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Chris Versace

Chris Versace

Chris Versace, the "Thematic Investor," is the director of research at Think 20/20, an independent equity research and corporate access firm located in the Washington, D.C. area. Before Think 20/20, Mr. Versace was the portfolio manager of Agile Capital Management (ACM), a thematically driven alternative investment fund. The groundwork for ACM was laid during Mr. Versace’s tenure as senior vice president of equity research at Friedman Billings Ramsey, where he produced award-winning, differentiated research coverage using an ecosystem perspective of the mobile phone industry and enabling component technologies across various material technologies, including RF semiconductors (RFID, GPS), LEDs and display technologies. During his tenure at FBR, Mr. Versace received honorable mentions in Institutional Investor annual research analyst rankings, was a five-star analyst by Zacks Investment Services and a four-star analyst ranked by Star Mine. Mr. Versace was also an analyst at Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette, as well as Salomon Brothers. Mr. Versace is currently a weekly contributor to The Washington Times. He has been quoted extensively in the Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily, The Street.com, USA Today and other publications. He has participated in numerous industry panels, including the Northern Virginia Tech Council, We Media and others, and has appeared on Fox Business, CNBC, CNBC Europe, CNNfn and "America's Morning News." Mr. Versace earned bachelor's degrees in economics and mathematics at Fairfield University before earnings an master of business administration degree in Finance at Fordham University.

Articles by Chris Versace

VERSACE: Look beneath surface of earnings growth

The debate between corporate earnings growth and the economy raged this past week as companies such as FedEx Corp., Equinix Inc. and E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. delivered significant earnings growth year on year and compared with Wall Street's expectations.

July 29, 2010

VERSACE: With doubts about recovery, what to do?

With the stock market coming under increasing pressure as concerns about the viability of the economic recovery rise, several people have e-mailed me asking how they can protect themselves. The short answer is you can, and the more complicated answer is there are several ways to do so — some simpler ones and some that are more complex and better suited for more risk-tolerant investors.

July 8, 2010

VERSACE: Radio frequency ID wave of the future

One of my key investing themes is to locate disruptive technologies that are on the cusp of breaking out in terms of adoption in business-to-business, business-to-consumer or consumer-to-consumer applications. One such technology is radio frequency identification (RFID).

June 17, 2010

VERSACE: Tepid growth expectations ahead

We are roughly one-third of the way through June and so far the major stock market indexes are all negative month to date despite the rally under way Thursday morning.

June 10, 2010

VERSACE: Shopping carts roll for discount retailers

If the generally accepted notion that the domestic economy is one fueled by the consumer, then I suspect more than a few cages were rattled this past week. What I am referring to is the rash of retail sales data out over the past several days, which reinforced the view that consumers continue to stretch their budgets amid high unemployment and a weak job market.

June 3, 2010

VERSACE: Dividend-paying companies offer investors port in a storm

The roller-coaster stock-market ride continued this past week amid worries over Europe and the euro early in the week followed renewed concern over the state of the economy as revised gross domestic product (GDP) and weekly jobless-claims data became available.

May 27, 2010

VERSACE: Renewed concerns on how sustainable the recovery may be

Despite all of the progress we have made over the past 18 months, renewed concerns over the sustainability of the tepid economic recovery are rising. Concerns about Greece and then Portugal, followed by Germany's ban on naked short-selling and euro concerns, have pushed the stock market down in recent days.

May 21, 2010

VERSACE: Two steps forward, one step back

A week ago, I along with the vast majority of investors were staring down one of the worst trading days in recent history. For those not familiar with what I am describing, on May 5 the three major stock indexes - the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite - were down several percentage points before free-falling for 30 minutes to down more than 6 percent for the S&P 500 and nearly 7 percent for the Nasdaq.

May 14, 2010

VERSACE: Volatility brings opportunity for prepared investors

While many people greet the month of May with an improving disposition as the spring weather brings cheery wishes of Happy May Day and Cinco de Mayo, investors both personal and professional tend to greet May with more caution. The adage most commonly associated with this month is "Sell in May and go away." This refers to the notion championed by Jeff Hirsch, editor of the "Stock Trader's Almanac," that stock returns lag in the summer months and that investors are better served investing in the November to April period.

May 7, 2010

VERSACE: Focus on firms with real earnings

While many investors kept one eye on the Greek financial crisis and what might have been done by Germany, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to stave off any meltdown, the other eye was on the plethora of corporate earnings both this week and last.

April 30, 2010

VERSACE: Reregulating won’t necessarily prevent more crises

Compared with the past few weeks, the earlier part of this week was rather quiet in terms of fresh economic data. Later in the week, we'll get renewed views on the industrial economy and housing, but anecdotal evidence from companies that have reported their earnings suggests the former to be good while the latter may be tepid.

April 23, 2010

VERSACE: Better global outlook bodes well for stock market

There has been much talk about the "recent" rally in the stock market. I say "recent" for a reason - even though there have been some bumps along the way in the last several months, the stock market has made a substantial move over the last year, as evidenced by the performance of the three major indices.

April 2, 2010