David Fried

A Cornell graduate, David Fried is one of the few money managers to have also founded a company listed in Inc. Magazine’s annual “Inc. 500” list of the 500 fastest growing private companies (1989).

Mr. Fried is the editor and publisher of The Buyback Letter, the only investment newsletter devoted to finding opportunities among companies that repurchase their own stock. His asset management firm – Fried Asset Management, Inc. – offers separate investor advisory and money management services which use the “Buyback Strategy” principles.

The Buyback Letter was named to The Hulbert Financial Digest 2010 Investment Newsletter Honor Roll! There were only 9 that made the Honor Roll, out of 77 under consideration. To be so honored, a newsletter must exhibit above-average performance in both up AND down markets.

Mr. Fried has been a featured guest on Bloomberg Television, CNBC’s “Money Club,” and “Squawk Box” and “Market Wrap” with Bill Bresnan in New York City.

He has also been profiled in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Barron’s, Bottom Line Personnel, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Forbes, Fortune, Business Week and numerous other publications. 

Mr. Fried was listed as one of “50 Great Investors” in Fortune’s Investors Guide 2004.  He is also an approved guest speaker for the American Association of Individual Investors. In 2008 he helped found First Commons Bank of Newton, MA.

The Buyback Letter’s “Indexed Portfolios” have beaten the S&P 500 index since their introduction in March 1997, outperforming by an average 167% (through 6/30/09).

Additionally, The Buyback Letter is ranked number one for risk-adjusted returns among stock-picking newsletters by The Hulbert Financial Digest for the 10 years that this prestigious, authoritative digest tracked the newsletter’s results (1/1997-04/30/07) (Ranked 2nd for risk-adjusted returns for all categories). The Buyback Letter continues to receive consistently high grades from The Hulbert Financial Digest.

Fried Asset Management, Inc.’s managed accounts have outperformed the Dow Jones by a ratio of almost 12-to-1 since inception in January 1998 (123% vs. an 11% gain for the Dow for year ending 12/31/08).   (A BDO Seidman audit is available on request; past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Mr. Fried lives in Pacific Palisades, CA with his wife and two children.  He served on the Board of Directors of L.A. Family Housing from 2002-2008.  Mr. Fried also completed a rigorous training program led by former Vice President Al Gore and was named one of Gore’s select “Global Warming Messengers” in 2007.

Through grassroots speaking engagements and local outreach to businesses, schools and individuals, he has spread the message about the threat of and solutions to global warming.

The Buyback Letter is a full-service monthly newsletter for investors who like more explanation and information. The newsletter includes buy, sell and hold instructions, a featured article, a choice of six model portfolios with a range of risk and activity each month, news briefs, charts and weekly hotlines -- everything you need to know about investing in companies that repurchase their own shares

The Buyback Letter Premium Edition is a focused, high-octane strategy for experienced investors only, with a single 5-stock portfolio that changes each month. It is designed to take advantage of the hottest buyback stocks available. Subscribers get a monthly e-mail hotline with buy, sell and hold instructions, and access to charts tracking portfolio value.

From David Fried ...

My buyback investment strategy has consistently beaten the market, from the bull market of the 1990s through the ensuing bear market and its subsequent recovery, followed by the current see-sawing market. Whether the market is bullish, bearish or flat, solid or wobbly, my portfolios beat their benchmarks.

The research is behind me. A major study of the stock market over a 20-year time period found that in each four-year period, value buyback stocks – buyback stocks with high book-to-market ratios — generated returns 388% higher than other stocks. The financial difference Buyback Stocks make for your bottom line is tremendous.

In a recent 10-year period of a raging bull market, if you had invested $10,000 in a typical S&P 500 portfolio, your investment would have grown to $67,917. That’s an excellent return, but the same $10,000 invested exclusively in value buyback stocks would have grown to $130,254. That’s nearly $70,000 more in profits, double what you received from a typical S&P 500 portfolio.

And that’s just returns from an average value buyback stock portfolio. Over half have done even better, sometimes much better.

Over the years, we’ve made money on some of the biggest, most well-known companies in this country, and on some smaller high-fliers, too. We buy throughout all industries -- retailers, restaurants, drug companies, high tech, airlines, oil companies, financials, insurers, dot coms. The common thread in all of our investment recommendations has been that they all were buying back their own shares, and ultimately reducing total shares outstanding.

At The Buyback Letter, we take companies that announce buybacks and analyze them more rigorously than they've ever been analyzed before, to separate the wheat from the chaff. Then we recommend stocks based on the profiles for each portfolio. Each month in the newsletter, we offer you buy, sell or hold advice on all our guided portfolios, so that you, too, can beat the market using The Buyback Strategy.