CONTRA THE HEARD Investment Letter - Any opinions

[vikx01]

I'm considering buying a subscription of CONTRA THE HEARD Investment Letter. I've read some articles by Benj Gallander and Ben Stadelmann, and watched Benj's interviews at BNN. I'm quite impressed.

 

I'm wondering if anyone has any opinions or feedback. Pls feel free to PM me if you are more comfortable that way.

 

Thanks!

[indirect]

I have met Benj at CoF&B dinner , nice guy and good long term record.

 

[bbarberayr]

I've subscribed on and off over the years (mostly on).  Generally a very good source of ideas that are off the radar and have provided some of my biggest winning stocks.  Articulate writing, and responsive to email questions, etc.  Especially if you don't have time to look into a lot of stocks, could be very worthwhile.

 

The downside to it is that their approach is cyclical, so does very well at certain points in the market cycle and not so much at other - see http://www.contratheheard.com/cth/returns/index.html

 

They tend to hold stocks for large gains over several years, so not a lot of activity, which can be a plus or minus.

 

The biggest drawback I've found with them is when they get too popular and they send out a buy notification, the stock will open 15% higher than their purchase price, so you can't really match their record by just buying what they buy or even get into some of their stocks at a reasonable price.  Partially this is because many of the stock they buy are small caps and partially because of their popularity at times.  If you want to try and match/beat their returns, you do need to put some thought into your buys and sells.  Their approach is they are just showing you their portfolio, but this should just be a starting point for your own decisions - I would agree with that, but I'm sure many others just blindly follow.

 

Currently, this is not an issue and it is a good time to subscribe.  They typically buy most of their stocks in late December, so you may want to move quickly if you do subscribe.