AAII Email Services Inform & Enlighten

Like many organizations, AAII uses email to keep members abreast of news that augments our services. We offer several emails that not only keep you informed of crucial updates, but also offer substantial educational information. Make sure you are signed up for these valuable free emails by visiting www.aaii.com/email.

AAII Model Portfolios Update

The AAII Model Portfolios Update email offers a convenient way to get a monthly update on AAII’s Model Shadow Stock Portfolio and the Model Fund Portfolio.

It alerts you to any recent changes in the model portfolios and reports on their updated performance.

The email also tells you which Shadow Stocks currently meet the purchase rules (qualify for purchase) of the portfolio and which are at risk of violating the portfolio’s sell rules. This news is helpful if you are slowly building your own model portfolio and want to know which stocks to look at and which to hold off on purchasing.

The AAII Model Portfolios Update email is sent on the 15th of each calendar month. It is free to all AAII members.

AAII Stock Screens Update

The AAII Stock Screens Update email makes it easier to follow the nearly 60 stock screens on AAII.com. Once a month, you receive an email alerting you that the list of passing stocks for each screen has been updated.

The email also highlights a top-performing strategy each month. We explain the strategy’s approach as well as the methodology behind the screen. This can help you understand specifically what the strategy seeks out and the characteristics of the stocks it identifies.

A new feature in this email is member feedback and discussion, based on an ongoing conversation between members on the AAII.com Discussion Boards about how they use the stock screens to help them invest better. Highlights from the conversation are featured in the Stock Screens Update email to give you ideas on how you can better incorporate the strategies into your own portfolio.

We also answer questions about the stock screens, which are frequently asked questions and can help you further make better use of this AAII.com feature.

The AAII Stock Screens Update email is delivered to members on the 15th of each calendar month. It is free to all AAII members.

Investor Update

Every Thursday, subscribers receive the latest edition of Investor Update in their email inbox. In it, AAII Journal editor Charles Rotblut discusses topics relevant to investors and the current market. Past reports have included analysis on valuations, portfolio rebalancing, behavioral finance and market trends.

In addition, every week the email includes the latest AAII Sentiment Survey results, with commentary that puts the figures and their trends in context. On the first week of every month the AAII Asset Allocation Survey is discussed; the mid-month email includes Model Portfolio updates.

In The Week Ahead section, readers enjoy a concise summary of key events, earnings reports, and economic report releases for the following week. It includes mentions of jobs reports, GDP estimate releases, Federal Reserve meeting minutes, consumer sentiment surveys and when notable Federal Reserve officials will be speaking during the week. Upcoming Treasury auctions are also noted. This information keeps you up to date on economic and securities news releases that can affect the markets in the coming days and weeks.

Charles also includes nuggets of AAII-specific news in Investor Update, such as updates on the biennial investor conference and announcements on when AAII staff are speaking at local chapters.

The Investor Update email is available to members and non-members for free; however, members receive occasional exclusive content.

Other Free Emails

You can receive email notification when the new issue of the AAII Journal goes live on AAII.com. This email is usually sent out on the first of the month, well in advance of the print publication hitting mailboxes.

We also offer the AAII Weekly Features email, which highlights articles from the AAII archives, an AAII stock screen, and a stock report provided by Standard & Poor’s.

And, finally, there’s a free Getting Started email series that new members find useful for learning about all that AAII offers and where to find it.

Subscriber-Based Enewsletters

Members who subscribe to additional AAII services receive regular emails as a part of subscriber benefits. Computerized Investing and Stock Investor Pro subscribers are sent monthly emails chock full of new articles and information. Stock Superstars Report and Dividend Investing subscribers receive weekly emails on Fridays to keep them updated.

If you subscribe to any of these AAII services, be sure you are receiving the companion emails that are crucial to staying informed and making the most of your subscription.

AAII Financial Summary

Annually, AAII publishes its year-end balance sheet for members and life members interested in the finances of the association. Prior years’ balance sheets can be found in the Member News archive here.

AAII Investor Conference 2015: Keynote Speakers This Fall in Las Vegas

This November, AAII will be hosting our Investor Conference in Las Vegas, and we are pleased to announce that we’ve arranged for two well-respected and prominent investment professionals to provide their view of the markets to our members.

Opening Session

The AAII Conference Keynote Opening Session will feature Carl Richards, famed for his New York Times column that gave him his moniker: “The Sketch Guy.” During this session, he will discuss some of the biggest mistakes investors make in their portfolios and the markets. Using some of his famous sketches, Richards will walk attendees through the process of fixing these mistakes and setting down on a better path.

Besides his popular New York Times column, Carl Richards’ work has also appeared in publications including Forbes.com, Marketplace Money and Oprah.com. He is also a columnist for Morningstar Advisor, and has written two practical how-to books teaching investors how to “stop doing dumb things” with their money.

Luncheon Session

The Keynote Luncheon Session will feature Forbes columnist and bestselling author Ken Fisher. In his talk, he will present a contrary view of the outlook for 2016, using sentiment, political and economic drivers to recognize the consensus view currently priced into markets. From there, he will discuss the year ahead and explore how to think differently about alternatives.

Prolific and insightful, Ken Fisher has been the author of the Forbes Portfolio Strategy column for 30 years, making him the third-longest-running columnist in Forbes history. He is also the author of 11 books, four of which—including “Markets Never Forget (but People Do)” (John Wiley & Sons, 2011)—have landed on the New York Times bestseller list.

The 2015 AAII Investor Conference is being held at Bally’s Las Vegas, from Saturday, November 7, to Monday, November 9, 2015. The event features over 25 educational presentations and 30 investor workshops. The member attendee fee is $395. Attendees receive full access to all presentations, the keynote luncheon, the welcome reception, a Forbes panel discussion, the Smart Investor Exhibit Hall and complimentary continental breakfasts.

To learn more about this special AAII event, please visit www.aaii.com/conference.

Supplemental Benefit: The AAII Discover Bank Program

AAII is partnered with Discover Bank to give you access to certificates of deposit (CDs), IRA CDs, money market accounts and online savings accounts earning preferred members-only rates that are higher than the nationally advertised rates on comparable Discover accounts.

Though you may know the company for its credit products, Discover has actually been in the banking business since 1911—and today, it’s emerging as one of the nation’s leading direct banks. As an AAII member saving with Discover, you’ll benefit from:

• Rates that have consistently exceeded the national average¹
• No minimum opening deposit requirement
• Easy and convenient online account management
  
• 24/7 customer service, both online and by phone
• Accounts insured up to FDIC limits, currently $250,000

Visit https://aaii.discoverbank.com or call Discover at (800) 347-7513 to learn more about these products and the preferred members-only rates you’ll earn.

¹ Based on top 50 U.S. banks by deposit provided by Informa Research Services Inc. as of 5/20/2015. 

Academic Awards: Fostering Investment Education and Research

Three papers won awards for investment research from AAII in 2014. The awards are presented as part of AAII’s ongoing effort to encourage education and research in the area of investments and are given for papers that provide insight into investing.

The awards are made in conjunction with the meetings of major finance associations around the country. The best academic paper presented at these meetings is selected by a committee of investment research experts.

AAII awards the writers of winning papers. Papers are selected based on the quality and thoroughness of research and on the contribution to shaping effective investment decisions.

Since the program began in 1983, more than 150 awards have been presented. Recent award-winning papers and recipients include:

“Do Institutional Investors Know Banks Better? Evidence from Institutional Trading Surrounding the 2008 Financial Crisis,” by Hui Wang and Wei-ling Song of Louisiana State University, awarded by the Midwest Finance Association.

“Past Performance May Be an Illusion: Performance, Flows, and Fees in Mutual Funds” by Blake Phillips of the University of Waterloo, Kuntara Pukthuanthong of the University of Missouri and Raghavendra Rau of the University of Cambridge, awarded by the Southern Finance Association.

“Information Processing and Non-Bayesian Learning in Financial Markets,” by Stefanie Schraeder of Université de Lausanne and Swiss Finance Institute, awarded by the Financial Management Association.

These papers are technical; however, the AAII Journal does publish the findings of papers that are of particular interest to individual investors. If you would like a copy of a paper, you can contact Kate Peltz at kate@aaii.com or (800) 428-2244.

AAII Privacy Policy

Our goal at AAII is to offer you the best investor education in a simple and secure manner via print and over the Internet. As a publisher, we gather member information in order to provide an investor-friendly service.

We request your email address as part of the registration process for AAII.com. We use this information to contact our members and guest users regarding updates to the website and to personalize the service. Your email address is secure and will never be released to any third party.

To improve our website, we regularly track usage through log analysis to understand how our members are using the site.

This information is used to determine popular areas of the site by measuring clicks and the length of time a member spends on a page. We keep track of this data for determining trends and statistics internally.

AAII.com uses cookies to remember your login settings. This allows you to move through the site and certain member security points without any disturbance. Our site is set to keep you logged in for 60 minutes. This means that during a single browser session you can wander to any other site and come back to AAII.com and remain logged in. We are in no way extracting personal information through the use of computer cookies.

AAII does maintain a subscriber list and we do on occasion make portions of this list available to carefully screened companies that offer personal finance products and services that we believe may be of interest to the members of AAII. If you do not want to receive these offers, please let us know by contacting AAII Member Services at (800) 428-2244.