Welcome!

I am Alan Brochstein, CFA. These days I write The Intelligent ETF Investor on Seeking Alpha, along with ongoing stock coverage there. Before that, I spent 13 years as one of the first analysts to focus exclusively on the cannabis industry, running 420 Investor and helping build New Cannabis Ventures.

I was born in Texas on March 3, 1965, spent my early years in Houston at Kinkaid before transferring to Memorial High School, then went to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois for three years and then worked in NYC on Wall Street. I started dating Fran in 1989 and married her on April 15th, 1990.

We moved back to Houston in 1994, and we had our son in 1995 and our daughter in 1998. We live in Montrose near downtown and love it. I worked for 13 years in the cannabis space, helping investors with my 420 Investor subscription service and informing the public with financial media site New Cannabis Ventures. You can find the articles that I write for the public at Seeking Alpha or TalkMarkets. I became very focused on ETFs in 2025 and ended up launching a new alias for articles at Seeking Alpha, The Intelligent ETF Investor.,

Life is not perfect, but it's great! I am a very lucky person...

My email address is AlanJBrochstein@gmail.com

You can connect with me on Facebook, Instagram (for ETFs), LinkedIn or Twitter.

I share posts about my life, including books I read or walks I take, restaurant reviews, wine, religion, ETFs and stocks too.

Discover Alan Brochstein's Blog

Job-Seekers Need to Avoid Scammers

I have been looking for a job for ten months now. I will discuss my processes and how they have evolved here, but first I want to share some news: Someone tried to steal information from me. I have reported it to the CFA Institute's Job page manager, Momentive, and I want to share it with the world. The Elms Bakery Scam One of my favorite ways to find a potential job is the CFA Institute's Jobs Page, open exclusively to CFA Institute members, which includes me. I am very gla

1 day ago6 min read

Investors Should Limit Investment in XLE, the Energy ETF

The second full week of July saw stocks pull back with bonds roughly unchanged. This has been happening a lot recently, though the first full week in July had strong stocks. Last week, I discussed some ways to beat the S&P 500 index. A Look at the Market The S&P 500 has returned 9.6% with dividends included, and the price is up 9.0% for SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) in 2026 so far. This leaves the market on track to post a return for the full year below 20%. At the same time, iShare

1 day ago5 min read

Bringing Back Bitcoin

It's a little higher than it was yesterday, when I trimmed it, but I am selling some more ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL) and buying iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) again. The trades: Sell 25 NOBL at $57.94 Buy 100 IBIT at $35.56 The updated model portfolio:

2 days ago1 min read

View All Posts

Contact