This Is What It's Like to Switch Sides

Well, that was interesting... Yesterday, we formally launched my newsletter: Herb Greenberg's Investment Opportunities. The process of getting there, which took weeks, was far more involved than I imagined. My colleagues at Empire Financial Research take these kinds of launches seriously... everything from the newsletter's focus, to what it will be called, and to how […] Not rendering correctly? View this e-mail as a web page [here](. [Empire Financial Daily] This Is What It's Like to Switch Sides By Herb Greenberg --------------------------------------------------------------- [Here's what you missed last night]( The recent sell-off has opened a "backdoor" that could crush gold and double your money on some surprising stocks. The man who's been called "the finest business journalist in America" by Jim Cramer explained how it works... And even gave away a FREE recommendation using the same strategy that could have doubled your money 14 different times so far. [Watch the replay by the end of today](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Well, that was interesting... Yesterday, we formally launched my newsletter: Herb Greenberg's Investment Opportunities. The process of getting there, which took weeks, was far more involved than I imagined. My colleagues at Empire Financial Research take these kinds of launches seriously... everything from the newsletter's focus, to what it will be called, and to how it will be marketed. Unlike self-publishing, which I gave serious thought to doing on the Substack platform before joining Empire, this isn't a one-man band. It's a team. A big team... of copywriters, a marketing department, a customer service department, and a team of editors. They know who the likely subscribers are, what they like to read, how they like to invest, and – most important – how to reach them. For me, it was the formal beginning of taking the other side of the trade... by focusing on stocks that can go up, rather than stocks that can go down. On that score, a few observations... When I was about to join Empire, I was talking with a short-selling friend whose fund had shifted him to the long side of their book. This wasn't long ago... back when short sellers were dropping like flies. One thing he said stuck with me: The criticism he was getting from his bosses was that he was spending too much time researching each idea. Now that I'm spending most of my time on longs... boy, can I relate. Since I'm pretty much my own boss, nobody is telling me that I'm spending too much time on anything. But when you're skeptically biased, you just keep wanting to dig deeper than you probably need to. It's the innate fear of missing something and the drive to find levels of detail that, while helping confirm your conviction, in all likelihood won't make a difference in the outcome. And yet, switching to long bias at this point in life appeals to something else in me... Throughout my career, I spent so much time going after companies trying to find something bad that I came to respect what makes a good company, a good business, and good management. The best lessons came from some of those I got wrong... - Like watching Netflix (NFLX) co-founder Reed Hastings pull the streamer out of a nosedive... - Or watching former Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Howard Schultz prove that opening coffee shops up across the street from each other wouldn't cannibalize the business... - Or with Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), proving that every hospital had to have a robot, even if all surgeons weren't sold on it, and that over time many of them would convert... - Or with Monster Beverage (MNST) – then part of Hansen's Natural – that some fads (in this case, energy drinks) really do turn into new product categories and beat the big guys at their own game... - Or how about software giant Salesforce.com (CRM)? As much some folks complained about it, investors simply don't care that noncash compensation is an expense, especially if the company is genuinely growing. --------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Link: [Pentagon Consultant: Big asset shift is coming]( Man who briefed U.S. Pentagon officials five times in past year says big money shift coming into an asset you've probably never heard of before. [Click here to learn more](. --------------------------------------------------------------- I also learned that for every rule, there are exceptions... And just when you think you've figured it out, that's when you get blindsided. This is why certain parts of my process haven't changed, notably... The first thing I do is wonder what I'm getting wrong, and then what I'm not seeing, and then how I'll get bamboozled. For example, there's one company I really wanted in the initial portfolio of Investment Opportunities. But there's an overhang of a risk that I'm not comfortable with... And the stock is too expensive, especially if that risk is borne out. The question is... am I too cautious for my own good? In this case, I don't think so, especially given its valuation and the type of portfolio I was hoping to create... That portfolio is based on my experience and frustrations, especially as I tried to piece together my retirement accounts. There's a reason for that... For much of my career, I couldn't invest in individual companies because of concerns of the appearance of a conflict of interest. The minute I was unshackled, I dove in and bought all kinds of companies... from high-quality ones to lottery tickets. I took tips from friends and found ideas from things I heard and read. I wanted to see what really worked for me, but more important, what my true risk tolerance was. It's one thing to write about individual stocks, it's another to have your own money on the line. In almost every case, I did levels of my own research to make sure I knew what I was buying... and what the risks were. The one time I really got blasted was when I violated my own rules and bought something on a leap of faith... because somebody who owns a giant share of the company – and who I've known for years – made such a compelling case. And in the heat of the bubble last year, human that I am, I couldn't help putting some casino money to work, with a few hits and misses. My takeaway was that not only am I not a trader, but I don't have the personality or stomach to deal with the minute-to-minute gyrations of the market. More important, I don't have the time nor do I have the interest to watch my stocks day in, day out. I do, after all, have a life. Plus, this isn't a game to me... It's my retirement portfolio. So when my colleagues at Empire talked about what my newsletter should be, I told them I wanted it to be for people like me... who like owning individual stocks but don't want to constantly think about them. After all, there are thousands of stocks. I'm most interested in those that fall through the cracks of coverage, that aren't chatted about on TV and don't show up every day in the headlines. It's the ex-journalist in me... trying to find something other people don't know about or getting there before they do. As for the marketing... it's a tad (okay, a lot) out of my comfort zone, but it comes with the territory. My concern is the content, and while it's my name up in lights, it's not just me. To make sure it's as good as it can be, I'm closely collaborating on stock selection, valuation, and other fundamental analytical insights with Gabe Marshank, who spent a few decades doing that for some pretty big hedge funds... and who has broad institutional knowledge of companies, industries, and stocks. And as proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks, I've picked up a few things along the way. It turns out, I've since learned, so has he. That process, it seems, never ends. Accordingly, since this was such a big shift for me, we wanted to launch Investment Opportunities with a bang... So we held a big event last night. But it was more than a just a launch... We explained how a "backdoor" in the massive shakeup we're seeing in the market this year is offering the chance to create serious wealth – and how you can take advantage. If you missed it, there's still time to catch a replay [right here](. And as always, feel free to reach out via e-mail by [clicking here](mailto:feedback@empirefinancialresearch.com?subject=Feedback%20for%20Herb). And if you're on Twitter, feel free to follow me there at [@herbgreenberg](. My DMs are open. I look forward to hearing from you. Regards, Herb Greenberg March 25, 2022 If someone forwarded you this e-mail and you would like to be added to my e-mail list to receive e-mails like this every weekday, simply [sign up here](. © 2022 Empire Financial Research. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution, in whole or in part, is prohibited without written permission from Empire Financial Research, 601 Lexington Ave., 20th Floor, New York, NY 10022 [www.empirefinancialresearch.com.]( You received this e-mail because you are subscribed to Empire Financial Daily. [Unsubscribe from all future e-mails](