A few months ago, my wife Janet and I spent a few days in the Amish country of Strasburg, Pennsylvania. It was our kind of town.
We stayed at the Red Caboose Motel. Every room is an actual railroad caboose remade into the most novel hotel room with an incredible restaurant, first class, state-of-the-art multi-purpose venue center created from a barn, from which we saw a fabulous music show.
We loved our time and the hospitable people there.
But I am not telling you all this just to relive a few days of our little vacation. Rather as a reminder of something I walked away with.
America is not completely lost.
Doing what I do day after day, watching and analyzing the news, it can be discouraging, even disturbing.
It’s the kind of stuff that makes us wonder if any rational people are around to intervene in such senseless actions.
We face an economy that is destroying the lives of working-class families, only to be told by the current president and his acolytes that everything is great and we are all to be living large. I’ll tell you, it’s easy to become almost despondent over such stuff.
But a trip to what is left out there in what I call “real America,” quite frankly that could be just the medicine for people who are losing their optimism and losing their hope for this great republic.
I’m not saying our country isn’t facing serious, maybe even insurmountable, challenges.
But I’ll tell you, beyond the four pods of power — New York, Washington, Hollywood and Silicon Valley — there really are a lot of simply sane people who love America and believe it is the greatest place on Earth.
They are raising their families to cherish each other and their country. These are people who work hard every day at their jobs to provide for themselves, without demanding that the government take care of them. These are people who are white, black, yellow and brown.
They are male and female. They are Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim — maybe they are none of the above. Some are rich, some are poor. Many are somewhere in the middle.
But they all have one thing in common: They haven’t given up on God, our country, or each other. The more time I spend hanging out with them, I am not giving up either.
It also reminded me why I teamed up with Charles Mizrahi. We wanted to help real Main Street Americans get to Prosperity USA.
In fact, we met this week to talk about how we can do more. But I’d love to hear from you.
Are you optimistic about the future of our country? And how can we help you get your slice of the American Dream?
Let us know at Insider@ProsperityResearch.com.
Director, Prosperity Research
How One Simple Statement Changed Everything: Finding Your Edge in the Market
I started my money management firm back in 1986.
After my success as a floor trader, I thought starting my own firm would be easy. I’d manage the money, and my partner would raise the assets. We had a simple business plan.
First, we would knock on the doors of friends and family. We figured they knew us well and would certainly trust us with managing a portion of their assets. That did work.
In fact, the first couple of million dollars of assets we managed did come easy.
It was the next several million that was really hard to raise. Even though I was confident, thought I knew what I was doing, and a good salesman … it didn’t seem to be enough.
This next group of potential investors wasn’t as easily convinced as the first round of family and friends.
They kept asking me, “What is my edge?” What edge did I have over Mr. Market that would make them money?
As much as I tried, I couldn’t articulate it in a simple sentence.
So I went to one of my mentors, a big Wall Street money manager and asked him to help me.
After a long lunch, he told me, “Chuck…you have a nice idea, but you ain’t selling me. I still have no idea what your edge is.”
That felt like a kick in the teeth … but he was right. If I couldn’t clearly state in a few words what my edge was, I didn’t have one. It was as simple as that.
For the next few days, I stayed home and didn’t go to the office. I sat at my parent’s dining room table with a stack of yellow legal pads, and a few flair pens and kept writing down why I was confident I’d make money in the stock market.
By the end of the week, I think I had it. I tried it out on the next prospect I went to see. Instead of giving them a dog and pony show, I just told them what my edge was.
After I said it, the prospect shook his head in agreement, and 10 minutes later, he became a client.
Finding Your Edge
My edge, close to 40 years ago, was the ability to build a system based on indicators that were tested over decades.
When the majority were on buys, we bought. When the majority were on sells, we sold.
My edge: I religiously would follow the system and never override it.
Following a system and taking EVERY signal was a real edge. You wouldn’t believe how many people on Wall Street don’t follow their system.
My edge was working…
In 1987, we moved all our clients out of stocks before the Black Monday Crash, became the #1 market timer over a seven-year period, and my firm was listed as the top trader by Barron’s at the end of 1998.
My point is this: having an edge, even a small edge, is all that you need to make money in the stock market.
It doesn’t have to be an algorithmic system or anything complicated … it just has to be something that most investors are not doing.
Editor’s Note: Charles built a new system to help you gain an edge in today’s market.
He’s showing a small group of readers how to invest in the biggest mega trends today. But they only own 10 stocks.
With the system he built, that’s all we need. It identifies the fastest, high-flying stocks in the stock market.
While the market continues to make all-time highs … His readers are beating the market by more than 4X with this system — crushing it with just 10 stocks.
So, stop letting profits slip through your hands. Get your edge today.
Over the past decade, it’s become harder and harder to beat the stock market.
In fact, 90% of all money managers underperform the S&P 500 index.
The reason is that the stock market is full of sharks — really smart people competing against each other.
Back in the day, making money in the stock market was much easier because there was a lot of dumb money.
Today, the problem is there’s too much smart money. And you never want to play a game where you don’t have an edge.
One of the simplest edges you have is the long game.
While most investors are trying to predict the stock’s performance over the next quarter, focus on the business’s performance over the next five years.
Believe it or not, but that is a huge edge … bigger than most people think.
Regards,
Charles Mizrahi
Founder, Alpha Investor
