial so you can check it out if you like (yes they do go here (http://www.intelligentinvestor.com.au/freetrial.cfm) )

[sam21poddy]

I tried a trial subscription a while ago but I mustn't have been impressed because I never went ahead with a full subscription. I still get the emails advertising their newletter. Funnily enough, the one I got this morning talked about how 3 weeks ago ONE of their Telstra commentators foretold that Telstra was not a good investment in the future. The way I see it, they have some saying one thing, some saying the opposite, so they can't be wrong whatever happens, can they? I suppose they are as good as any of those subscriptions but I don't use any. I find that all of them report on yesterday's news. By the time you read what they have to say, it's all over and not worth buying their recommendations. The market works too fast for those newsletters in my opinion.

[ghotib]

I've now had a look at the website and a couple of the free sample docs and I'm considering a trial subscription. They've obviously read Graham and Buffett, as have I and an awful lot more people than apply their principles. On that basis, I'm dubious about the "hold for yield" recommendation; otoh I like that their recommendations (buy for upside, hold for yield etc etc) include a reason. The analyses they provide as justifications for their recommendations look pretty superficial to me, but I think I'd probably learn a lot from picking them to pieces.

I didn't get the impression that they limit themselves to large caps; maybe that's just how it turned out at a particular time.

Ghoti

[markrmau]

An alternative to paying for a subscription to a mag, is to go for a full service broker, and get all thier analyst info, plus the odd inside tip. The info is a bit more immediate than a weekly magazine.

Brokerage is usually about $90 for small trades ($50-60 above retail). This is what I have just done.

[Julia]

Re using full service broker: agree: it's really worthwhile for small trades, but if you choose a broker who doesn't have a capped brokerage, the brokerage can be crippling. e.g. one with whom I've had contact would charge about $1000 to process a one-off $55,000 trade!

If you are going to use a full service broker, check whether brokerage is capped.

Julia

[markrmau]

That would be up for negotiation with the broker I am using. It is around 1% for the piddling trades I prefer (I spread it out in approx $8k ammounts usually). But if you were looking at a $50k trade, I think you could negotiate a better deal.

[ghotib]

Julia,

Just wondering if you took out a subscription to this. I had another look yesterday and I've applied for a trial.

Cheers,

Ghoti

[Julia]

Julia,

Just wondering if you took out a subscription to this. I had another look yesterday and I've applied for a trial.

Cheers,

Ghoti

Hi Ghoti

Yes, I took out a $399/one year subscription which my accountant advised was deductible from my SMSF tax.

I think it's reasonable value for money in terms of the volume of advice, but won't renew it as I've not actually bought or sold anything on the basis of what they have suggested. My feeling is that they a lot of "covering themselves" by - as soon as something has shown a bit of appreciation - slapping a Sell recommendation on it. Where this has been on a stock I've held, my holding it has proved most the right thing in that considerable further appreciation of the SP has occurred.

I can think of one case, though where I would have been better off to have accepted their Sell recommendation at the stage it was made.

You'll be able to decide from the trial. What I do like is their style - quite chatty and conversational .

Will be interested to hear your response to the trial.

Cheers

Julia

[Kauri]

I took a trial with them a while ago and found that a lack of money management was at times worrying. e.g over 3 years they have ridden MRL from $2.00 down to about 70c. Looking at an ad they ran I also notice that they they stayed with SGW on the ride from $7.75 to their selling point at $2.14. I remember thinking at the time that their recomendations applied with personal chart based entry/exits would be a good way to follow their portfolio. :2twocents

[It's Snake Pliskin]

Have any members used this publication? If so, how relevant have their suggestions been? The current issue is mostly "Sell" recommendations.

Julia

They tend to like Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett. It is a conservative and longterm value oriented investment newsletter. They tend to follow dog stocks that may be undervalued. Dollar cost averaging through accumulation as opposed to strict position size management.

[brerwallabi]

I have had a several free subscriptions to this over the past few years due to putting in my wifes name and mine and occassionally get further free trials of their magazine via emails from them with a password to access their website. It is definately not for me,they seem to want to research and find companies who are fundamentaly sound and for various circumstances are below their market value in the analyst's minds. Their recommendations seem to based on holding long term. Some of their consistent favourites are real dogs SGN,HVN,IFM and Millers Retail, for about 12 - 15 months they have had a buy/hold on these and they have absolutely gone nowhere and some things they recommend to sell go the opposite way Caltex is a prime example. Whilst we all get things wrong sometimes, I know I have a better record then them. (I HAVE NO QUALIFICATIONS TO OFFER FINANCIAL ADVICE AND I AM BY NO MEANS ATTEMPTING TO DO SO). Methinks there is certainly better advice to found, but I did find something called KAZ (swallowed up by Telstra) in their magazine almost two years ago which I purchased and that proceeded to go from 19.5cps to 39.5cps fo me. So I thank them for that. If I had purchased their other recommendations that I mentioned I would be extremely disappointed today seeing the gains in the market over the past 20 months or so. I prefer to trade short term which is not the "intelligent investor" fashion.

[happytrader]

I took a trial with them a while ago and found that a lack of money management was at times worrying. e.g over 3 years they have ridden MRL from $2.00 down to about 70c. Looking at an ad they ran I also notice that they they stayed with SGW on the ride from $7.75 to their selling point at $2.14. I remember thinking at the time that their recomendations applied with personal chart based entry/exits would be a good way to follow their portfolio. :2twocents

Like you Kauri, I had a trial with them 3 years ago. And like you I found they were'nt cutting their losses. That meant I couldn't trust them to do what I thought I was paying them to do - Be my eyes and ears and watch the stocks and let me know when to buy or sell at appropriate levels. I got the feeling they were a bunch of paper traders who had gone into the writing business. Since then I've learnt to check out performances within appropriate time frames, and most importantly I look for responsible losses. As I am now foremost an optiontrader I really like www.meridianline.com.au. Because I do not yet have the ability personally to effectively handle more than one trade at a time, I am now quite happy to let one of their brokers act on my behalf with the proviso that they take the losses at the predetermined level. There performance level now, is such that I do not have a problem with doing this.

I am not offering or able to provide financial advice or recommendations. The above statements are merely my own opinion and should not be considered as anything more.

Cheers
Happytrader