The Future Of Seeking Alpha, From One Contributor’s Perspective (Part II)

By | September 18, 2015

Scalper1 News

Summary SA has new leadership and a bright future. Here is what that future may hold for you. Many questions have been answered since Part I. Much has changed at Seeking Alpha since Part I . Here is an update from Seeking Alpha’s opinion leaders on big changes that impact you. New Leadership As announced by Seeking Alpha’s founder, the company is newly led by my friend Eli Hoffmann . Eli is the perfect person to lead Seeking Alpha. In April, he announced the launch of the SA contributor marketplace. While Eli was always the best successor to founder David Jackson , his success at leading the launch of this new business really catapulted him to the top. We have stayed in close touch during the launch including discussions of its progress here and here . New Marketplace The contributor marketplace is comprised of value-added investment services from top SA contributors, according to Seeking Alpha. Under Eli’s leadership, the contributor marketplace exploded to over fifty writers on over twenty five specialized topics. New Ideas from Seeking Alpha Opinion Leaders I reached out to each of the top ranked opinion leaders from every category for their thoughts on Seeking Alpha’s future and their role in it. What is the future of SA? My hope is that the future of SA is to provide both professional and retail investors with a forum to provide interactive discussion over the analysis of a large number of securities, as well as the general macroeconomic picture. Seeking Alpha has already established a large moat as the leader in ‘crowd-sourced’ investing information, and I also hope that they can grow the entire market for crowd-sourced financial information. – Michael Munro , SA’s real estate opinion leader What is your edgiest prospective idea from today’s market prices? I like the Chinese solar companies such as JinkoSolar (NYSE: JKS ), Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL ), and JA Solar (NASDAQ: JASO ) because of their valuation, the prospects for solar power as it becomes more competitive in electricity generation, the near-term sold out capacity for solar, the companies’ technological/cost competitiveness, the trend towards higher earnings estimates in spite of their very low valuation and the existence of further catalysts for further increases in earnings estimates. – Paulo Santos , SA’s opinion leader in short ideas What is the single most unappreciated article on the site by someone other than you? That’s a pretty good question, I’d say Spear Point Calls for CEO of TheStreet to Resign Requests Board Seats to be the most underappreciated article on Seeking Alpha. In the comment section, there were only two comments, and the content inside of the article was simply phenomenal. I wrote an extensive article on TheStreet in the beginning of 2015 highlighting why it was such a poorly run business. Soon enough, the biggest shareholders, i.e. Spear Point wrote a public letter on Seeking Alpha to TST’s management team stating that the CEO is both incompetent and that the board should be more fairly represented by the shareholders. This is a classic example of how Seeking Alpha’s platform could transition to become more accommodative towards activist funds, while also exemplifying the strengths of the buy-side community as a whole. People mistake Seeking Alpha for a group of wannabe analysts, or amateurs. But it’s simply not the case. Some of the most brilliant people in the world share their ideas here, and as such, I think this specific article is not only one of the most underappreciated article on this website, it also speaks to the direction in which Seeking Alpha could go. – Alex Cho , SA’s opinion leader in long ideas What article have you written on SA that best exemplifies the depth of your research and your ability to uncover information that is not already in the press/in the price? I’m not sure how “deep” my research was, but I thought this idea was unique compared to most things I had read about how DGIs weight their portfolios. The vast majority seems to weight them equally or close to it and that simply didn’t make sense to me. Why would I want to rely upon some speculative 10%-yielder for more income than a proven blue-chipper? That’s exactly what happens for somebody who invests equal amounts of money in both equities. So I went to the numbers and “proved” myself correct – at least in my own mind. And this thesis of mine did go on to form the basis on how I invest today. I weight my positions not only based upon my conviction towards each company. And I do the weighting by annual dividends more than dollar value. – Mike Nadel , SA’s dividend investing strategy leader How does your view of a given securities’ value tend to differ from the market’s view? My view on value is evidence-based and totally dispassionate. A surprising number of investors seem to lose their analytical focus if they are long a stock of a company whose products they love (say, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL )) – no matter how expensive the stock gets, they reject any information source that presents evidence of over valuation. – Donald van Deventer , opinion leader on bonds To quote Peter Thiel’s favorite question, could you please tell me something that’s true that nobody agrees with? In an investing environment where there are unlimited numbers of brilliant mathematicians, statisticians and physicists all seeking to dissect the tiniest component of what creates opportunity and coming up with diametrically opposing answers, it is not possible to have any degree of confidence in any investing decision without information that is otherwise unavailable to others. – George Acs , income investing strategy leader Sifting the World In March, I wrote that, I am 100% committed to this new endeavor even if it results in only one reader (me) and writer (me). Since then, hundreds of members joined Sifting the World . Many have discussed their experience in their own words . It is both a collegial environment and a forum for vigorous debate. My ideas are supplemented by investment ideas presented by fellow hedge fund managers and by fellow StW members. Online discussion is supplemented by in person meet ups in New York City and Connecticut. You can join us, too, or shoot me any questions that you might have about becoming a member. What do you think? Please use the comment section below or the Seeking Alpha Readers Forum to weigh in. Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. (More…) I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. Additional disclosure: Chris DeMuth Jr is a portfolio manager at Rangeley Capital. Rangeley invests with a margin of safety by buying securities at deep discounts to their intrinsic value and unlocking that value through corporate events. In order to maximize total returns for our investors, we reserve the right to make investment decisions regarding any security without further notification except where such notification is required by law. Scalper1 News

Scalper1 News