Formerly Computer-Aided Investing, the new name better reflects what we've been doing for the last few years: having interesting conversations about all sorts of topics in the investing world.  Techniques, tips, training, securities, commodities, indexes, forex, computer programs, ETFs, ETC...  Whatever our members are interested in and bring to the table.  The agenda for each meeting is announced about a week or less before the meeting.

CAI-SIG generally meets the first Wednesday of each month  in the community room of Northwest Library at NW 23rd and NW Thurman Street, Portland, from 6pm to 7:45 pm.  This month's meeting falls on February 1st, but because our meeting room is already taken, our February meeting is moved to January 31st.

Because February 1st had already been booked for the use of the NW Library conference room, Speedy Gonzalez here booked the room for the evening before. So, CAI (aka Computer Assisted Investing, also alias Conversations About Investing) will meet at the NW Library, NW 23rd and Thurman, in Portland, TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 2012, from 6:00 PM to 7:45 PM.

        The agenda is MEMBERS CONTRIBUTIONS.

1. Below is an offer from Roger Ellington which I am quoting entirely so you can read the article, to which he is referring, ahead of time if you wish. My copy/paste job does not show on my computer the graph that is in this article.  If you get a black outline with a little red x, I guess you will have to come to the meeting to see the graph and get in on the discussion.   : - ). 

2. Since Roger forecasts about 20 minutes plus, we will have time for other contributions - books, web sites, your current interest or research that you would like to share.  Thank you.

Sr. Rene' 

----------

Dear Sr. Rene,   Today I read the below article as attached.  I really do not understand what the significance of what the author is saying.  I was just wondering if it would make a good small discussion topic for a CAI meeting.  I will do a little research and report on what I think it means.  I am sure experts who attend can help fill in the details I leave out.  I could see a good 10 minutes of presentation and 10 for discussion, depending on your agenda.  No sweat if this is not something that would be good meeting fodder.   Just let me know how much time to prepare for if you think it worthy for the meeting.

 
Also, I am planning to attend the IBD ‘CAN SLIM’ meetup in Corvallis on Tues and could briefly report.  Another possible future agenda item would be a more in-depth intro and review of this investment method.

Thanks,Roger

-----------------------------------------------

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052...

A Standard, and Poor, Way of Investing

By JUSTIN LAHART

The stock market has treated investors well recently. But taking a longer view, it has been downright abusive.

Even with a gain of 4% since the start of the year, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index has, with dividends reinvested, lost 8% since reaching its peak in October 2007. Adjust the index for inflation, and the news is worse—it has lost 18% since August 2000. Anybody who put money into an S&P 500 index fund between late 1998 and early 2001 remains in the red.

When was the last time that so much time elapsed and the U.S. stock market still remained below its inflation-adjusted peak?

Never, according to the monthly price and return data from Yale University economist Robert Shiller's reconstruction of the S&P 500 back to 1871. Even investors who bought on the eve of the 1929 crash were briefly above water, in inflation-adjusted terms, in 1937. Of course, since this owes to the deflation experienced during the Great Depression, strictly speaking the mattress was still a better place to put your money.

But while the stock market has been faring poorly, stocks have been doing better. The equal-weighted S&P 500 index, which puts all stocks on the same footing rather than weighting them by market capitalization, has beaten the regular index hands down. Since August 2000, it has returned an inflation-adjusted 52%.

A big reason the equal-weighted S&P has outperformed is that it's a sneaky way of value investing. In the late 1990s, retail investors who bought a vanilla S&P 500 fund, along with investment managers who benchmarked the sector weightings in their portfolios to the index, were loading up on expensive technology stocks. In the mid 2000s, they were buying heavily into the shares of housing and finance-related companies.

Exchange-traded funds may only be making the market more top heavy. Weighing in at $417 billion, the company with the largest market capitalization in the S&P 500 these days is Exxon Mobil. It is, according to ETF Database, among the top-10 holdings of 85 ETFs. (Fun fact: That includes both the WisdomTree LargeCap Growth Fund and the WisdomTree LargeCap Value Fund.) When investors put money into any one of them, they are giving Exxon shares another incremental boost. In contrast, biotech firm PerkinElmer—with a market cap of $2.6 billion and one of the smaller companies in the index—is in the top-10 holdings of just one ETF.

There are a handful of investors who control such huge pools of money that their portfolios can't help but shadow the market-capitalization weighted S&P 500. For the rest, there is no excuse.

------------------------------

AAII is the American Association of Individual Investors, an independent, non-profit group that offers materials and events to help individual investors.

In addition to this meeting, the general meetings for the Portland AAII chapter are the third Tuesday of every odd month. About 80-100 folks arrive to hear an invited speaker. The next one is Tuesday, March 20, at Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel, 8235 NE Airport Wa.  The one beyond that is May 15.  Stay tuned for details!

More info on AAII: http://www.aaii.com/

More info on the Portland AAII chapter: http://www.aaii.com/pdx