John Buckingham

The Prudent Speculator (TPS) has been the #1 ranked, not adjusted for risk, investment newsletter for the past 15, 20 and 25 years according to The Hulbert Financial Digest (as of 4.30.10). TPS is focused on value investing and was created for the individual investor.

Al Frank founded TPS March 1977. John Buckingham has continued our traditions as editor of TPS.

For more than 30 years, The Prudent Speculator has conveyed the virtues of an investment strategy founded on:

1) Selection - focusing on relatively undervalued stocks,
2) Diversification - buying lots of them and
3) Patience - holding them for their long-term appreciation potential.

This focus on patience allows our subscribers to thumb their noses at one of the pillars of the universe: time. Here's how we put time to work for you without having to navigate any dangerous wormholes: We sit down, strap ourselves in and begin poring over thousands of financial statements. But we don't limit our possibilities by market-cap or traditional value-versus-growth distinctions.

If small-cap stocks have had a great run, it's time to start looking at mid- and large-cap companies. If a $100 million tech stock with a cash-rich balance sheet is inexpensive, we'll consider it. To the impatient, the undisciplined, time stops.

It torments. It confuses. But having crunched thousands of numbers to unearth what we feel are bargains, we can be confident that their value will emerge in time. This makes it easier to be patient. Which is why, on average, we hold stocks for over six years.

Once you see the benefits of having a long-term, value-based investment philosophy working for you, we think you'll feel the urge to put your feet up. And wait patiently as we put time to work for you.

Those first thirty years of The Prudent Speculator were just the beginning. It's not too late to reserve a seat on our next trip. But hurry. Time's a wasting.

Founded in 1977, Al Frank Asset Management, Inc. is an independent, registered investment advisor. We exercise diligence and prudence in applying our value-based investment philosophy to help meet the investment goals and objectives of individuals, corporations and pension and profit sharing plans.

We do this through the management of private accounts, as well as two proprietary mutual funds. We also serve as the Editor of The Prudent Speculator, a top-ranked investment newsletter in terms of total return performance according to The Hulbert Financial Digest.

We’re all vulnerable, on occasion, to the whims of our emotions. Even if you make rational, carefully considered investment decisions 99% of the time, those moments when anxiety boils over into fear or when prudence gives way to greed can wreak havoc on your portfolio.

That’s why it’s critical to take emotion out of the equation. And perhaps the best way to do so is to find an investment philosophy with a proven track record that you can believe in, making it easier to adhere to over the long haul—a philosophy that enables you to ignore the daily gyrations of the market.

Since 1977, Al Frank Asset Management has employed a long-term investment philosophy that’s based on three core tenets: selection, diversification and patience. And while we’re fond of talking at length about our time-tested philosophy, for now we’d like to share with you the abbreviated version:

Perhaps nothing sets us apart, in our view, more than our approach to stock selection. We don’t limit ourselves to the constraints of those nine little style boxes. So we’re free to go wherever we think the best stock values currently are found.

After crunching thousands of numbers to unearth these bargains, we feel we can be confident that their value has the potential to emerge in time, so patience comes easily. And patience in turn enables us to have low turnover of our holdings, which keeps our trading costs down while potentially improving our after-tax returns (as realized capital gains are often of the long-term variety).

To minimize risk and maximize opportunity, our holdings of individual stocks number in the hundreds, we think improving our chances of owning those rare few stocks that everyone wishes they’d noticed earlier.