PITCH DOWNLOADS:
CPRT | KSS | TPX | COMM | DE | ULTA | UA | One-Pagers
TWITTER POST BELOW – [LINK TO TWEET]
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.
Do you still have the models from any of these pitches? If so, could you post them? It would be helpful to see how you set up drivers and thought about the various line items in the model vs. the pitch.
Hey Christian – I have some, but they’re sub-par…the best ones were lost to the sands of time, including the screenshots in those PDFs. The PDFs I posted, those were easily pulled from my old outgoing Gmails during interview processes, but attaching an .xlsx was never really something that happened, so I’m not sure where they went.
Here’s what we’ll do. For you (or anyone else reading this), DM me on X and ask for models. Over the next week or two, I will cobble together what I have and make a .zip file for download, and then reply to all the DMs with the link.
I would also add that modeling is something that is best entirely self-taught. It’s not like a standard stock pitch format. In L/S, you WILL be building hundreds and hundreds of models from scratch. And we all have our own “modeling” style. The way I learned was to download Macabacus (it used to be free) and then download 10-K’s and 10-Q’s and start building out the historicals, then forecasting forward…over and over again…in a dark room, solo. That’s how you learn.
There’s also TONS of resources on this online, and I bet ChatGPT can make your life a lot easier for all things Excel, so my value-add here is less than it was for “industry-standard stock pitch” which is a softer skill / more art than science.
That said – DM me @gregoryblotnick.
Cheers
For a SM pitch, how much should I be trying to do my own primary research vs leveraging generic AS expert calls etc.. also for pitching a smaller cap name with limited / no SS research do you think there is more credit to the additional background company/industry work or no difference?
Hi Mason – for a SM pitch, doing your own primary research is strongly recommended, visiting stores, talking to people, anything that shows a willingness to get in the weeds and not be another guy who draws all his conclusions from a desk/model. They have the expert call networks, they don’t need you for those – but in your model/pitch, whenever there is a variance from consensus, you should be prepared to explain WHY – and primary research (qualitative) is where these conclusions (quantitative) should be drawn from. Be super mindful of anything compliance-related – who you are (when doing research) and what your purpose/motive is, document and record everything. As far as a smaller cap name with limited / no SS research, I’d be mindful who you’re pitching to – if the idea isn’t actionable for them (too small, different mandate etc) then it’s less appealing. At the same time, a company with no street coverage is where you can really shine in terms of demonstrating primary research skills – “this company has no coverage, but I talked to these 30 individuals to learn about it.” For reading on this subject, start with anything Peter Lynch has written as far shoe-leather, on-the-ground research. Good luck and reply or DM with any questions.
Thank you for this Gregory, quite helpful. I have read One Up as well as all of Philly Fish’s stuff, any other recs in terms of primary research/investigative journalism? Also by compliance type stuff I assume you are referring to when doing the primary research and talking to people rather than compliance at my current shop? I have done some research on a small cap name and in the process emailed the company to get some price points (as they were difficult to find online) that would be something I need to document right?
Appreciate the insight on the specific fund pitching, do you think there is value in pitching something like hey I know this isn’t something you could buy because its 100mm market cap and you have 1bn aum and like to hold 5-10 names around equal weight but I think it demonstrates my research abilities and here is my trade log on the name? Not sure if that would just come off as lazy though..
Regardless, thank you again for the reply.
Hey man, happy to help.
Good question re: books on primary research/investigative journalism – I’m actually blanking but it’s something I should know.
With primary research, its sort of intuitive….I’m not sure a book helps that much. During my MBA, I was on LinkedIn and doing research for a class I was in, and I would seek out ex-employees from companies that I wanted to learn more about. At the time, it was Sprouts Farmers Market. So I’d pull together tons of employees or ex-employees on LinkedIn, blast them with messages, “Hey, I’m a student looking to learn more about organic grocery” or something like that, and get a decent amount of phone calls. Then its just talking to people, learning things you cant learn sitting at your desk…you can try and glean quantitative insights, like margins in various parts of the store, prepared foods….you can learn about culture…management… it’s really limitless.
At a pod, you have one job: KNOW YOUR 50 COMPANIES BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE ON EARTH. And so, anything that feeds into that, really, is helpful. That’s the long-term goal of primary research. You want to become one of the world’s foremost experts in the stocks/sectors you cover…otherwise, why the f are you trading them? Primary research is a long game…I’m thinking back to my first job, where we owned Pep Boys stock, and I spent a month as a junior driving around the northeast visiting stores and talking to people. I think you’re sort of hoping for like a smoking gun, and it doesnt really work like that…its a mosaic…you’re gradually assembling hundreds of pieces, and then at some point you may spot an inflection earlier than everyone else…a turnaround…a biz collapsing…a new mgmt team getting the biz in line…primary research is how you get that insight, vs reading what everyone else is reading.
The best advice, I guess, is to approach whatever primary research you do from the angle of “I want to master this business/sector.” If it’s for a stock pitch, it’s less intensive…but the baseline is prob, like, go to stores and talk to people…call people…talk to suppliers, vendors, customers, people up and down the chain…this is sort of what I mean by its intuitive. You’re obviously smart, so its like, one day, 60 pieces of the mosaic will suddenly snap together in your mind…you’ve done work no one else is doing, and it yields an insight that is out of consensus and can be extremely profitable. Like, almost forget that you’re an analyst and just pretend to be a curious dude who wants to know everything…the analyst brain will randomly snap it all together like voltron…just get knowledge. The goal is really for some of this qualitative insight to convert to quantitative output…like, something clicks and you say “wow, this could 25 extra cents of EPS.” That’s true edge, true variant view, true differentiation from consensus – you earned that info thru your hard work. Check the latest tweet series I just posted, I talk a little about this (the one Discipline, 9/12 i think).
Here is where I caution you on compliance. As an MBA student, I’m allowed to do that LinkedIn stuff. If you’re employed as an investment analyst, like, it’s not as straightforward. MNPI (material nonpublic information) is a risk when you’re doing primary rsch, meaning someone tells you something they shouldn’t have…you are in deep doodoo if you act on that, knowingly or unknowingly.
Compliance generally wants to know who you’re talking to and doing primary rsch, for this reason. I have been on phone calls at a firm before where the other party said something, I totally missed it because I was zoning, but the call ended out of nowhere, the position got frozen in the book, like, compliance caught something I didn’t, and we couldn’t transact in the stock for months. It’s serious business. If you’re a student or unemployed or whatever, you can take the honest approach (hey, i’m a student who wants to learn more)…but if you’re an investor, you really should let them know, hey, heres who I am, everything you tell me will be used for xyz purpose…don’t hoodwink people. Your example of emailing the company on price points, thats completely clear…its more like, reaching out to an ex-CFO, ex-employee, a vendor, supplier….people who COULD potentially have some sort of nonpublic information…thats enough for you to be in a hairy sitch….hence why you’d want them to know who you are and what your purpose is (ie DO NOT TELL ME ANYTHING FORWARD LOOKING OR PRIVATE). Always check with compliance on all this. But on the price points for instance, if you wanted to glean insight, you could call tons of ex employees or people up and down the chain, and learn HOW they price…the HISTORY of price points…how the company thinks about price hikes/cuts…put a giant model together with all this info by date, and see if patterns emerge…this is how you can potentially pull out an insight like “I’m 99% sure they’re going to hike prices in December based on what I know about how management runs the biz…consensus has ZERO price hikes…I have a true variant view, I am size long.” Thats how years of primary rsch comes together.
At big firms and pods, the “approved primary rsch list” is actually pretty thin, in a sense…it ruins the point….everyone has the same approved contacts, so the informational edge is arbed out. Thats how strict compliance is though, and why I say to watch your ass, document everything….if you’re sending in a stock pitch, like, do you include the names of the people you met, you have to clear that with them, let them know their commentary is going to an investment firm…it can get hairy, and it can get ugly if you aren’t prudent in how you go about it.
Anyway, thats enough on primary rsch – get started and learn as you go along…be a little kid in a toy store. I’ve said a lot yet I feel like I also haven’t given a great answer.
“hey I know this isn’t something you could buy because its 100mm market cap and you have 1bn aum and like to hold 5-10 names around equal weight but I think it demonstrates my research abilities and here is my trade log on the name? Not sure if that would just come off as lazy though..”
Don’t do that. Trade log, don’t bring that up, they don’t care. And lazy, your instinct is right…no one wants to hire that sort of attitude…if you can’t be bothered to pitch a stock that fits their mandate, why would they go out of their way to hire you…if you dont care about them that much then screw it, but always try and show you know what they do…check my tweetstorm again, on pitching (the new one from today), I give some pointers.
Holler if any of this is unclear
This is super helpful. I saw your twitter thread after I posted, I am sure some of this could have been answered through that so double thanks for taking the time to reply. Roger that on the compliance stuff, it is tricky because I am an analyst (not yet at a HF but an investment shop – obviously working on that) so I suppose have to be extra careful there, but I can figure out how to go about that. You’re thoughts on building a mosaic are great, and the pricing point especially. I am certainly not trying to come across as lazy in my communications and even more so to be so in my investing, a good reminder that there are no shortcuts. Again, I truly appreciate your thoughts, now time to get in the lab! And I will show hog when I am ready lol.
LMAO – absolutely crushed me at the end there…incredible…bonus points if you can sneak that into a stock pitch somehow.
“Consensus has Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM) at 15% EPS growth (28 cents) for the quarter…however…management has missed their last two forecasts by 3 cents and 4 cents respectively. Investors are skittish and are modeling below-consensus results until management proves that they can post hog….this is a show me story, and until they show the Street their hog, the multiple will remain depressed. Valuation is attractive at 12x FY26 EPS, but we expect shares to trade at a persistent discount until their Analyst Day on 9/15/25, a potential catalyst for shares. Our bear case forecast is status quo, but in our bull case scenario, we forecast a 3.78% chance that management will absolutely slam their hog on the table, removing a key overhang on shares (the hog) as SFM trades back to 15x EPS. In our base case “no-hog” scenario, we assume that no hog is posted. Remain Neutral, $16 PT.”
Thanks for being brave enough to share your stuff online. I’m 20 years in, always looking for better ways to do things. Lots of useful stuff in here.
no doubt….hell, you’re senior to me, I should be asking you for the goods…DM that shit over @gregoryblotnick