Vad's Best Ideas

Vad Yazvinski

Biography

B.S.B.A. in Finance/Accounting

Passed CFA® Level III Exam in June 2006

Strategy/M&A manager for an IT company

-What is your strategy and approach to the contest?

If I could sum it up in few words I would call it a “50% Event driven strategy” and “50% good-old contrarian value style investing”. Here is what I mean by that- I usually approach investment process from a very fundamental prospective believing that stock is only worth as much as it’s cash flows it can generate in the next 5 years (including expected terminal value in year 5).

I start with a general economic forecast for the next 6-12 months and plan an action plan around key events that could potentially alter my overall macroeconomic view. I certainly do not expect to be always right and thus I usually have two or three alternative action plans just in case my original projection was flat out wrong. After I settle on the sectors/countries that I believe would outperform in the short term in each scenario, I use a set of fundamental indicators to pick the best stocks. I do usually read 10Qs and spend reasonable amount of time analyzing financial statements before pulling the trigger.

However, because I am in general a contrarian, I am convinced that markets frequently overreact. I use that to my advantage. For example ff I believe that certain issues affect the whole sector or a large group of related stocks, but one stock declines significantly more than it logically should, I investigate why and often pull the trigger while frequently averaging down several times if necessary.

-What do you hope to get out of it?

I entered this contest with the same goal as any other reasonable and ambitious player would- I really want to win. I have spent the last 5 years learning the insights of the stock market, having passed consecutively all three levels of the CFA exam. In addition to that, I have also build a very solid and auditable track record on the Marketocracy.com and have been selected as one of the top 100 virtual fund managers on the web site.

So, hopefully, if I am fortunate enough to prove to everyone that I deserve to win this competition, I will wisely use the opportunity to be featured on the MSN’s Strategy Lab for six months as it will allow me to share my insights with thousands of people. This opportunity could also help me achieve my long term objective of building a successful career in the investment management profession. I think I am ready to do this full time and now it is time for me to prove that.

For any questions please feel free to e-mail me at VYazvinski@gmail.com

Strategy