SEMINARS

The Center for the Advancement of Value Investing Education holds an annual Seminar on Value Investing and the Search for Value.

2024 Seminar Registration and Time Line

About the Seminar

Competition for portfolio management jobs and alpha (i.e., risk-adjusted excess returns) is fierce
Search for value and valuation skills and a deep understanding of what creates value are essential
The Seminar provides the skill set and an understanding of value necessary to beat the competition
This is done by bridging the gap between theory and practice and hands on training

Seminar Description

The Seminar explores the underlying principles of value investing and sets guidelines for its successful application
The Seminar covers
- The search for value process, how to find possibly underpriced securities and why such underpricing exists in the financial markets
- How to determine the intrinsic value of a stock and invest in truly undervalued stocks
- Alternative methods for constructing a portfolio that controls for risk without restricting investment returns
- Applications – Valuing and investing in real life companies

Students Learn

Simple rules to identify stocks that are possibly undervalued with upside potential
To put together simple mechanical strategies to form portfolios that in the long run will outperform the market portfolio
How value is created
In depth valuation techniques to further narrow down the universe of stocks to those that are truly undervalued with larger upside potential than the stocks identified with the simpler rules mentioned above
To use the concept of “Margin of Safety” to translate market and intrinsic value estimates into actual portfolio choices and limit risk in away that goes beyond diversification

Seminar Structure

The Seminar, which spans five days, consists of two segments
- The first segment is based on lectures, where the principles underlying the theoretical aspects of value investing are taught
- The second segment provides an opportunity to apply these principles by working on, discussing and demonstrating their application through a number of valuations of real life companies
Break out groups of students work on each valuation exercise during class time for about an hour and a half
The class reconvenes for another hour and a half at which time the valuation of each company is discussed and a recommendation of “Invest” or “Not Invest” is made

Who Should Attend

Undergraduate and Graduate Business Students
Portfolio Managers
Finance Professionals
Finance Executives
Individual Investors*

*Please note: Having a basic knowledge in finance and accounting is strongly recommended.

Program Leader

Dr. George Athanassakos

Professor Athanassakos is a Professor of Finance and the Ben Graham Chair in Value Investing at the Ivey School of Business at Western University
He has been ranked among the top 10 researchers in Canada and among the top 10 Canadian professors
He has researched extensively the Canadian Capital Markets, Stock and Bond Market Anomalies, and Bond and Equity Valuation Issues both from a Traditional Valuation and Value Investing point of view
He is the author of numerous academic research papers and of three books, Derivatives Fundamentals, Equity Valuation and Value Investing: From Theory to Practice.
He has offered valuation seminars to Canadian and US valuator societies and in Australia, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, South Africa and the UK
He is recipient of teaching awards – his teaching ratings are among the highest given at the University, irrespective of whether the seminars taught were in Canada or abroad
A Globe and Mail article entitled “Face time with the stars: High-profile names help business schools attract the brightest students” indicated that Dr. George Athanassakos is a draw for students at the Ivey Business School at Western University and includes him in the club of Canadian superstar teachers
An article in Canadian Business refers to Dr. Athanassakos as the leading authority in value investing and calls his Seminar the “mecca for value investors”
Click here to read a research paper by Dr. George Athanassakos that details the performance of the investing decision process taught in the Value Investing Seminar

Certificate

Upon completion of the Seminar, participants will receive a Value Investing Certificate

2024 Seminar Dates

June 3 – 7, 2024. The Seminar is limited to 34 participants, so please register early.

Seminar Location

Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2024 Guest Speakers

Lorne Steinberg, President and Portfolio Manager, Lorne Steinberg Wealth Management Inc., Montreal, Québec, Canada will be a guest speaker on June 4, 2024.
Pavel Begun, Founder and Managing Partner, 3G Capital Management, Toronto, Ontario, Canada will be a guest speaker on June 7, 2024.

Testimonials

“The value investing program that George established and teaches at the Ivey School of Business for the last 5 years is #1 in Canada and at par with Columbia’s program which has been in operation for over 70 years. It took us and Ivey some time to fill this position as we wanted to find the right professor with a value perspective, a professor like George, and boy did we luck out with George. He is a fabulous professor and has done an outstanding job teaching and developing value investing, which we are now thinking of expanding globally”.

-Prem Watsa
Chairman and CEO, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.
From speeches given on February 16, 2011 and April 25, 2012.

“I was very impressed by both the quality and the international representation of the participants in your seminar. You are to be congratulated for all you are doing to advance the craft of value investing.”

-Jeffrey D. Stacey
Managing Partner, Stacey Muirhead Capital Management & 2012 Seminar Guest Speaker

Read testimonials from Seminar participants

Past Participants

For lists and photos of Seminar participants click here.