February 17, 2024 In-Person Chapter Meeting & Webinar

What’s Coming in 2024
for Small-Cap Stocks

Announcements:

• Our speaker and his wife(!) have agreed to have lunch with us at a local restaurant following the meeting. Please consider joining us.
• Because we are meeting on the third Saturday this month, the Income SIG met on the 10th instead. See the Chapter Information web page for details.
• We wish to give a hearty ‘Thank you!’ to the 96 chapter members and attendees who responded to our recent survey. You provided a wealth of information for us to analyze and ponder. We plan to share a summary of survey responses with the chapter in the next couple of months.

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While the performance of mega-cap stocks drove the overall market to highs in 2023, many market forecasters are now warning about excesses in the valuations of these stocks. If (when?) these stocks pull back closer to their average rates of return, the losses could be significant. This is why it’s vital that investors make sure to maintain exposure to small company stocks in their portfolios. Despite a late 2023 rally, small company valuations remain attractive overall, with plenty of individual companies offering above-average return prospects.

In this presentation, Doug Gerlach will share his economic and market outlook for 2024 along with actionable ideas to share for individual investors. His picks come from the three newsletters that he edits: the market-beating Investor Advisory Service (named for 14 consecutive years to the “Hulbert Investment Newsletter Honor Roll”); the SmallCap Informer (now in its 12th year and with a track record outperforming the small-cap stock index); and the Dividend Informer (newly founded in 2023).

Points of emphasis:

• Doug’s favorite strong stock buys in early 2024
• How to find smaller companies that fit longer term portfolios
• The impact of the economy and current Fed policy on a long-term small company stock portfolio

Meeting Details:

Date: Saturday, February 17, 2024

Time: 10:00 a.m. ET (mix and mingle starts at 9:30)

Location: Barwell Road Community Center: 5857 Barwell Park Drive Raleigh, NC 27610

Virtual access: To register to attend the Zoom webinar, please purchase a ticket on our chapter’s Square account

Cost: $7 cash (in-person) or electronic payment (webinar)

Before attending in person, please read:

• the AAII Protocol for In-Person Meetings

If you feel sick, please join us virtually.

About Our Speaker

For more than 30 years, Doug Gerlach has been teaching individuals how to make smarter decisions about investing in the stock market, through books, newsletters, websites, and educational presentations.

Gerlach is the President of ICLUBcentral Inc., a subsidiary of BetterInvesting and makers of websites and newsletters for individual investors and investment clubs. He is the author of six financial books, including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Online Investing, The Armchair Millionaire, and Investment Clubs for Dummies. He has written articles for publications such as Individual Investor, PC World, BetterInvesting, and ComputerLife, and was a Consulting Editor and columnist for Time-Life’s Mutual Funds Magazine.

Doug is Editor-in-Chief of three investing newsletters: the long-term award-winning, market-beating Investor Advisory Service, the SmallCap Informer (which he founded in 2012 and has a lifetime record of outperforming the S&P SmallCap 600), and the brand new Dividend Informer (started in 2023).

The Investor Advisory Service is one of the top-performing stock newsletters in the country and has been named to the Investment Newsletter Honor Roll by Hulbert Ratings for fourteen consecutive years from 2010 through 2024 in recognition of its outstanding performance in both up and down markets over the past decade. IAS was the top-performing newsletter on the 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24 Honor Rolls.

Doug has spoken at investor events from Honolulu to Berlin, for such organizations as the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII), BetterInvesting (NAIC), the National Education Association, National Investor Relations Institute, MoneyShow, and Charles Schwab, as well as at personal finance conferences organized by CNBC, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Morningstar, and Oregon Public Broadcasting. He has taught at investor events in more than 80 cities across the U.S., where his skill in explaining often-complex concepts with humor, energy, and clarity helps to turn investors into better investors. His regular webinars reach thousands of individual investors each month.