Biography
Brian Michael Nelson, CFA, is the president of equity and dividend growth research and ETF analysis at Valuentum Securities. He is the architect behind the company’s research methodology and processes, including the Valuentum Buying Index rating system, the Economic Castle rating, and the Dividend Cushion ratio. Nelson has acted as editor-in-chief of the firm’s Best Ideas Newsletter and Dividend Growth Newsletter since their inception. Before founding Valuentum in early 2011, he worked as a director at Morningstar, where he was responsible for training and methodology development within the firm's equity and credit research department. Prior to that position, Nelson served as a senior industrials securities analyst covering aerospace, airline, construction, and environmental services companies. Before joining Morningstar in February 2006, he worked for a small capitalization fund covering a variety of sectors for an aggressive growth investment management firm in Chicago. Nelson holds a bachelor's degree in finance with a minor in mathematics, magna cum laude, from Benedictine University, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He also holds the chartered financial analyst (CFA) designation.
The DCF model is not only relevant to today’s market, it remains an absolute necessity.