Getting to Know: Chris Versace

If you’re a fan of TheStreet Pro’s Portfolio, you know Chris Versace. But do you really know him? In the second part of our Getting to Know TheStreet Pro’s contributors, I sit down with Chris Versace to discuss his investment philosophy, risk management, and that time he called Peter Lynch to ask for advice.

If you’re not already following him, visit Chris’ Author Page to learn more about his work, including his daily must-read 8 Key Things articles as well as the Portfolio’s Weekly Roundup.

I hope you enjoy the conversation.

Video

Transcript

Jason Meshnick (00:02.734)
Let’s go, tape one with Chris Versace.

Jason Meshnick (00:07.574)
Alright, listeners. Now you may think you know Chris Versace, but the question is, how well do you know Chris Versace? Today, we are going to get to know Chris Versace as part of our series introducing and getting to know better all of the Street Pros great contributors. So with that, let’s dig in. And I’ve got a bunch of questions for Chris Versace today, and we’re going to learn more about the man, the myth, the portfolio manager.

Chris Versace (00:32.686)
Wow. Well well let me get a few things out of the way. Born in September, that makes me a Libra, in case you’re wondering. Springsteen. seen him almost fifty times, but have begged off because the sort the in my opinion, the act is not aging well. But that’s that’s another story and just a lot going on, Jason. How are you?

Jason Meshnick (00:42.414)
Okay.

Jason Meshnick (00:57.878)
I I’m doing well. I’m I’m excited to be doing this. I’m excited to get to spend some time with everyone and and including yourself, Chris. so but so since you kicked it off, I just wanna dig back into our first question. I I wanna start with a fun fact about you. Can you tell our listeners something that they may or may not know about you? And I don’t know if you can use Bruce Springsteen now.

Chris Versace (01:20.426)
you know what? In the interest of it being almost you know formally summer, I will share a fact that only my immediate family knows. You ready? On my left foot, I have two web toes. On my right foot, I have something similar, but instead of going all the way up the toes, it goes halfway up. And you know.

Jason Meshnick (01:35.351)
Ready.

Jason Meshnick (01:41.186)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Versace (01:50.188)
Now some people think that must make me a great swimmer. Not sure.

Jason Meshnick (01:54.466)
I was going to ask. I mean, I guess there’s only one way to find out is to time you in the pool with the web feet and then do the surgery. Maybe we don’t do that. Let’s let’s not go there.

Chris Versace (02:04.543)
I guess, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you and you know, supposedly it it’s pretty simple, but I was born that way and I never really thought anything about it. Although the the the other fun fact is when I I did swim on various swim teams in I guess we would call you know grade school and high school. as I was starting, and you may remember this, the TV show The Man from Atlantis came out with Patrick Duffy. And and of course

Jason Meshnick (02:11.772)
Yeah.

Jason Meshnick (02:31.071)
I do, yes.

Chris Versace (02:33.867)
You know, around the pool I wound up getting a lot of attention at the age of like eight.

Jason Meshnick (02:39.742)
Yeah.

Okay, on that note, we know that Chris Versace is most likely our only contributor to have webbed feet.

Chris Versace (02:49.282)
tr webbed to a paratose. I don’t I’m not a duck, but here’s the thing. It’s I I was surprised to learn that this it’s actually more common than you would think. And my brother actually has it on on one of his hands about halfway up the knuckle.

Jason Meshnick (02:54.476)
Ha ha ha.

Jason Meshnick (03:07.606)
All right, amazing.

Chris Versace (03:08.171)
Now, if you want to float a th if you want to float a theory like, hey, Chris, did your mom do anything strange when she was pregnant with everybody? I would I would say, well, you know, back in the, you know, late sixties and early seventies, you know, smoking Marlborough red box when you’re pregnant probably wasn’t a good idea.

Jason Meshnick (03:15.606)
I wasn’t gonna go there.

Jason Meshnick (03:28.514)
Yeah, probably not. although I think the results have been pretty good. We know that because you are potentially part duck, difficult markets just seem to float right off your back or they they don’t sink in. So all right. With that, yeah, I don’t know. I I don’t have my analogies down today. So I think we should probably

Chris Versace (03:44.225)
Wow. Wow.

That’s all right. And it’s and it’s and it’s like rolls off your back like water.

Jason Meshnick (03:53.25)
rolls off your back like water. I had the I had the visual correct, but nothing else. okay, so let’s question number two is how long have you been with the Street Pro?

Chris Versace (04:06.545)
I well, technically speaking, I’ve been with the Street Pro since it was founded. How long have I, how long was I with real money and the prior products for many, many, many, many, many years? I originally got started contributing just a couple articles a week. and then I was gra I graduated to daily content. And then at some point, I can’t even remember when, I was tapped to take over what was the stocks under 10 portfolio.

Jason Meshnick (04:16.215)
Correct.

Chris Versace (04:34.687)
And the Trifecta portfolio. And in between, I also co-managed the Growth Seeker portfolio and wrote a fair number of articles that, if we still had it, would have been tagged under IncomeSeeker, but they were looking for either high yielding stocks or high dividend paying stocks. So I I’ve I’ve been around the street in various forms and fashions for quite some time.

Jason Meshnick (05:01.006)
Cool. I guess we should also talk about w what was your background? how how’d you even get to the street?

Chris Versace (05:06.349)
so I out of college, you’re gonna get the long version here. I I was more focused on backpacking through Europe than getting a job, and and I did. I backpacked through Europe, and then when I got back after that summer, I was like, yeah, I need a job. And I wound up teaching at my high school for two years. I started taking the GMATs and I started reading a lot about investing. So this was probably the early 90s.

Jason Meshnick (05:12.046)
Ha ha

Chris Versace (05:35.754)
And the book, and I’ve I think I’ve told this story in some form or fashion here. the book that I I read that really spoke to me was Peter Lynch’s one up on Wall Street, which is

Jason Meshnick (05:47.086)
Mm-hmm. Classic book.

Chris Versace (05:50.67)
Still still keep it right here. And and if I thumb through and if I thumb through it, it is underlined and highlighted and all that good stuff. and and the way you know my story goes, I actually called Fidelity one day, cold called it from the math office where I was teaching, and asked for Peter Lynch. They put me through. Lynch! And I was totally tongue-tied and said, Mr. Lynch, I just read your book, blah, blah, blah. Really spoke to me. You know, can I do anything? Blah, how do I get into this?

Jason Meshnick (05:52.662)
Okay. Dog eared.

Chris Versace (06:21.293)
Do you have any idea how many calls I get like this a day? Click. But I was undeterred and I wound up getting into equity research at Solomon Brothers, where I was fortunate to work with the institutional investor, number one ranked machinery analyst, and then the number one ranked home building building products analyst. and then I just made my way through DLJ FBR and then ultimately thought I was gonna walk away from it all. and then I got

pulled back in, developing a thematic framework and then ultimately finding my way to the street.

Jason Meshnick (06:57.664)
Awesome. So I I guess that story where you met Peter Lynch it tells you that maybe well, sorry, didn’t didn’t meet. You got to speak to. And so it it goes

Chris Versace (07:01.707)
No, didn’t meet didn’t meet on the phone. Briefly.

Jason Meshnick (07:07.212)
Yeah, so it it you know it goes that that old saying you you never want to meet your heroes, right? And I know that for many of our subscribers, as well as of course myself, Chris, you’re you know, you’re one of one of my heroes, one of our heroes. and so I think that brings us to question number three, is let’s talk about your investment philosophy and style and you know what which of our members tend to get the most out of your commentary and ideas?

Chris Versace (07:32.296)
so I, you know, kind of like the old sorry I gotta do this, but sorry, you know, it’s kind like the old Osman show, right? Where you had a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, and then there was Jimmy, who was a little funky, right? So so what I would say is that I’m I’m predominantly fundamental and thematic. I I think a lot of our you know,

Jason Meshnick (07:43.224)
Little bit country, a little bit rock and roll.

Jason Meshnick (07:50.623)
Yeah.

Chris Versace (08:01.355)
Readers and viewers have kind of come to expect that, just given, you know, the the way I think about things. But I also do pay attention to the technicals. You I I’m not, I’m not a technical analyst by j by any stretch. but I I know enough, and I obviously we have Bob Lang, we have Aline, we have others that I can kind of lean on. So I I really try to mix all of that. But I I I think if you were to move past that.

What I would say is I’m always looking for favorable risk-to-reward entries for new positions or to scale into an existing position. I prefer to follow where capital is being spent. Doesn’t matter if we’re talking companies, consumers, governments, what have you. You know, I have found that being if you can identify where the money flow is going and being on the receiving end of it.

That’s usually a pretty positive tailwind. but yeah, we we can also mix in some structural changes that are that are happening given the shifting landscapes of, you know, tech, demographics, psychographics, and a few other things.

Jason Meshnick (09:07.278)
Yeah, that’s great. I think that makes a lot of sense. You really want to have that tailwind behind you. so when when money is flowing in, you know, I I know as an employee it’s always been more fun to work for companies that are growing than companies that are not growing. there’s just more opportunity and there there’s more investment and and then that just helps everything grow. so completely agree with you. so that’s that’s great to know. let’s move on to so with Lewis I asked the question, and it’s kind of a you know cliche question, but what is your best trade and what what what did you learn from?

From it. But I think there’s a better way to ask that. Because best trade is something that is fleeting, not necessarily something that you can reproduce. And the learnings from your best trade tend not to be that dramatic. So I’m going to change that question a little bit to in your opinion, what does a good trade or investment look like?

Chris Versace (09:58.55)
Well, obviously you want to have a outsized return in an absolute sense. And and of course relative to the benchmark, which for the pro portfolio is the SP 500. I, you know, at the end of the day, right, you know, performance I think is always the the best way to answer that. But I I do think there’s another way to think about it. that’s being rewarded for your conviction, as well as having an outsized return.

And kind of in that vein, I I would share that you know, last year at the Pro Portfolio, we were long Marvell. And if you remember in 2025, NVIDIA was getting all the attention, even though Marvell was really talking about their custom AI chip business. Broadcom was too, but for some reason, like Marvell shares were like stuck in a rut. And I know that, you know, there were members who were frustrated with the position. What are we doing? You know, this sort of thing. But

By following the data, reinforcing our conviction, you know, I think as we saw, you know, towards the back half of last year, but then again, really this year, our patience was rewarded and rewarded handsomely, I might add. So I would say that those two things, there there, there’s that feeling of getting it right that I think is you know, often discounted.

Jason Meshnick (11:23.054)
Yeah, exactly. And I I think, you know, there’s a saying on Wall Street that better lucky than smart. And and I think th so that so

Chris Versace (11:29.773)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Meshnick (11:33.054)
You can only be lucky so many times, right? So your your investment in Marvell was not necessarily a lucky one. It was one where you put in the time, you put in the effort, and it paid off because of all the things, all of your experience, right? And that that helped you, it it led you to Marvell and it helped you get to that outsized return. So yeah, I mean every every good trade has to be profitable, but you can even have a good trade that’s not profitable, like you said, it on a relative basis, right? Maybe, maybe you did all the research right, you did

Chris Versace (11:42.444)
Yes.

Chris Versace (11:52.141)
What it

Chris Versace (11:55.639)
So

Jason Meshnick (12:02.948)
everything right but the market still went against you and you limited your loss, that can still be a pretty good trade, right? Getting out and saving yourself.

Chris Versace (12:07.053)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Versace (12:13.131)
Yeah, I think that’s right. I I mean look, we we would all like to have every trade or I I you know, li I

Every investment. That’s I would prefer to use that word because we’re not sh we’re we’re not traders in the portfolio. So I I would just alter the word to investment. We like to have all our investments work out, but we know that’s simply not gonna happen. Right. From from time to time you might have moments of that, and we’ve enjoyed that, but you know, there there’s a lot of puts and takes going on. So to to the extent that we can get the vast majority of of our investments, you know, working out, I I I think that’s very rewarding.

Jason Meshnick (12:28.064)
Right, right.

Jason Meshnick (12:37.409)
Yeah.

Chris Versace (12:51.654)
you know.

Jason Meshnick (12:54.402)
Yeah, and and I think I think that’s a really important thing to emphasize too is that your portfolio is for investors, right? I when I think about portfolio, I think about three reasons why people might might tune in, might read your commentary. First is the person who says, Hey, you know, I’m just Chris Versace fan, whatever move he makes, I want to make that same move. and that’s totally fine. There there are people that do that. There’s another group of people that say, Well, I’m gonna look at the portfolio and I’m gonna see what Chris is buying and selling.

And I’m going to take that as you know, kind of a recommendation from Chris, right? And I’m gonna read everything he does, and I’m just gonna think about it, and I’m going to basically cherry pick my favorite ideas. And then there’s the third kind of person who says, Well, I don’t really care what Chris is doing, but I really appreciate Chris’s research and and the way he thinks about markets, and that’s what I want to read. So, yeah, so that’s that’s great. so with that, let’s jump into because this is another cliche question, but I think

Chris Versace (13:42.455)
Right. Yeah.

Jason Meshnick (13:54.218)
think it’s I think it’s the valuable one is tell us about your worst trade or investment and and what you learned from that. And and the learning is really the bigger part than what the trade was.

Chris Versace (14:04.203)
Yes. So I hate to stir up the history here, but there is one name that I’m gonna mention, Charge Point. And that was one that that was it wa it it dogged us for a while. And the problem the the problem there is that conceptually there were a lot of positive data points about EV adoption, about the rollout of EV charging stations, about

dollar infrastructure dollars were supposed to be allocated for EV infrastructure. And then over time, you know, there were some arguably with you know understandable delays not so much just for charge point but really for the industry and that was laying the electrical infrastructure where these EV charging stations were going to go. So there were some delays and stuff. the learnings were twofold. One

Don’t get emotional. Let the data talk to you, right? And second, past a certain point, you have got to rip the band-aid off some of these positions. There’s only so much pain that you can tolerate. So the the silver lining of that is after that experience, we instituted initially what we called panic points, but now we’ve called them checkpoints. and I I think that that’s another layer of discipline. you know, so you know, tr only always trying, as you know, Jason.

To share not only our learnings, but continuing to improve the Pro Portfolio just to bring more insight, arguably more value for membership dollars.

Jason Meshnick (15:43.17)
Yeah, that’s great. And I think that’s that’s an important thing is I I think that when you went back and and did kind of a post mortem on that trade and said, Yeah, it’s time to institute those checkpoints or panic points, that was really important. you know, we know a lot of i really successful investing comes down to managing risk and and that was something that you looked at, right? And you figured out, yeah.

Chris Versace (16:03.935)
One one one hundred percent. the the other thing that I would say, and that this wasn’t a learning from it, but so much as a reminder, is you know, there are people out there that bet on management teams. And from time to time that can work. There are times when it doesn’t work, as we learned where, you know, eventually charge point shares continued to drop even after we got out and the management team was, you know, shown the door. So I I I think there was something

Let let’s just say else going on and leave it at that.

Jason Meshnick (16:36.654)
Sure, sure. All right. so let’s move on to question number six. Do you have any investment wisdom for our viewers that we haven’t already imparted?

Chris Versace (16:47.521)
Let’s see, follow the data, don’t be emotional. always double, triple check, you know, if you can.

You know, follow the money. I mean, it’s, you know, it’s all that stuff. I I I feel like I’m like I this is it it’s funny because on on on the one hand, you didn’t share the questions with me. So I’m a little Johnny on the spot here. But at the same time, at the same time though, I I don’t want to like regurgitate all the stuff that anybody who reads my stuff day in, day out is already getting.

Jason Meshnick (17:11.822)
Exactly.

Jason Meshnick (17:23.0)
Perfect. Yeah. Because I think that’s that’s one of the things too, is that in your work every day you’re explaining what you’re doing, you’re explaining your investment philosophy, and you are giving imparting that that wisdom.

Chris Versace (17:35.435)
Well, I d the re the reason for that, and this sounds a little, you know, contrite, but you know, we work for the members.

Jason Meshnick (17:43.606)
Right. Yeah, exactly. So, okay, now with that, this is your chance to expand upon anything you would like to. Chris, do you have anything else that you would like to share with our members?

Chris Versace (17:58.046)
I would just say that A, I always appreciate the feedback that members give, whether whether it’s in the forum or during office hours. I think the interaction is great. I also really appreciate the response to some of the things that we’ve introduced to the portfolio, you know, in more recent years. What whether it’s, you know, office hours or doing some polling, but especially the reception to the EPS All-Stars model. I think that

Know some some folks were understandably skeptical, but having run the model for a long time along with 20 some other models with my other hat on at Tomatica, I was, you know, very familiar with how the model, the EPS All-Stars model had performed in the past. And I’m very happy that people kind of came around and understood, you know, what we were trying to do, what the strategy was really trying to encapsulate. And fortunately, it’s

S it’s performed well, especially the in, you know, the current quarter to date.

Jason Meshnick (19:02.754)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the EBS All Stars have really done incredibly well so far this year. So I I appreciate you bringing them in that philosophy to the Street Pro.

Yeah. and with that, those are all the questions that I’ve got. to our listeners, I’ll say, you know, feel free to add your own questions into the comment section and Chris will happily answer them all. yeah, he’s always involved. you can also find Chris over in the portfolio forum where he answers questions, as you mentioned, the office hours. and that’s it. So I just want to say thank you, Chris Versace, for all that you’ve done for the Street Pro and for all the help you’ve given me as well to

Chris Versace (19:26.059)
Yeah, absolutely.

Jason Meshnick (19:43.536)
And with that, thank you everybody.