Our guest today is Eddy Elfenbein. Eddy has been a leading writer in the financial community since starting the Crossing Wall Street website and CWS “Buy List” in 2005 and 2006, respectively. He often appears on CNBC and Bloomberg, where he shares his insights on the market and the economy. 

In this episode we talk all about constructing a high quality stocks portfolio. This has nothing to do with technical analysis, Eddy walks us through how to find value by looking for companies with pricing power, consistency in earnings, strong operating margins, and clear competitive advantages.

Eddy breaks down the process he uses to craft the CWS buy list every year and shares his thoughts on a few of the companies currently on his “Buy List”.

If you’re someone looking to sharpen your fundamental analysis, this one's for you. 

Please enjoy this episode with Eddy Elfenbein.

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This episode is sponsored by Investor’s Business Daily. IBD has helped investors navigate every market cycle with their time-tested methodology for over 35 years. Right now Smarter Trading podcast listeners can get their first 2 months of IBD Digital, a subscription service that gives you access to IBD’s proprietary market analysis and top trade ideas for only $20 by signing up at investors.com/evan. 

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What you'll learn in this episode

2:35 Fundamental Analysis: Middleby Corporation - MIDD 
5:20 Crossing Wall Street Buy List methodology
9:15 How to think about selling stocks you own
13:00 AdvisorShares Focused Equity ETF - Ticker: CWS 
16:00 Eddy’s background and how we came up in the industry 
19:40 The process of constructing the ETF and building a portfolio
27:25 the edge in looking at smaller cap companies
32:20 Separating the numbers from the story, outlook, & intangible assets
38:00 The world's simplest valuation model
42:45 The role of the global macro environment on a stock picker
44:35 Tips for do-it-yourself traders building their own portfolio
50:35 Fundamental Analysis: Heico - HEICO 
51:45 Fundamental Analysis: Miller - MLR 
53:15 Resources for fundamental investors
55:30 Diversification is overrated & stop paying so much att