Stuart McConnachie
Stuart McConnachie, 27
Occupation: Commercial real estate appraiser in Vancouver
Portfolio: Recent selections - Brick Group Income Fund, Lifebank Corp., Westshore Terminals Income Fund and A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund
Investment history "I grew up around a couple of investment advisers but did not truly become interested in investing until I participated in a stock market competition back in university," Stuart McConnachie says. "I made a few decent moves and was hooked."
"From there, I completed all the course work to move into a career as an investment adviser but then ran into a few setbacks with my health. It was at this point that I became interested in blogging and decided to combine it with my interest in investing. Hence, my blog: http://investingincanada.info."
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Investment approach Mr. McConnachie believes in trading with the trend and using technical analysis to decipher the signals. He combines this with fundamental analysis of companies.
For his fundamental analysis, he is "happy to rely on analysts for information" rather than spending time digging into company statements. The analysts may not always call it right but "they know more about a company than I do since they follow it full time."
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Why Brick Group I picked this up after the housing market began to improve. My thoughts were that when people move into a new house they are much more likely to buy new furniture."
Why Westshore Terminals
"This is an emerging-markets play. Westshore Terminals is located within the Vancouver area and is one of the largest coal-exporting ports in North America. They are strongly linked to a recovery in China."
Why A&W "This is recession-proofing for my portfolio. People still like to dine out during a recession, but on a tighter budget. If you take a look at this income fund, then you will notice an increase in sales during the recession."
Best move
"I bought call options on Amazon.com stock back in university and turned $500 into enough money to pay my tuition for the year at the University of British Columbia."
Worst move "I bought Bank of America stock on margin after the first leg of the downturn during the financial crisis, and rode painfully to a loss of more than 60 per cent on the borrowed funds. Ouch."
Advice
"Keep it simple. I have tried some complex strategies, but when you start thinking in triple negatives, intuition is lost."
Special to The Globe and Mail
Want to share your strategies? E-mail mccolumn@yahoo.com