I have been a subscriber of 'Intelligent Investor' for about 8 months. I find it a useful source especially as the ethos is to only buy when 'intrinsic value' occurs. It helps keep my feet on the ground and well worth the $49/mth.
But i feel 'II' has 2 weaknesses and several weeks ago i wrote to them saying as much. I followed this up with a call and spoke with firm's marketing manager. He insisted i speak with Nathan Bell the company's head of research. A day later Nathan rang me and we had a 50min chat.
Beef #1 is i felt (and still feel) II doesn't pay nearly enough attention to the macro or 'top-down' approach. Hence, i reckon it misses opportunities and is slow to react when situation is changing. Nathan felt their macro was reasonably good, but i score it poorly.
Beef #2 is II reluctance to cover 'small-caps'. I don't expect them to cover mkt-caps below 100m but pointed-out that many companies were not far off posting exc yr-end results. In particular i used the example of IMD. I explained how both the financials and macro are very powerful... and that ample guidance had been provided by company over past 6 months. Nathan heard me out and said his firm (II) was planning to cover more companies in this arena. But they have missed the best buying opportunity in years.
Hence, i use II to find stks with exc fundamentals. I then apply my own qualitative reasearch before making a decision.
PS. The only small-cap II have a 'Buy' reco on is WHG below 96c.
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