He Talks to Taxi Drivers and Bartenders for Research. Here Are His Stock Picks

To generate investment research, market strategist Jason De Sena Trennert relies on quantitative analysis and shoe-leather reporting. “I spend a lot of time just talking to people,” says the chairman of Strategas, an investment-strategy, economic, and policy-research firm. “I talk to taxi drivers, bartenders, coat-check clerks, local businessmen—anyone—to figure out what’s happening. It’s an extremely important part of the way we do our research.”

Trennert fell in love with financial markets during his first job, at Smith Barney in 1988. “It was an exciting time,” he says. “If you’re a news junkie, following the financial markets is one of the more intellectually stimulating jobs you can have because everything, especially on the macro side, becomes important. Everything that you see on the nightly news has an investment implication.”

In 2006, Trennert co-founded Strategas. Today, the firm has clients in 45 states and 25 countries. He spoke with Barron’s from his office in New York about what he sees as the greatest risk to the U.S. economy, why he is skeptical about investing in China and environmental, social, and corporate governance, or ESG, investing, and why he’s excited about the firm’s two exchange-traded funds. An edited version of the conversation follows.

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