Guerilla Blogger meets the Street Strategist

In my bid to become a better value investor and to be more equipped in our business, together with one of my managers and one of my staff we attended a two day “Financial literacy-accounting for non-accountants” seminar last July 15 and 16 2009 conducted by the Street Strategist and held at the Holiday Plaza hotel.

The Street Strategist is no other than the famous Thads Bentulan perhaps one of the greatest minds of the 21st century. Thads has a degree in engineering and an MBA from the prestigious Asian Institute of Management. He is famous for his “out of the box” thinking on very interesting topics. He currently anchors a radio program every 9 p.m. from Mondays to Friday in station DYAB, ABS-CBN Cebu. The program is called “Side walk 1512” where he talks about business, finance and economics. On Saturdays he hosts a very controversial radio program. (Try listening to it if you want to know what it is all about:-) ). His “hyperwage theory” has caused quite a stir not only in Cebu but in the blogsphere and the entire country as well.

The Street Strategist not only seems to have a knack for attracting controversy, he also seems to have the “gift of prophecy.” Almost a decade ago, being a former columnist for Business World (our equivalent of the Wall Street Journal) he wrote about the business strategy that San Miguel will take and that Meralco will be taken over by an internet or communications company. Today, his “prophecy” seems to be coming true with the recent corporate events happening in both companies. I’ll take more about this in other post. All of the Street Strategist’s writings have been compiled into 13 volumes of book. You might want to check it out in the blog he calls as “The misadventures of the Street Strategist.”

I’ve followed the Street Strategist over the radio and the internet for quite some time. His insights into business finance and economics has been of interest to me considering that I am so much into value investing. So when I learned over the radio that he is conducting a 2 day seminar, I jumped at the opportunity.

The two-day seminar is not your typical “accounting for non-accountants” seminar for several reasons. First of all, the “accounting” is taught by a non-accountant. Secondly, the seminar claims to make you into an “accounting wizard” in just a day and that what is taught is the world’s fastest way to learn debit and credit. Thirdly, the seminar is more than your usual accounting seminar wherein you are taught just debit and credit. In this seminar you are taught how to analyze financial statements the basic principles of finance, the time value of money, rv financing a business among other things.

On the first day, we learned about debit and credit. True to his claims, the “accounting wizard” is indeed the fastest way to learn debit and credit. The Street Strategists does not go about the traditional way of teaching debit and credit. He follows his own unique system. So efficient is the system that he lambasted those in the academe for not coming up with this system to make student’s lives more easier. As usual, being able to immediately attract controversy, the PICPA (Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants) produced a full page ad in response to the “Accounting wizard.”

I certainly agree with the Street Strategist. The system he came up with certainly makes a student’s life easier. This system should be taught in every course that has an accounting subject.

Although I learned a lot on the first day, the second day is much more interesting as this is the meat of what I am waiting for, the analysis of financial statements other topics in finance concepts we also discussed, albeit shortly.

While the Street Strategists does not seem to be a very firm believer in investing in the stock market investing himself, the principles about finance he taught me certainly helped me increase my knowledge about how to evaluate a stock.

True enough at the end of this two day seminar, it seems that the Street Strategist has magically waived his wand over our heads and transformed us into “accounting wizards.” While I may not be able to say that I am now ready to take the CPA board exams, I can clearly and confidently say that I have become a much more better and more equipped value investor because of his seminar.

For those of you who missed the seminar, fret not ! There will be another “Financial Literacy” Batch 17 seminar this coming Augusts 21 and 22, 2009. You can call (032)-319-0717 or email streetstrategistconsulting @ gmail.com. If you want to be a better value investor by learning how to evaluate a company’s stock properly I highly recommend this seminar !

If you want to know more what other materials I recommend in order to be a better value investor check out my post entitled “Recommended reading materials for the value investor.”

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Hi ! my name is Zigfred Diaz. Thanks for visiting my personal blog ! Never miss a post from this blog. Subscribe to my full feeds for free. Click here to subscribe to zdiaz.com by Email

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