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.

Rethinking What Works in a Challenging Market

These days, Wall Street’s old “defensive” playbook is stale… This playbook was created to cope with rising interest rates and the threat of a recession. Specifically, when times get tough, this playbook centers around buying defensive sectors like health care, consumer staples, and utilities. People still need to take care of their health during less-than-ideal …

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Expect the Impossible… Even in Housing

Many folks in the U.S. are focused on a false narrative today… Business Insider just summed it up perfectly. Here’s the headline from last weekend… Investors are buying into this misconception, too. Housing stocks have slumped in recent weeks. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders Fund (XHB) dropped as much as 7% in August. But the real …

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I’ll Wait for the Power Gauge’s Take on This AI-Related IPO

For one day, Sacks Parente Golf (SPGC) was a dream initial public offering (“IPO”)… The company combines many folks’ interests in golf and technology. It takes an innovative approach to making lightweight golf-club shafts, grips, and other products. Sacks Parente Golf went public on August 15 at $4 per share. The stock closed that day …

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Banks Need to Adapt to Today’s Smarter Depositors

If you’re a fan of TV classics, you’ll likely recognize Milburn Drysdale’s name… Actor and comedian Raymond Bailey played Drysdale in the 1960s show The Beverly Hillbillies. Specifically, he was the head of the fictional Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills. Drysdale lived next door to Jed Clampett, an accidental oil millionaire fresh from the Ozarks. …

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Industrial REITs Seem to Break the Laws of Economics

Like many undergrads in 1971, I went against anything from the “establishment”… We weren’t impressed with Economics 101, for example. “Supply and demand” sounded like something the establishment just wanted to shove down our throats. (But at least we knew how to regurgitate enough to pass our exams!) As the years passed, I matured. Now, …

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Protecting Myself From the Emotional Investor in the Mirror

I’m glad the Power Gauge is here to protect me… from myself. You see, I’m a happy Spotify Technology (SPOT) premium user. And every now and then, I think it would be a good idea to own the stock as well. Objectively, I realize that “happy customer” doesn’t necessarily equal “happy stockholder.” But I’m only …

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Even the Worst Ideas Can Be ‘Very Bullish’

Sometimes, even the world’s worst investment philosophy pays off… I’m talking about “herd mentality.” In investing, that means buying stocks just because a lot of other folks are doing the same thing. Herd mentality is a part of human nature… Early nomads herded together to protect themselves from predators. These days, groups of people can …

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