A Panel at Quinnipiac University's G.A.M.E. V Forum in New York Finds Opportunities and Pitfalls for Savvy Investors

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Mar 20, 2015, 03:30 ET

NEW YORK, March 20, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Although investing is changing dramatically, particularly with high-speed electronic trading replacing traditional stock markets, there are still plenty of opportunities for savvy investors, said keynote panelists on Thursday at Quinnipiac University's fifth annual Global Asset Management Education (G.A.M.E.) Forum at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel in Manhattan.

"This panel is on how to make money," said moderator Bob Froehlich, and indeed it was, though the panelists agreed that the road to riches is not as straight as it might have been in earlier days. The strength of the U.S. economy certainly helps, said Benjamin A. Pace, III, chief investment officer and partner at HPM Partners, LLC. "The U.S. is in the lead since the recession," he said. "People are talking about our entering another 'American Decade,' though that hasn't been well received in Europe."

Although there's certainly volatility in world markets today, Pace hammers home the benefits of asset diversification, pointing especially to opportunities in Germany, which he noted is benefiting from a lower-priced Euro.

JJ Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade, offered advice to young investors: "When just starting out, get in the habit of learning how to not lose money and keep your capital." He described 2015 as a likely "year of volatility," with the Fed no longer acting to protect against up and down swings in the market. That unpredictability may make it difficult for novices to follow his advice.

Though many of the keynote speakers at the G.A.M.E. Forum agreed that it's hard to predict what will happen with the price of oil, Kinahan said it could soon be trading at $52 a barrel, but not before it goes down to $44 a barrel. Rich Bernstein, chief executive officer of Richard Bernstein Advisors, LLC, also made an oil prediction: "We won't see $100 oil again for many years. There's a glut of oil in the U.S., and it can't be exported."

A cautious investor, Bernstein describes himself as an advocate of "slow money." His study of market fundamentals has led him to conclude that a number of recent phenomena—including problems in emerging markets and housing, as well as the underperformance of hedge funds—are because they're all dependent on credit-related asset classes. "The appreciation of the dollar and the devaluation of foreign currencies are the latest symptom," he said. "We're now in the seventh year of the dollar rally. The global credit bubble is deflating, and bubbles leave behind massive over-capacity and the need to compete on price."

Bernstein doesn't always advocate caution. He said that investors such as foundations and college endowments, obsessed with protecting their downsides, have "never fully embraced the possibilities of this bull market. Actually, periods of uncertainty offer the best opportunities for investors." He also cautioned against jumping onto a popular stock, because the best time to get in was before it was widely publicized. "If it's popular, expect returns to be low," he said.

"Do something unique and different," said Bernstein.

Jon Najarian, a former linebacker for the Chicago Bears before he co-founded optionMONSTER.COM and tradeMONSTER.COM, agrees. "I love being a contrarian," he said. "I'm interested in the stocks everybody hates."

Investment today is complicated by the new world of electronic trading. Najarian, who also is a CNBC contributor, began as an old-school pit trader, and said that decisions once made by people in 30 seconds are now handled electronically in a microsecond.

"Is it harder to make money now?" Najarian asked. "Yes it is much harder. I didn't take a vacation for 10 years because there were bags of money to be had, and I wanted to be there. Now machines are making all the decisions with algorithms at the speed of light, and the opportunity is much different."

Najarian also sees a bubble of sorts—in the rapid rise of companies like Airbnb and Uber. "The valuations are ludicrous," he said. "The idea that assets like this are worth $40 billion—nobody can justify the price."

The G.A.M.E. Forum, founded by David Sauer, a finance professor at the Quinnipiac University School of Business, attracted more than 1,200 student participants from 140 colleges, 40 countries and 39 states to hear 100 speakers over two and a half days. G.A.M.E. is partially organized by students.

Quinnipiac is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution located 90 minutes north of New York City and two hours from Boston. The university enrolls 6,500 full-time undergraduate and 2,500 graduate students in 58 undergraduate and more than 20 graduate programs of study in its School of Business and Engineering, School of Communications, School of Education, School of Health Sciences, School of Law, Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, School of Nursing and College of Arts and Sciences. Quinnipiac consistently ranks among the top regional universities in the North in U.S. News & World Report's America's "Best Colleges" issue. The 2015 issue of U.S. News & World Report's America's "Best Colleges" named Quinnipiac as the top up-and-coming school with master's programs in the Northern Region. Quinnipiac also is recognized in Princeton Review's "The Best 379 Colleges." The Chronicle of Higher Education has named Quinnipiac among the "Great Colleges to Work For." For more information, please visit www.quinnipiac.edu. Connect with Quinnipiac on Facebook at www.facebook.com/quinnipiacuniversity and follow Quinnipiac on Twitter @QuinnipiacU.