Rob Isbitts

Background

About Rob Isbitts

To many, investing is about how much you can make. To me, its about how much you can make without losing big along the way. Because that subtle difference can have a big impact on how retirement goes. My investing journey started way back at age 16, when my late father taught me to chart stocks with graph paper and a pencil. Fast forward to today, and I'm a retired investment advisor (27 years)/fund manager/CIO, with the successes and bruises to show for it! Fortunately, some great lessons too, which I pass on to my network with frequency, through a few different outlets. I coach self-directed investors (in a non-fiduciary capacity) through 2 distinct services: Sungarden Investors Club at Seeking Alpha: I was tapped by SA to run this investing group in late 2024, where I deliver a combination of live insights (through weekly club member sessions) and share my personal investing research deck. The goal is simple: help, not hype, humility not arrogance, and a continuous effort to get just a bit better as a DIY investor, every day. Sungarden on Substack: Subscribers receive my weekly letter, filled with bottom-line market views, stock and ETF charts I find timely. And my proprietary ROAR Score analytical tool, which distills my 30+ years of technical analysis into a single grade at any point in time. About the ROAR Score: ROAR is not your typical investment rating method. It is much more focused on the risk we take in trying to make money on our money. ROAR stands for "Reward Opportunity and Risk," which is what my investment work has always been about. In these modern markets, any stock or ETF can up at any time, for any reason. Investors are habitually taught to focus only on that. But what about playing defense to preserve capital or even exploit down markets? THAT is where I've always been a bit outside the box in my industry. My semi-retired business life is about trying to be useful, and be paid fairly (when compensation is involved). I share my 30+ years of professional investing experience through publishing research and articles, as a podcast guest and host, and as a mentor to young professionals in the field. I welcome ways to be useful to people and organizations through my experience, passion for business growth and for helping investors through what I’ve seen and experienced.