2018 AAII Investor Conference: Speaker and Venue Overview

This October, AAII will be hosting our Investor Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, and we are pleased to announce that our lineup of speakers and the impressive venue are bigger and better than ever!

With over 25 speakers and 30 investor workshops, the AAII Investor Conference provides the ideas, tools and information necessary to succeed in today’s investment marketplace. This year’s host hotel is the beautiful Paris Las Vegas Hotel, an “on the strip” location that allows you to experience the sights and sounds of the City of Lights.

Key Speakers Include:

Sam Stovall
Chief Investment Strategist, CFRA Research
“Outlook for 2019”

Christine Benz
Director of Personal Finance, Morningstar
“Retirement Planning: What We Know for Sure”

Mebane Faber
Chief Investment Officer, Cambria Investment Management
“The Biggest Mistakes Many Investors Make & What to Do About Them”

About the AAII Investor Conference

At the AAII Conference, you’ll discover new asset allocation approaches designed to help you meet your investment goals ... learn how to determine a stock’s worth ... gain insight into profitable investment sectors ... participate in an educational session covering today’s investment marketplace ... learn about the best investment tools and approaches for those in or nearing retirement … plus much more:

• Winning Investment Sectors and Ideas
  
• Effective Stock Selection
  
• Income Investing
  
• Investing While in Retirement
  
• Portfolio Management
  
• Financial Planning
  
• Small-Cap Opportunities
  
• ETFs
  
• Mutual Funds
  
• And more
  

The Perfect Venue: Paris Las Vegas Hotel

Hotel rooms are available to AAII conference attendees at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel for discounted rates starting at $149 (plus $30 resort fee) for a single or double room (includes complimentary fitness center and in-room Wi-Fi). Restaurants, entertainment and shopping are located in this resort-style hotel, plus you’re just steps from the lively Vegas strip.

AAII has arranged for you to learn and earn at this lively hotel where the French “City of Lights” mingles with the entertainment capital of the world. You’ll enjoy fine cuisine, casino action plus unsurpassed attention to detail, from the décor of the guest rooms to the 50-story replica of the Eiffel Tower.

AAII Investor Conference dates are 10/26–10/28

To learn more about this special AAII event, please visit www.aaii.com/conference or call Member Services at 1-800-428-2244.

Introducing a Special Pre-Conference Event:
AAII Investor Boot Camp

 

AAII Boot Camp offers live, in-depth, hands-on and personal education that will change the way you think and invest for the better. It’s a deep dive that is a must for any investor who is serious about building and maintaining investment wealth.

Conveniently scheduled before the AAII Investor Conference on Thursday, October 25, and located at the host hotel, AAII Investor Boot Camp offers participants:

• 3-hour live boot camp-style class
  
• Your choice of topics
  
• Personal instruction by AAII senior staff
  
• Question and answer time
  
• Handouts and take-home materials
  

Portfolio Strategies Boot Camp 

Led by AAII Journal Editor, Charles Rotblut

In this Boot Camp, you will be given ideas on how to create a portfolio strategy that’s tailored to your goals and investing personality. Sound portfolio construction and management strategies are critical for building long-term financial wealth. After this Boot Camp, you’ll leave having the knowledge needed to grow and guide your portfolio throughout your lifetime. Plus, you’ll gain info on how to avoid the common wealth-destroying mistakes that sideline most investors.

Time: Thursday 10/25 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, Las Vegas

Fee: $129 $89 (discounted for AAII Conference attendees)

Stock Analysis Boot Camp 

Led by AAII’s Senior Financial Analyst, Wayne Thorp

This Boot Camp will show you how to properly perform a step-by-step analysis of a company to decide whether it’s priced attractively. As an investor, it is important to gain an understanding of the variables that determine stock value, and this Boot Camp is your ticket to this valuable knowledge. Boot Camp attendees will leave knowing how to roll up their sleeves and use readily available data and common sense to analyze stock investments.

Time: Thursday 10/25 from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, Las Vegas

Fee: $129 $89 (discounted for AAII Conference attendees)

More information about AAII’s Pre-Conference Investor Boot Camps can be found at www.aaii.com/conference/bootcamp.

AAII to Honor Mark Hulbert With the 2018 Cloonan Award

During AAII’s 2018 Investor Conference, Mark Hulbert, founder and president of the Hulbert Financial Digest and senior columnist for MarketWatch, will be presented with the Cloonan Award for Excellence in Investment Education. Hulbert has a long and successful history of writing and advocating for the do-it-yourself individual investor.

AAII’s board of directors established the Cloonan Award for Excellence in Investment Education in 2013. Past honorees have included: AAII’s founder James Cloonan; John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group; and Bruce Johnstone, senior marketing investment strategist at Fidelity Investments.He has dedicated his career—since 1980—to rigorously tracking the real-world performance of investment advisory newsletters and writing about their strategies and their performance. Hulbert conceived of and produced the go-to source that kept all financial publishers honest and accountable.

The 2018 Award will be given to Hulbert at the AAII Investor Conference. Beyond receiving the award, Hulbert will be at the conference presenting a lively discussion entitled “Lessons Learned From Four Decades of Tracking Advisers’ Returns.”

If you are interested in attending the Cloonan Award Ceremony or Hulbert’s presentation, simply visit www.aaii.com/conference for more details.

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 online in the Member News sections of past AAII Journals.

American Association of Individual Investors
Unaudited Balance Sheet for the period of December 31, 2017

Note: Deferred membership revenue is recognized periodically as income over the membership period. Deferred life membership is recognized periodically as income over a 25-year period. This accrual method of accounting reflects the Association’s long-term obligation to its members.

Local Chapters Return to Basics

At AAII’s local chapters across the country, individual investors are coming together to learn financial strategies and skills that build the toolset to navigate today’s markets.

One challenge for those just getting started has been how to begin investing and where to find unbiased resources. The answer may be in your own backyard: Some local chapters have begun building programs designed around beginning investors.

The San Diego chapter has started an eight-part beginning investing series of classes

For example, the San Diego chapter has started an eight-part beginning investing series of classes. At two or two-and-a-half hours each, these classes are designed to help those starting out become equipped with the knowledge they need to confidently pursue financial success. “Many members come to our chapter meetings interested in managing risk for their portfolios and tools and techniques to mitigate that risk, but [the challenge] is that some of our speakers are offering an intermediate level of investing knowledge,” said San Diego chapter president Rob Bernstein. “Without the vocabulary necessary to understand these presentations, you’re going to get lost pretty quickly.” Anticipating a high response rate, they hope to make it a regular feature at their chapter.

“But because of the grassroots support we’ve built, we’ve been able to attract speakers like Christine Benz [Morningstar] and Marilyn Cohen [Forbes].”

The secret behind building successful educational chapter programs like this is a dedicated team of volunteers and partners. The San Diego chapter relies on the input of its treasurer, vice president, secretary and program chair to come up with new ideas, such as the beginning investing classes, as well as to help plan their events at a centrally located meeting place. The San Diego Chapter has chosen the Hispanic Chapel at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church as an ideal location with a spacious room and plenty of parking. Most of their discussions focus on educational topics and practical advice, avoiding sales pitch-type presentations.

“We rely on word-of-mouth, and that means we are challenged with attracting more area members and drumming up publicity for our great meetings,” Bernstein said. “But because of the grassroots support we’ve built, we’ve been able to attract speakers like Christine Benz [Morningstar] and Marilyn Cohen [Forbes].”

If you haven’t yet, please look for an AAII local chapter meeting near you. And if you are able, consider taking the next step and becoming involved as a volunteer to help those in your community become better investors. Visit www.aaii.com/chapters for more information.

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.

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

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
  

¹ Based on top 50 U.S. banks by deposit provided by Informa Research Services Inc. as of 5/8/2018.

Academic Awards: Fostering Investment Education and Research

Five papers won awards for investment research from AAII in 2017. 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:

“Salience Theory and Stock Prices: Empirical Evidence,” by Mathijs Cosemans of Erasmus University Rotterdam and Rik Frehen of Tilburg University, awarded by the Financial Management Association.

“Investor Concentration, Flows, and Cash Holdings: Evidence From Hedge Funds,” by Sumudu W. Watugala of Cornell University, Mathias S. Kruttli of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and Phillip J. Monin of the Office of Financial Research, awarded by the Midwest Finance Association.

“Do Individual Investors Have Information Processing Skills?,” by Ferhat Akbas of the University of Kansas and Musa Subasi of the University of Maryland-College Park, awarded by the Southern Finance Association.

“Who Reacts to News?,” by Doina Chicbernea of the University of Denver, Collin Gilstrap and Alex Peklevich of the University of Toledo and Kershen Huang of Bentley University, awarded by the Southwestern Finance Association.

“Local Economic Consequences of Stock Market Listings,” by Larry Fauver of the University of Tennessee, Alexander W. Butler of Rice University and Ioannis Spyridopoulos of the American University, awarded by the Eastern Finance Association.

These papers are technical; however, the AAII Journal does publish the findings of papers that are of particular interest to individual investors.

AAII Privacy Policy

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