Steve McDonald: Hi, everybody, I’m Steve McDonald. This is your Market Wake-Up Call. I’m calling this week’s call “the unmasking of Mr. Wizard.” You think you know a guy, and then one day you find out he’s one of the earliest pioneers, developers and all-around geniuses who started everything that we now call Silicon Valley. Our guest this week is the David Fessler: The Oxford Club’s Energy and Infrastructure Strategist. And now, as it turns out, he’s an algorithm expert too. I didn’t know this.

Dave’s pulling from his insider access to the world of technology to produce some amazing returns. I’m going to let him tell you the particulars, but his early work has been the basis for the systems that run Apple, Amazon and more. Welcome, Dave.

David Fessler: Hi, Steve. Glad to be here.

Steve McDonald: I have to honest with you, I was stunned when I read this. Can you give us a little background on what kinds of things you were doing in early Silicon Valley and how that relates to what you’re doing now? I think you call it the 7-day return system?

David Fessler: I’ll give you a little bit of my history. Back in the late 1970s, I spent four years working at Western Electric, the manufacturing arm of AT&T. At the plant I worked for in Allentown, Pennsylvania, we made integrated circuits (ICs), commonly known as chips, for AT&T’s massive landline telephone network. I helped design and test some of the most advanced chips being made at the time. Now, my tour of duty there gave me detailed knowledge of designing, programming and testing ICs. And so, after that, I turned around and spent 25 years selling test equipment back to them when I worked for a company called LTX Corporation. And over the course of that career, I sold them roughly $1 billion worth of test equipment. I retired when I was 47.

Next, I went to Quality Telecommunications. I spent two years there and grew that business. I nearly doubled its size in two years. But throughout all of this, I’ve always enjoyed managing my own investments. And my latest screening algorithm is my most successful yet. I took a lot of the information I gleaned from designing and testing integrated circuits to help me with this algorithm.

Steve McDonald: I understand that your system recently kicked out more trades in one week than it normally does in a month. Is this normal? Or is this acting as a forecasting device of the market?

David Fessler: You’re right. My most recent screen kicked out 56 companies, and normally, I get only three or four. So I think it’s an indication that the market is still on the upswing. I also may have to tighten some of my screening requirements to get this back down to three or four.

Steve McDonald: Interesting. Can you talk about some of the returns that you’re seeing and how you’re coming up with them?

David Fessler: Right now, 8 of 9 stocks in our portfolio are profitable, and all but two of those have double-digit gains. We have seven option positions, and five of those have double-digit gains. One even is a triple-digit gainer right now. And as far as how I’m coming up with them, that’s part of the system that makes it unique to my service.

Steve McDonald: Algorithms themselves, do they actually run the system? Or are they the predictive part of the system?

David Fessler: They’re part of the system that helps me look at the universe of stocks and the economy and really narrow down that information to the things that I believe will help me pick out a momentum stock. But they’re not just momentum stocks. These are short-term jumps. So there’s a difference there.

Steve McDonald: You’ve got a best-selling book, The Energy Disruption Triangle: Three Sectors That Will Change How We Generate, Use, and Store Energy. Can you tell us what it’s about and why people should read it?

David Fessler: The title is really descriptive of what’s going on. The disruption in energy is due to the rapid deployment of solar energy, electric vehicles and cheap battery storage. Together, they’re going to completely disrupt the way we generate, use and store electricity. Today, electricity is used as soon as it’s generated, but just imagine being able to time shift that electricity generation to when it’s needed. And that’s what’s going to be happening over the next five to 10 years.

Steve McDonald: Okay. Dave, as always, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us.

David Fessler: My pleasure, Steve. As always.

Steve McDonald: Thank you. And for more on how Dave’s new system is predicting the big disruptive trends in tech, energy and just about everything, make sure you check out his new report. There’s a link below. Just click on it. You’ll get all the details. And from everybody here at the Market Wake-Up Call, I’m Steve McDonald. Thank you so much for being a part of this. I’ll see you next week.