Skip to main content
The Meb Faber Show

Eddy Elfenbein – OG Financial Blogger Turned ETF Manager | #601

54 min episode · 2 min read
·
Eddy Elfenbein

Episode

54 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Health & Wellness, Investing, Startups

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Portfolio Construction Discipline: The buy list adds exactly five new stocks and removes five annually, creating 20% turnover that forces long-term thinking and prevents emotional overtrading during market volatility or individual stock performance swings.
  • Finding Overlooked Winners: Target companies with market caps between $15-70 million followed by three or fewer analysts, where individual investors can know as much as Wall Street professionals by reading 10-Ks. Examples include HEICO, up 1000-fold since 1995.
  • ETF Launch Reality: Reaching breakeven requires $20-80 million in assets depending on fee structure. Founders must subsidize operations for 5-10 years minimum, as managing money and running the business are completely different skill sets requiring separate time commitments.
  • Market Cycle Awareness: High PE ratios signal better sell opportunities than low PE ratios signal buys. Defensive sectors like healthcare and staples underperforming suggests economic strength, while their outperformance typically precedes lower interest rates and economic weakness.

What It Covers

Eddie Elfenbein discusses his 20-year journey from financial blogger to ETF manager, running the CWS ETF with a disciplined buy list strategy of 25 high-quality, under-followed stocks with 20% annual turnover.

Key Questions Answered

  • Portfolio Construction Discipline: The buy list adds exactly five new stocks and removes five annually, creating 20% turnover that forces long-term thinking and prevents emotional overtrading during market volatility or individual stock performance swings.
  • Finding Overlooked Winners: Target companies with market caps between $15-70 million followed by three or fewer analysts, where individual investors can know as much as Wall Street professionals by reading 10-Ks. Examples include HEICO, up 1000-fold since 1995.
  • ETF Launch Reality: Reaching breakeven requires $20-80 million in assets depending on fee structure. Founders must subsidize operations for 5-10 years minimum, as managing money and running the business are completely different skill sets requiring separate time commitments.
  • Market Cycle Awareness: High PE ratios signal better sell opportunities than low PE ratios signal buys. Defensive sectors like healthcare and staples underperforming suggests economic strength, while their outperformance typically precedes lower interest rates and economic weakness.

Notable Moment

Elfenbein reveals his mother outperformed him by holding Eli Lilly while he sold it, and she texts him on big up days about her 11-share position, making him one of few portfolio managers receiving performance updates from his mom.

Know someone who'd find this useful?

Episode Transcript

Welcome to the Meb Faber show, where the focus is on helping you grow and preserve your wealth. Join us as we discuss the craft of investing and uncover new and profitable ideas, all to help you grow wealthier and wiser. Better investing starts here. Matt Faber is the cofounder and chief investment officer at Cambria Investment Management. Due to industry regulations, he will not discuss any of Cambria's funds on this podcast. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own opinions and do not the opinion of Cambria Investment Management or its affiliates. For more information, visit cambriainvestments.com. Today's show is sponsored by Cambria. Do you hold legacy investment positions with significant gains? What if you could transition into an ETF without facing a large tax bill? You can with the three fifty one ETF exchange. Here's how it works. Investors contribute stocks or other securities to a newly formed ETF in exchange for ETF shares. As long as the special rules and diversification requirements are met, the investor is essentially able to seed the launch of the ETF without an immediate taxable event. Because ETFs typically don't distribute any capital gains, investors don't face taxes until they sell their ETF shares, allowing for better control over the timing of the tax event. Are you ready to explore a three fifty one ETF exchange? Visit cambriafunds.com forward slash three fifty one to take the next step in innovative, tax savvy investing with Cambria today. Cambria Investment Management l p. Cambria is a registered investment adviser. Information set forth herein is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial investment, tax, or legal advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investments are subject to risks, including the risk of loss of principal. Welcome back, everybody. It's baseball playoff time. So no perfect guest to have on with someone, by the way, I can't believe has never been on the show before. Today's guest is Eddie Elfenbein, one of the OG financial bloggers. This is I I think it's twenty year anniversary. We're starting the blog at Crossing Wall Street. Eddie also runs the CWS ETF, which is from his annual buy list of 25 stocks. Eddie, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. It Feels like just yesterday, we were sitting down having a beer in Washington DC. Where do we find you? You still in the capital? I'm still in Washington DC. I'm with all the unemployed people. There we go. Why'd you start blogging, by the way, in 2005? What's the origin story? This was around the time of the war in Iraq, and there were a lot of people who were political bloggers, and that sort of was that time that you could have feedback. Not everything was dominated by the media. And within that, I saw the emerging field of financial blogging. And the first person I really read was Barry Ritholtz. And here's a guy who, you know, is …

Get the full transcript (9,329 words) + summary by email — free

One-time email with the complete transcript and AI summary of this episode. No account needed.

One email, no spam. We’ll also show you what SignalCast does.

Browse all The Meb Faber Show transcripts →

You just read a 3-minute summary of a 51-minute episode.

Get The Meb Faber Show summarized like this every Monday — plus up to 2 more podcasts, free.

Pick Your Podcasts — Free

Keep Reading

Books, tools, and gear mentioned in this episode

SignalCast may earn commission on purchases via these links. As an Amazon Associate, SignalCast earns from qualifying purchases.

Products

  • CWS ETFBy guest
    running the CWS ETF with a disciplined buy list strategy of 25 high-quality, under-followed stocks with 20% annual turnover

company

  • Examples include HEICO, up 1000-fold since 1995
  • Elfenbein reveals his mother outperformed him by holding Eli Lilly while he sold it

More from The Meb Faber Show

We summarize every new episode. Want them in your inbox?

Similar Episodes

Related episodes from other podcasts

Explore Related Topics

This podcast is featured in Best Investing Podcasts (2026) — ranked and reviewed with AI summaries.

Read this week's Health & Longevity Podcast Insights — cross-podcast analysis updated weekly.

You're clearly into The Meb Faber Show.

Every Monday, we deliver AI summaries of the latest episodes from The Meb Faber Show and 192+ other podcasts. Free for one show.

Start My Monday Digest

No credit card · Unsubscribe anytime