The market continues to build on its impressive year-to-date performance as the S&P 500 finished off another winning week after the Thanksgiving holiday. Job growth rebounded strongly from October’s weak report, but the unemployment rate did rise, which could increase chances the Fed further cuts rates later this month. 

Bitcoin did a u-turn after it surpassed $100,000 for the first time, and it remains to be seen how long the recent monster rally can run.

We remain very wary of the market at these levels, which is why solid fundamental analysis is as important as ever. Whenever valuations get as stretched as they are today across so many stocks, investors have to work really hard to find value.

If you haven’t seen any of the excellent tutorials from Value Spotlight, we recommend you check them out. In the videos, Andrew Sather, co-host of The Investing for Beginners Podcast, walks through the calculation and importance of ROIC, compares stocks using ROIC, and much more. We love to see investors doing this type of diligent fundamental analysis, because more informed investors making more informed decisions makes a more efficient market.

As mentioned above, for investors willing to do the work, there is still value to be found. We did the work and found this week’s Long Idea. It’s an ETF that looks more Attractive post-election and could provide a relative safe haven in a volatile market.

We also highlighted many Danger Zones in the market today. CEO David Trainer outlined one such danger in his latest e-letter, Hope is Not a (Micro) Strategy. In it, he lays out the case for why MicroStrategy (MSTR) is a risky bet on an already risky asset class.

We’re proud to announce we ranked #1 in multiple stock-picking categories on SumZero once again this month, which marks the 43rd consecutive month in which we placed #1 in several categories. We leverage our proprietary Core Earnings data when making these stock picks, and it’s great to see the results recognized.

Another way we leverage our Core Earnings data is through our family of indices with Bloomberg’s Index Licensing Group. They recently published a new article on this topic titled Unlocking concealed value in company financials with earnings capture.

On the Model Portfolio front, we published the latest Most Attractive and Most Dangerous Stocks Model Portfolios. We also featured a stock in our Safest Dividend Yields Model Portfolio.

Links to all our newly published research are below along with a preview for next week’s research.  

We hope you have a great weekend.

Long Idea: Post-Election Volatility Uncovers Value in our Sector Rankings

Members can read the latest Long Idea report.

Hope is Not a (Micro) Strategy – David Trainer E-letter

#1-Ranked Stock Picker on SumZero Again!

Check out Value Spotlight!

We recommend you watch the excellent tutorials from Value Spotlight and follow @ifb_podcast. They do great research and offer excellent insights. Rigorous investors only – haha. Their latest tutorial focuses on one of our favorite topics: Aligning Executive Compensation with ROIC.

Most Attractive Stocks Model Portfolio Update for November

Most Dangerous Stocks Model Portfolio Update for November

Bloomberg Features our Core Earnings Leaders Index

Featured Stock in our Safest Dividend Yields Model Portfolio

Upcoming Research

Coverage Updates

  • 50: 10-Qs parsed since Dec 1.
  • 20: 10-Ks parsed since Dec 1.
  • 131 stocks, ETFs & mutual funds added to our coverage universe over the last 3 months.