Two Things Can Be True

What gives on the bullish and bearish takes?... An answer you deserve to have... Two things can be true... What matters more than being 'right'... We have a lot of products... Video: Bubba sounds off...

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Bullish or bearish?...

Today, I (Corey McLaughlin) want to cover a good question that came in from a new subscriber over the weekend...

It's a topic that we've covered before, and we expect to do so again. So if you've been with us at Stansberry Research for a while, it may be old hat to you. But it's nevertheless important.

Diana S. wrote in after reading my colleague Dan Ferris' latest terrific Friday essay, recalling his early days and education as an investor...

I'm a new subscriber. I'm trying to reconcile the message in this email about Ferris' expectation of lower stock returns over the next several years with the bull market predictions of Matt McCall and Brett Eversole...

I understand that Matt and Brett are part of Stansberry Research. How can you justify expressing completely opposite points of view within your organization? What's going on? I would really like to know.

Diana, welcome, and thanks for writing in. You bring up a very good question that deserves an answer. In short, yes, you will find our editors and analysts do have different opinions. We will not run away from this idea.

You probably saw that in that combination of Dan's Friday essay followed by Brett's Masters Series essays over the weekend, which gave reasons for why he's recommending buying stocks today.

I'll get the short answer out of the way... Different perspectives on the market and having analysts with varying investing strategies is actually a large part of what makes our business go...

Not only does it make for various offerings for subscribers, but it prevents the onset of dreaded groupthink that can turn an organization – or an individual investor – off track.

In the markets, like in life, hearing different views is an invaluable thing. (I still believe this is the case in the long run, even though it seems nobody working in Washington, D.C., or most people in mainstream media agree with the concept today.)

Our editors actually talk to each other and debate ideas...

Even if they disagree on a market outlook, they'll engage about their disagreements. I've seen it with my own two eyes.

As I wrote in a September 2021 Digest on this topic, titled "Why Being 'Right' Isn't the Most Important Thing," around the time of a "Bulls vs. Bears" event featuring Dan, Stansberry Research co-founder Steve Sjuggerud, and partner Dr. David "Doc" Eifrig...

The idea allows each of our editors and analysts to express their views and share their recommendations with you, our dear subscribers... And we know you all often have different goals, expectations, risk tolerances, and generally different mindsets.

Not everyone agrees with everything 100% of the time.

Steve, for example, has had success in his career using sentiment and trends to time the markets, including calling for higher stock prices at times when it wasn't popular to do so.

Meanwhile, Doc has done well for his subscribers by recommending shares of high-quality companies at good prices that you can hold for years or decades.

And Dan is a value-oriented investor... He seeks to recommend shares of companies that the market isn't properly pricing.

These three different strategies use different analytical approaches. Sometimes, all three editors reach different conclusions... Sometimes, they come to the same one.

At the same time...

If you stick around with us, I think you'll find our editors and analysts actually share more in common and aren't as "opposite" as it may sound.

The point referenced about Dan expecting "lower stock returns" overlooks a key idea within there... He still expects stocks to generate some kind of returns in the future, just perhaps not as large as some folks may have become accustomed to in a lower-interest-rate era.

Meanwhile, yes, Brett and Matt think we're at the start of a bull market in which stock prices rise over the long run.

Both things can be true. Stocks can go up, but maybe not by as much annually as they have in the previous 15 years or so.

Dan referenced this whole topic on our Investor Hour podcast recently... He pointed out he recommends stocks in his Extreme Value and Ferris Report newsletters just like Brett and Matt do in theirs.

They just come about it from different views, using different strategies... They talk about buying or selling different kinds of stocks, and for different reasons, so you will hear different things from them.

It's the same reason why you'll hear different analyses and conclusions from Crypto Capital editor Eric Wade, who researches and writes about cryptocurrencies, than you will from our Mike DiBiase, who covers distressed corporate bonds in Stansberry's Credit Opportunities.

They are far from the same thing.

The more important thing...

As Dan wrote on Friday...

The market might go up, down, or sideways from here.

I have no idea. Neither do you. And neither does your financial adviser.

It's pointless to even try to predict what will happen. No one knows the future.

So, let me turn to what is more important than being "right."

The most important point of this discussion is to make sure how you are investing and what assets you are buying or selling align with what you want to accomplish, the risks you're willing to take, and your timeline for success.

If you've got all that squared away in a plan that you feel comfortable with, great. You're way ahead of most people. But if you're not sure about anything I just referred to, as we shared in that 2021 essay, take some time to think about it...

You can only answer these questions by first determining what your goals are for your investments. Most folks simply never do this, though...

It means thinking about your time horizon, how much growth you hope to attain, and determining the right portfolio allocation – stocks, bonds, gold, or cryptocurrencies, for instance – that works for you.

Here are just two examples of ideas to consider... Are you relatively young and looking to build wealth? Or are you near or in retirement and looking to preserve wealth?

Depending on your viewpoint, you may want to own different assets... or have a different risk tolerance... or use a different exit strategy than your neighbor or some talking head on TV.

To anyone who may have just found us...

I'm confident we have newsletters and trading advisories for virtually every goal that an individual investor can imagine or want. Check out our lineup at StansberryResearch.com.

That's why we're able to offer things like 100%-satisfaction guarantees like Brett and Matt did in their latest video presentation, in which they shared how to access their top stock picks today and their very best research.

If for whatever reason, folks aren't satisfied with what they receive, they can call us within 30 days and receive 100% of the money spent back in the form of Stansberry credit. This credit is good for an entire year and can be applied to our other 20-plus research products.

So to turn back to our original question from Diana S. about Dan versus Brett and Matt...

In particular, as we mentioned in that 2021 essay, Dan takes a value-oriented approach, with the idea of buying shares of undervalued companies to build and protect wealth over the long term.

So, in that vein, you may hear takes from Dan in his regular Friday Digests about distortions in the market or warnings about companies that are certainly not good values today... and what ills their mere presence in the market could mean...

But even these bearish takes don't mean that Dan recommends against owning stocks... far from it. But you will probably read or hear something different in Brett and Matt's work than Dan's in general. And that's just fine. Stansberry Research's role is to hire people who are worth listening to, not to tell them what they should say.

All of our editors and analysts are trying to present the best possible information to their subscribers. They share our underlying Stansberry Research philosophy of providing you with the information they'd want to receive if they were in your shoes.

And subscribers get to choose whose arguments sound most compelling... whether they're more interested in making the safest bets or the most potentially lucrative ones... or which assets interest them.

I hope this helps clarify. Thanks for finding us, and do stick around.

New 52-week highs (as of 9/15/23): Cameco (CCJ), Denison Mines (DNN), Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI), Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM), Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (U-U.TO), Global X Uranium Fund (URA), Sprott Uranium Miners Fund (URNM), and Energy Fuels (UUUU).

In today's mailbag, more discussion about labor unions... and another observation about Dan Ferris' latest Friday essay and Brett Eversole's Saturday Masters Series essay... Do you have a comment or question? As always, e-mail us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com.

"If [subscriber John M.] believes union wages will be the driving force behind some kind of inflation he doesn't have much real-world insight. Unions typically work through contracts that have been struck several years before new demands come out. Many times they work on expired contracts to the benefit of many employers.

"Unions have many times taken cuts so companies can try to stay in business (see Yellow Trucking for recent information there) when a Union threatens to strike it really is the last thing they want to do. Unions get bad raps and sometimes it's warranted but labeling them all as greedy and only looking for money isn't the full story...

"While I disagree with many things with unions and their politics, [if not for] what they do for real workers and the people they stand for, we would still be in a feudal system. Nobody hears anything about unions until they go on strike and then they are greedy." – Subscriber James S.

"The Stansberry Digest offers readers different opinions from day to day. Often the topic covered offers solid fact-based opinions on where the author thinks we are and what direction they think that our economy is headed.

"Reading Dan's letter on Friday 'Down to my last $268' comes off as very 'bearish'. The very next day Brett's '1932 Lesson that could send stocks soaring' was 'bullish.' I often wonder if we could put these two in a ring to watch them debate their opinions." – Subscriber Todd J.

Corey McLaughlin comment: Not a bad idea, Todd. Brett (and Matt McCall) actually joined Dan for an interview on a recent episode of the Stansberry Investor Hour podcast.

As you may imagine, their difference of opinion did come up early on in the going – and then they still kept talking. I can tell you they might have more in common than it may sound. You can listen to the whole conversation right here, for free.

All the best,

Corey McLaughlin
Baltimore, Maryland
September 18, 2023