2015 AAII Silicon Valley Main Events

All the Past Main Event Topics and Speakers

With presentations you can download, where available....

2015 Presentations

Dec 5, 2015: Financial Planning Workshop: Active Versus Passive Investment Strategies, and 2015 Taxes & Planning for 2016 1) FINANCIAL PLANNING WORKSHOP: Active Versus Passive Investment Strategies This is the third in a series of interactive Financial Planning Workshops covering investing, retirement planning, safe withdrawal rates, estate planning and much more. This session will focus on the arguments for and against using an active investment strategy. These workshops assume no prior knowledge, and are suitable for people at all stages of life. You Will Learn:
  • About passive investment strategies.
  • About active investment strategies.
  • How to decide where you stand.
  • Discussed by: Fred Smith, Registered Investment Adviser
2) 2015 Taxes & Planning For 2016Claudia Hill will present a year-end look at key tax law changes affecting individual taxpayers while there’s still time to implement planning. She will discuss tax rates, especially the stealth nature of our current rate structure, as well as now-you-see-the, now-you-don’t tax benefits and tax traps. You Will Learn:New federal and California state issues in 2015.How the tax rate structure really works.Whether classic year-end strategies still work for you.Discussed by: Claudia Hill, Principal, TaxMam Nov 14, 2015: Financial Planning Workshop: Building A Diversified Portfolio, and The Year Ahead for Stocks, Bonds, Indexes and ETFs1)FINANCIAL PLANNING WORKSHOP: BUILDING A DIVERSIFIED PORTFOLIO This is the second of a series of interactive Financial Planning Workshops covering investing, active and passive investment strategies, retirement planning, safe withdrawal rates and much more. These workshops assume no prior knowledge, and are suitable for people in all stages of their life cycle. You Will Learn:
  • About modern portfolio theory (MPT)
  • How to build a diversified portfolio and rebalancing strategies
  • How to write your Investment Policy Statement.
  • Discussed by: Fred Smith, Registered Investment Adviser
2)THE YEAR AHEAD FOR STOCKS, BONDS, INDEXES AND ETFSFormer Wall Street CEO, educator and well-known investing guru Harvey Baraban will present one of his highly popular seminars for our chapter members. With insight from over 45 years in the investment industry, he will discuss strategies for your portfolio given today’s unique challenges, provide timely insights to market behavior and opportunities, and discuss what to do now and in the coming months. Appropriate individual stocks will be included. You Will Learn:
  • About market challenges and opportunities ahead
  • Strategies for preservation, growth and income
  • Most appropriate individual stocks, indexes, ETFs, bonds and metal stocks
  • Discussed by: Harvey Barabann, President, Harvey Baraban Financial Roundtable. Oct 10, 2015: Fundamentals of Investing &, Everything ETF In 60 Minutes Or Less
1)Fundamentals Of InvestingThis is the first of a series of interactive talks for a financial planning workshop covering investing, building a portfolio, active and passive investment strategies, retirement planning and more. These workshops are suitable for people starting out or as a refresher course for the more experienced.. You Will Learn:
  • About risk and return measurements, plus techniques to control risk
  • The characteristics of investment vehicles such as mutual funds, ETFs, REITs, etc.
  • How to define your personal investor profile.
  • Discussed by: Fred Smith, Registered Investment Adviser
2)Everything ETF In 60 Minutes Or LessMatt Hougan will discuss ETF fundamentals, including the key benefits of ETFs to investors, the improved tax efficiency of ETFs, intraday trading and asset class coverage. He will also cover potential issues with ETFs, tax treatment of different ETFs, how to construct a typical diversified portfolio with ETFs and how inverse funds really work. You Will Learn:Brian Nelson, president of Valuentum Securities, will walk through the ins and outs of cash-flow based dividend analysis. He’ll cover how to use Valuentum.com to find what you’re looking for and showcase the firm’s discounted cash flow methodology that forms the backbone behind the ideas he generates. Nelson will also present the structural reasons why the Valuentum Buying Index works.You Will Learn:
  • The benefits of dividend growth investing
  • How to find the best dividend growth stocks
  • How to reduce the likelihood of getting into a value trap
  • Discussed by: Brian Nelson , President of Equity Research, Valuentum Securities

June 13, 2015: ABOUT OIL & IMPLICATIONS FOR ENERGY INVESTING and Managing Your Investment Risk In A Rising Interest Rate Environment1. "ABOUT OIL & IMPLICATIONS FOR ENERGY INVESTING"Oil is in focus because its prominence in the economies of the world. The Saudis have initiated a price war in light of the rise of US shale output. We will review The changes in price of Oil and the profound positive and negative consequences to markets and investing. You Will Learn:
  • About Oil and an overview of the Petroleum Industry
  • Oil technology and the determinants of price
  • Impacts to investing in the industry and its derivatives
  • Discussed by: Bill Jump,Serves on the Board of AAII Silicon Valley Chapter
2. Managing Your Investment Risk In A Rising Interest Rate Environment Kevin Gahagan presentation will cover how different bond classes performed in past periods of rising rates as well as how equity markets reacted in those time periods. He will also discuss assessing fixed-income portfolio risks and portfolio strategies for managing risk in investment portfolios. You Will Learn:
  • What the fixed-income risks are when rates rise
  • How to assess those risks
  • Strategies for managing risk in investment portfolios
  • Discussed by: Kevin Gahagan, Principal, Senior Advisor and CIO, Mosaic Financial Partners, Inc.

May 9, 2015: High-Dividend Investing In a Rising-Interest-Rate Environment At this highly interactive presentation, Harry Domash will tell you which high-dividend stocks work best when interest rates rise, and which categories to avoid. You’ll also learn how to analyze high-dividend-paying common stocks, ETFs, closed-end funds, real estate investment trusts (REITs), master limited partnerships (MLPs), business development corporations and preferred stocks. Learn where to get the data you need to make informed investment decisions—and what to do with it. You Will Learn:
  • What strategies are working now
  • Why preferred stocks should be in your portfolio
  • Why earnings don’t matter when you’re evaluating high-dividend stocks
  • Discussed by: Harry Domash, Publisher, DividendDetective.com and WinningInvesting.com

April 11, 2015: INTELLIGENT, RULE-BASED ETF INVESTMENT STRATEGIES With hundreds of ETFs available, how can the individual investor successfully manage a portfolio? Logical Invest has developed algorithms that create alpha and reduce market exposure with simple, well-researched monthly ETF rotation strategies. These strategies protect your account with crash protection via U.S.Treasuries and harvest a “fear premium” from inverse volatility. These rotation strategies can be brought together with adaptive allocation in a custom-made portfolio right for each investor. In a preview exclusive for the Silicon Valley Chapter, Alexander Horn will discuss extending the efficient frontier in “Markowitz Meets Logical Invest.” You Will Learn:
  • The key elements—and most common traps—of constructing your self-managed portfolio
  • How to build in a well-balanced crash protection mechanism into your strategies
  • How you can benefit from harvesting the “fear premium” by investing in inverse volatility
  • Discussed by: Alexander Horn, Partner, Logical Invest

Mar 14, 2015: Managing Your Portfolio in Uncertain TimesIn this presentation, Tony Muhlenkamp will examine the nature of uncertainty in the markets and collectively assess what’s different, what’s the same and, perhaps most importantly, whether we’ve been here before. Afterward, he will discuss his tenets for shoring up a portfolio so that investors may sleep better at night. Reasons To Attend:
  • To reinforce the value of having a disciplined investment process in place.
  • To recognize pitfalls that permit you to avoid the hype and hope that accompany emotional investing.
  • To increase your understanding of how to effectively manage your portfolio through uncertain times.
Attend This Meeting and Learn:
  • The building blocks for constructing a personalized “statement of investment policy”
  • How establishing timeframes and returns can facilitate achieving long-term investment goals
  • A framework for objectively evaluating your thoughts, beliefs and knowledge about investing
  • Discussed by: Anthony W. Muhlenkamp, President, Muhlenkamp & Company, Inc. February 14, 2015: Robust Portfolio Diversification
Using Uncorrelated Asset Classes To Reduce Risk While Increasing Return Numerous studies show that adding diversified, non-correlated investments to portfolios has not only increased returns beyond traditional portfolios but has done so with significantly less risk. David Johnson, a 25-year veteran of NASA and the U.S. Space Program, will show mounting evidence of a coming tough environment for traditional investments over the next decade (the problem), and how to select portfolio components that have the potential to increase returns and reduce risk in this environment (the potential solution). Stocks, bonds, alternative investments, and private placements all have their places in the robust portfolio for the next decade. The key is learning what each has to offer and how to use them together effectively in the upcoming challenging investing environment. Reasons To Attend:
  • Building your retirement fund is Mission Critical to your life; Failure is Not an Option (Thank you Gene Kranz)
  • Compare various absolute return strategies and how they diff er and complement traditional investments
  • Discover how to potentially exceed the results of the best money managers, using a 60-year-old technique
Attend This Meeting and Learn:
  • The root cause of stock, bond, real estate and alternative investment returns going up and down, and why it is important
  • What studies show is the most critical ingredient to add to a retirement portfolio to increase returns and lower risk
  • How to use worst-case analysis to design a robust retirement portfolio with the potential to prosper in another stock market decline
  • Discussed by: David Johnson, Chief Investment Officer, Global Capital Group
January 10, 2015: 2014 Tax Presentation This presentation will be a review of the items that will affect individual taxpayers in their 2014 filings. It will include the last-minute changes that are currently expired but that we expect to see brought back. Alan Pinck will take a look at how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) and its added Medicare tax affects the investor. Pinck will also touch on how to determine if you can qualify for and can take advantage of special tax benefits if you own and manage rental property, especially multiple rentals. Most importantly, there will be discussion of what is currently on the IRS audit radar. Reasons To Attend:
  • To gain firsthand tax update knowledge
  • To help prepare for your personal tax filing
  • To help avoid IRS audit traps
Attend This Meeting and Learn:
  • A tax update for 2014
  • Special tax advantages for those who own and manage rental property
  • About current IRS audit triggers
  • Discussed by: Alan Pink, Enrolled Agent and Owner, A. Pinck & Associates