Stock Pitches for Young Philosopher-Kings

PITCH DOWNLOADS:

CPRT | KSS | TPX | COMM | DE | ULTA | UA | One-Pagers

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for jr/mid-level analysts, or IB/PE going into L/S equity, or “outsiders” trying to land a seat…I pulled together a handful of “live” investment pitches from back when I was interviewing for HF analyst roles… there is a lot in here that will be of use, take whatever you need.

as a disclaimer, these are all 5+ years old, they’re probably not actionable, I’m not involved in any of them, do your own due dili — educational/informational use only. They are most valuable from the standpoint of process, template, formatting, checklist/criteria, and how to organize your thoughts in an “industry-standard” way… some are better than others, I’ll point out weaknesses/flaws in each

Mostly, as I was going through these, I asked myself: “If I was in my mid-20’s, would I have found these useful?” And the answer is ABSOLUTELY…back in 2012 or 2013, I was on Twitter as a young analyst trying to step my game up…these pitches would’ve saved me a ton of time, because most of what I know, I learned from getting laughed out of interviews. pitching stocks is EVERYTHING in L/S, and it’s all reps…even if you’re coming from IB/PE and understand basic biz analysis, there’s still a multi-year learning curve to the “pitch”…PM’s are busy and you really have 60 seconds verbal or one page written to drive your point home.

lets get into it >>

(1/7) CPRT long from 2016 – pretty thorough pitch, 15 pages or so.

the length itself isn’t what matters – the first page has to hit or else the rest is wood. Beyond that, the next 10, 20, even 30 pages of supporting material are all fine, they just need to reinforce the message you laid out on page one. Hemingway said that “I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit, and I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.” Same applies for all writing, including stock pitches…a crystal-clear 2-pager is the result of hundreds of pages of supporting work…write the first page LAST.

This pitch does a decent job of laying out the elevator pitch, “why now,” biz drivers, industry drivers, biz quality, TSR/valuation, key investment factors, mgmt, addresses bear case + mitigating factors, and pre-mortem. The first page could probably be slimmed down, but there is a lot of good throughout the pitch for a young analyst to copy

Weaknesses – less words, more numbers…also could address near-term event path/trading dynamics better, but this was for a single-manager rather than a pod…especially at the jr/mid level, I think it’s far more important to show you understand fundamental equity analysis, compared to sr/PM level detail like trading around catalysts, sizing, pair trades, et cetera. “Stay in your lane” is real… no one likes a know-it-all jr always spouting off on macro and shit…its a team game, play your position.

overall, 6.5/10 pitch, maybe 7… as with all of these, whether it “worked” or not isn’t the point…some did, some didn’t, I’m an average investor at best. Study the process in these and not the outcome. This one had a good outcome but time horizon/event path matters – some may appear “right” but were wrong on the time horizon I laid out, or a short went 10 to 20 before going to 5 (ie WRONG and not right)…you can be “right” for the wrong reasons (mkt multiple/rates) or “wrong” for the right reasons…every live pitch looks stupid in the rearview, and Hindsight Capital never missed a trade.

2. KSS short from 2014. Lower quality than the CPRT pitch but still has some good in here

the first two pages put front-and-center what needs to be there – ests vs consensus, thesis in 3-4 bullets, event path, bull/bear debate, variant view, probability-weighted target, risks, catalyst calendar. All those should really fit on less than two pages or the thesis isn’t concise enough.

Weaknesses, I use way too much opinionated/hyperbolic language, overly generic at times, my model is ugly, the presentation is lacking…this was originally part of unpaid MBA intern work where I was doing tons of primary research, I hacked all those pages off the end since they had ppl’s personal information. This pitch is another example of, “was it right” being dependent on event path…no clue. Overall rating 5/10, maybe 4/10… jr level work…the language tells it all. At a mid/sr level you speak only in neutrals and in numbers, no broad generalizations, no opinionated language…if its not factual or supported by math, delete it…hemingway’s wastebasket.

3. TPX long from 2016. for some reason I did this one in powerpoint, 27 slides…in hindsight I’d just stick to word (like the CPRT pitch).

the first few pages here work from a template perspective: thesis in a few bullets, event path, scenarios, variant view, risks/mitigants, ests vs consensus. After that, thorough pitch in laying out the biz, industry, biz quality, all the stuff that shows understanding of fundamental equity analysis. Weaknesses, too light on variant view/primary rsch…closer to a sell-side initiation at times than a differentiated L/S pitch…less hyperbolic and opinionated, but still too bullish in all scenarios on #’s, too littered with broad generalizations, and too reliant on mgmt investor decks as “analysis.” still, a lot of good in here for a jr/mid level analyst to use – overall 6/10.

4. COMM long from 2016. seven pages, shorter pitch

as a Consumer analyst I was almost certainly out of my element with this name…I’ve avoided commenting on two things in each pitch, 1. Content 2. Excel. I could spend ten pages destroying the flaws in each thesis + modeling assumptions but this would become a 500-page thread.

the formatting, template, brevity are worth using in this one – covers thesis in a few bullets, ests vs street, biz overview, segment overview, key investment factors, risks/mitigants, summary financials

overall 5.5/10 just because the presentation is clean – anyone receiving this in their inbox will see that you can at least put together a stock pitch, even if the words on the paper, the rationale and logic, need work…first impressions matter, and “the way you do one thing is the way you do everything.”

5. DE short from 2016. two-pager, similar formatting to the COMM pitch

could’ve been summed up in 4 letters – NFSD – never fucking short deere

posted here for formatting/template purposes, hits the notes that need to be hit (thesis bullets, variant view, bull/base/bear). but as with before, Hemingway principle – to write two concise pages, there were 50 pages of supporting work that went in the trash. Rating 5/10

— brief interruption as we get closer to the end – I would like to propose an update to Roosevelt’s “man in the arena,” as the “arena” analogy is too commonly misused in non-arena circumstances…like when Blankfein said Goldman does “God’s work” and the universe threw up in its mouth

I present the Post Hog Corollary (dated 06/06/2025), with full credit due to this gentleman Marmot Respecter.

if you see major flaws in these pitches – POST HOG. If you have good intentions and want to help people improve, pointing out shit I got wrong doesn’t help anyone…Show us how its done. Post your quality pitches, lay out how YOU do things, and explain why your format is superior – I promise, I will be the first to pay respect and say “go with his and not with mine.”

Roosevelt said there are men in the arena and there are critics…in the Marmot Respecter framework, there are guys who post hog and then there are dicksniffers, the guys who sit in the bleachers gossiping about other men’s hogs all day. You can tell within 30 seconds of scrolling someone’s twitter feed which one they are. Don’t be a dicksniffer. The Post Hog Corollary, like the Treaty of Amiens or the Code of Justinian, introduces “post hog or stfu” as respectable discourse. EOM

6. ULTA memo from 2018 + UA trading call

these are from when I was interviewing at pods so it’s sort of a different format, coverage model – PM says “write up your thoughts on xyz ticker” and leaves it totally open to you. This means it could be a long, a short, or fairly valued slash nothing to do. More of a mid/sr level analysis where you want to be totally objective, dispassionate, unemotional, and lay out levels where it would be a long, levels where it would be a short, and how you’d trade it at the current price. truth is, the vast majority of the time in this game, the market is right and there’s nothing to do…aka why overtrading is #1 killer of returns

these pitches weren’t as thorough from a fundamental perspective, it’s sort of assumed you know that stuff by now. Both led to offers, but in fairness, they were both far enough along in the process where the pitches were more of a smell test, “is he current on his coverage,” role is his to lose…had been thru prob five or six rounds over 3-4 months by then. If they seem abrupt/choppy at any point, it’s from deleting all primary rsch/alt data/street notes.

rating, hard to say, these are just more representative of day-to-day commentary at pod seats, the ongoing back and forth between analyst and PM – I guess 6/10.

7. Last, one and two-pagers from 2019…27 pages of them. These are mostly from when I was in pre-launch, rebuilding all my models from scratch and putting together 1-2 page “pitches” together for all names under coverage…mostly for my own sake, some were expanded on later and used in investor comms

these probably aren’t as useful as the “intvw-quality” pitches – a lot of are names I’d covered for my whole career and so the writing is shorthand…as an example, CPRT is in there, but compressed to 2 pages. Same applies for all these names – each had years of work behind them, but the “pitches” here are light on #’s, light on variant view…mostly “quality” longs and “junk” shorts, plus my long-term view on the business.

like the trading calls from above, where “fairly valued/nothing to do here” could be the end result, same applies here…”love the biz, hate the price/valuation.” Or, love the biz but I’m short just because risk/reward. These might be of use just from a “reps” perspective, but they’re weak because they’re hollow – the conclusions are there but the work supporting those conclusions is missing.

NEXT STEPS: almost forgot to include this – go to valueinvestorsclub.com, Ideas, sort by “highest overall rated,” show “all years.” Read ALL the pitches and ALL the back-and-forth in the comments for each…there’s 25 years worth. Will take hundreds of hours and it’s worth it. Infinitely better use of your time than this a

END: For anyone jr level, if anything in these pitches is unclear, DM me…no question is too stupid, I promise…back in 2012 I was on here doing the exact same shit, DM’ing people with stupid questions, and they took time out of their day to help…pay it forward fellas. This app is mostly a hellscape except for the DM’s which can be a goldmine for an aspiring investor. When you finally work up the confidence to register under your real name and Post Hog – i.e. publish your “live” pitches – doors begin flying open.

Twitter has been a rocketship for many analyst’s careers, but you have to put yourself out there first. Trust and believe that if you are an ambitious young motherfucker, people WILL move mountains to help you.

Hope this helps and good luck trading.