INVESTOR IN THE FAMILY Radio

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is a private, international association. The association is made up mainly of doctors and health sector workers and is also open to all other professions which might help in achieving its aims. All of its members agree to honor the following principles:

MSF provides assistance to populations in distress, to victims of natural or man-made disasters, and to victims of armed conflict. They do so irrespective of race, religion, creed, or political convictions.

MSF observes neutrality and impartiality in the name of universal medical ethics and the right to humanitarian assistance and claims full and unhindered freedom in the exercise of its functions.

Members undertake to respect their professional code of ethics and maintain complete independence from all political, economic, or religious powers.

As volunteers, members understand the risks and dangers of the missions they carry out and make no claim for themselves or their assigns for any form of compensation other than that which the association might be able to afford them.

In this interview with Chris Camillo we learn how he used in formation arbitrage to grow his portfolio from under $200,000 to over $3 million in seven years with a compounded annual growth rate of 84%. Sounds pretty crazy right?

When I met Chris a few months ago I was very intrigued with this story and with his company, TickerTags. Chris was gracious enough to give me a copy of his book, Laughing at Wall Street and I actually read it cover to cover on the plane ride home from the conference that we were at. I read a lot but it's rare that are read a book in one sitting like I did Laughing at Wall Street.

I found Chris's story very compelling and I appreciated his approach investing a lot. The intro to this article probably sounds a little bit like a get rich quick proposal. The cool thing is that is actually not the case. In Chris's book and in the podcast he makes it clear there are no guarantees and sometimes we draw the wrong conclusions and make bad investments.

One thing that sets Chris's approach a part in my mind is that he is a strong advocate of not putting your retirement money or other crucial assets at risk through your investing. That money is best put the work in conservative indexes, etc. Chris has a neat method of finding extra money to invest and then leveraging those investments in a way they can lead to significant returns. I'll let you listen to the rest of the podcast to hear more about that story.

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Thank you so much for joining us at investor in the family!

Kirk used to work in NYC in investment banking with the Mergers & Acquisitions Group for Deutsche Bank, a German-Based Company. He later took a job as a Research Analyst covering REITs at BB&T Capital Markets.

Eventually, he left the investment side to run a family Mortgage Lending business.

In August of 2007 he started optionalpha.com where he shares some of his thoughts on what he was trading; strategies, stocks, positions, etc.

Kirk focuses all of his attention on trading options, as non-directional as he can to generate long-term income for his portfolio. He realizes that to be successful it requires you to be both "consistent" and "persistent". Consistently trading the right strategies and the persistence to do so when trades don't go your way.

James has accumulated over twenty years of experience investing and trading virtually every asset class across the globe.He started his investment career as an analyst at one of the US's largest asset management firms covering sectors as diverse as emerging markets, banking, energy, construction, real estate, metals and mining. Later, James became Chief Global Strategist and Head of International Investments for a major investment bank.

James currently manages his own investment firm, specializing in proprietary trading and institutional portfolio management advisory. Needless to say, James has a lot of experience to speak from. He is also a contributor on Seeking Alpha.

Jennifer is the Founder and CEO of PolicyGenius. PolicyGenius is known for being the easiest way to get insurance. Buying insurance stinks, PolicyGenius makes it better with ease and education.

At PolicyGenius, she is the resident expert on insurance and financial consumer behavior. Before PolicyGenius, Jennifer was an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company and attended Columbia Law School.

Todd Tresidder is the man behind financialmentor.com where he helps his clients find financial freedom. Todd has been a serial entrepreneur since childhood building many businesses and retiring at age 35 from his position as a Hedge Fund Investment Manager responsible for a 20+ million dollar portfolio. Todd’s portfolio management for the Hedge Fund produced 100% winning years except one, which was less than a 5% loss. He raised his net worth from less than zero at age 23 to become a self-made millionaire 12 years later by “walking the talk” using the same personal finance and investment strategies taught atfinancialmentor.com. Todd was also an early pioneer and expert in statistical and mathematical risk management systems for investing. Financially independent from age 35 through his investing. Todd is still an active investor who earns consistent investment returns in both up and down markets.

Brian has worked with the best firms and the most interesting characters on The Street. His tour at Merrill Lynch Silicon Valley led him to believe in "the talent trade" where he saw his mentor retire trading Google options. This taught him the value of contrarian concentration: Putting most of your eggs in the right talent-heavy basket. Yet Brian is not a perma-bull. His experience at Euro Pacific Capital working alongside the controversial Uber-Bear, Peter Schiff, solidified his belief in the unsustainable debt situation. He understands money printing is the one and only solution. This macro-perspective allows Brian to look for the most sought after non-cash assets, confident that while the short-run may be choppy, in the end, "cash is trash" and no place for your wealth. Most recently, his experience at Wedbush in Los Angeles, he learned that Investing is simply this: "You find the most talented teams in the world and you bet on them. Forget product, forget forecasts, forget plans. The world is moving too fast. Find the smartest guys in the room and buy and hold." Finally, his longtime and lifetime mentor, Nassim Taleb has taught Brian the imperative nature of positioning: "You must take Risk, you must have exposure to positive black swans." "A grandslam homerun in this game does not equal 4 runs. It can equal 40,000+ runs. Swing for the fences every at bat. Just make sure you get enough at bats. Keep going. Move Forward. Risk on."

For close to two decades David advised and managed assets for institutions and financial planners. David was Chief Investment Strategist and Chief Portfolio Strategist at Fund Evaluation Group, LLC, a $33 billion investment advisory firm, where he co-headed the 21-person research group.

David co-founded the firm’s $2.2 billion asset management division where he developed its investment philosophy and process and was the lead portfolio manager.

David perfected his teaching style as an investment consultant to numerous not-for-profit institutions where he assisted the board and staff in overseeing billions of dollars in endowment assets.

His former institutional clients include The Texas A&M University System, the University of Puget Sound, and the Sierra Club Foundation.

Join Brian from INVESTOR IN THE FAMILY as he interviews Brad Thomas to learn more about how REITs work and how to find value when researching them.