By Alan Hardcastle, ASA Member
28 July 2022
Too many ASA members fail to take advantage of possibly the best investment education by not attending their local monthly member meetings. For practical, unbiased advice, nothing beats listening to other members, believes this writer.
Typically, the Hawthorn (Vic) meeting has a loyal group of some 18 or so, meeting each month at The Tower Hotel in Melbourne’s inner east. The morning meeting get togethers move into a lunch mode when even more investment thoughts are exchanged over the dining table.
For the July meeting, convenor Bill Grint selected the topic “Christmas in July”. For those happy to participate, they selected a ‘speculative’ Australian stock (market capitalisation of less than $500m) and discussed why they had selected this particular company. That is, the product/service it offers or is developing; previous business successes; and good management performance etc.
These stock selections will be revisited in November with the best performing stock for the five month period winning a little Christmas gift!
“This type of exercise gets people out of their comfort zones,” Bill explained. “We had tabled here today a very disparate group of stock selections and they highlighted the numerous opportunities and offerings existing out there in the market.”
The ASA monthly meetings, held nationally in cities and regional areas, are also an opportunity for members to seek non-investment advice such as clarification on share issue and takeover documentation.
“We find that our group is representative of people who are at various stages of their investment lives while also having quite different investments including industry and retail funds; self managed super; stand alone share portfolios; crypto; and other assets,” noted Bill.
“The meetings prove most valuable through shared information and experiences,” he added.
You can select an Australian Shareholders’ Association member meeting to attend here.
From left, Bill Grint, Vita Beder and Barry Grant
John Searle and Michael Muntisov (right)
From left, Julie Grint, Denis Torrens and Angela Hardcastle
