Marc Gerstein

Marc Gerstein, the director of research at Chaikin Analytics, is an unconventional "quant." He has long specialized in rules- and factor-based equity-investing strategies. And he authored two books on stock screening – Screening the Market and The Value Connection. Marc met company founder Marc Chaikin in 2010 and eventually assisted in developing our proprietary "Power Gauge" system. He eventually joined the Chaikin Analytics team in 2018. Marc's quant inclinations trace back to his early days as an attorney (mainly criminal and landlord-tenant proceedings). In that world, everything Marc did had to be supported by evidence or legal authority. He first applied this evidence-oriented approach at Value Line, an independent investment-research firm that he joined in 1980. There, he learned to relate human investment stories to that company's "Timeliness" ranking system. Before coming to Chaikin, Marc used screens to create and write The Reuters Value Review and The Reuters Growth Review in the mid-2000s, and The Forbes Low-Priced Stock Report from 2010 to 2015. During the mid-1980s, Marc managed the Value Line Aggressive Income Trust. That's a high-yield ("junk") bond open-end mutual fund. He steered the fund through the Drexel Burnham scandals and the related junk-bond storms. He came away from that experience with a non-academic but highly reality-based understanding of risk.

This Dying Economic Theory Is Fueling a Policy Shift

I apologize in advance… I’m tapping into my “geek” side today. I want to talk about something called the Phillips Curve. Some readers might’ve heard this concept mentioned before… The Phillips Curve was a key part of financial markets many decades ago. It fueled a strong narrative involving stock prices, employment, and wages. The Phillips …

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Why Consumer Banking Could Now Change Forever

Everybody knows rising interest rates benefit banks… Well, almost everybody. You see, when it comes to banks, the idea of interest can get complicated. That’s because the word itself does double duty for these institutions… When banks loan out money, interest is an important revenue source. And when banks pay depositors, interest is an important …

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By This Measure, We’re One Month From Inflation Tumbling

On February 28, CNBC published the following headline… On the surface, that headline looks bad. “Weakened sharply” sounds horrible. And it seems especially concerning for anyone who recently paid top dollar for a home. But when we dig deeper, we see that it’s not as bad as it seems at first. In fact, the last …

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This Investing ‘Video Game’ Is Burning Shareholders

One of Cathie Wood’s “innovative” holdings just got a letter from the feds… The last time it got a letter like that, it ended up costing the company $65 million. So once again, it looks like Wood’s definition of innovation will mean big trouble for shareholders. You see, I agree with Wood that the Nasdaq …

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Don’t Let Media Fearmongering Throw Off Your Game

The mainstream media continues to stoke inflation fears in Americans’ minds… Bloomberg provided the latest example. Last Friday, it published this headline… PCE stands for “personal consumption expenditures.” Like the Consumer Price Index (“CPI”), the PCE index measures inflation. But these metrics use different data sources and formulas… In short, CPI measures direct consumer costs. …

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Not All Cruises Are Equal Today

Folks are vacationing and dining out like there’s no tomorrow… Or at least like a recession isn’t looming. Specifically, the industry that includes hotels, restaurants, and leisure activities is strong… The industry’s Power Bar ratio features 62 “bullish” or better companies right now. And only four companies are “bearish” or worse. (Learn more about the …

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Be Careful With This ‘Next Big Thing’

“Generative AI” is all the rage these days… For starters, Microsoft (MSFT) is dumping a lot of money into the space. The tech giant invested $1 billion into industry leader OpenAI in 2019. Two years later, it held another investment round. And last month, Microsoft poured in $10 billion more. Microsoft is talking up efforts …

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You Deserve to Get the ‘Pizza’ You Order

Imagine you order a pizza with mushrooms and onions… And the delivery driver instead brings a pizza with sausage and pepperoni. I bet you would be angry. You would likely demand a refund. And you would probably get it. Now, don’t get me wrong… Sausage-and-pepperoni pizzas are popular. And many folks think mushroom-and-onion pizzas are …

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