This year’s Ira Sohn Conference took place on Wednesday, and high-profile investors and fund managers gave attendees plenty of investment advice. Unfortunately, the track record of Ira Sohn presenters is not so great.
Here’s a rundown of some of last year’s key stock picks:
- David Einhorn: Bearish on Pioneer Natural Resources PXD 1.46% and Continental Resources, Inc. CLR 2.29%
- Keith Meister: Bullish on Yum! Brands, Inc. YUM 0.15%
- Leon Cooperman: Bullish on U.S. and Japan stocks ( SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY 0.37% and iShares MSCI Japan ETF EWJ 0.52%)
- Larry Robbins: Bullish on Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. BKD 0.55% and AbbVie Inc ABBV 0.27%
- Bill Ackman: Bullish on Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc VRX 13.34%
- Mala Gaonkar: Bullish on Microsoft Corporation MSFT 0.9%
- David Tepper: Bullish on stocks, bearish on high-yield bonds (iShares iBoxx $ High Yid Corp Bond (ETF) HYG 0.06%)
- Jeff Gundlach: Bullish on Puerto Rican municipal bonds.
Out of the 12 recommendations from last year’s speakers, only five have been profitable in the last year.
The average bullish pick is down 24.1 percent, not including the Puerto Rico call.
The average bear pick is down 12.0 percent on the strength of Einhorn’s two correct calls.
Last year’s conference whiffs have some attendees suggesting that investors take a contrarian approach to this year’s picks.
“Someone just told me that if you had bot every short idea at last yr’s Sohn Conference & shorted every long idea you’d be +35 percent. Wow if true,” RealMoney.com’s Helene Meisler tweeted…
Click here to continue reading
Want to learn more about how to profit off the stock market? Or maybe you just want to be able to look sophisticated in front of your coworkers when they ask you what you are reading on your Kindle, and you’d prefer to tell them “Oh, I’m just reading a book about stock market analysis,” rather than the usual “Oh, I’m just looking at pics of my ex-girlfriend on Facebook.” For these reasons and more, check out my book, Beating Wall Street with Common Sense. I don’t have a degree in finance; I have a degree in neuroscience. You don’t have to predict what stocks will do if you can predict what traders will do and be one step ahead of them. I made a 400% return in the stock market over five years using only basic principles of psychology and common sense. Beating Wall Street with Common Sense is now available on Amazon, and tradingcommonsense.com is always available on your local internet!
