How Patty Edwards Went From Journalist To Retail Stock Guru

In a recent episode of Zing Talk, Benzinga had the opportunity to speak with Patty Edwards, founder of Trutina Financial (Storehouse Partners) and a CNBC contributor. To say that Patty has experience in managing investments would be an understatement, though she has not always had her eye on managing a portfolio. Patty graduated from UC San Diego with a degree in economics. She told Benzinga, “I'll be honest; I spent a lot of time in the history department and jazz performance department. After that, I thought what I really wanted to do was become the editor of Newsweek or Business Week, so I went to grad school for Journalism.” She ended up deciding journalism was not what she wanted to do and went into investment management. She may not be the editor of Newsweek or Business Week, but she probably has even more of an impact on the market than if she did. You can see Patty Edwards as a contributor on CNBC's Fast Money as well as the Fast Money Halftime Report quite regularly. Many people know Patty for being primarily a retail analyst, but she says, “I'm really more of a generalist. I do really gravitate towards the consumer with them being 70% of GDP; you have to have your finger on the pulse of the consumer. Based on all the earnings commentary that we're getting, and the economic data, I think the consumer is in a world of hurt, and will continue to be in a world of hurt going forward.” It seems like she hit the nail on the head with that comment. Either way, the market speaks for itself: retail stocks are really lagging right now. You know the economy has yet to make a comeback when you see companies likes Family Dollar FDO continuously surge past earnings expectations, while upscale retailers like Tiffany & Co. TIF and Saks SKS have been hit hard by the impact of the struggling consumer. J. Crew JCG, whose stock has struggled recently, is a favorite of Patty's. She says, “I also own J. Crew; Mickey Drexler, who I think is one of the best merchants out in retail and is doing a phenomenal deal with their product, has come out and said flat out that the consumer has gone cold. So if you can get stock at $30 I'd be very interested in it.” As it so happens, J. Crew has been hovering around her entry point lately. Overall Patty says she is looking for undervaluation or growth. Patty is a fan favorite on CNBC's Fast Money. For all the people aspiring to make it on the show, we asked her how she was able to get a spot. Patty told us, “I've been doing television for about eight years, and it was pretty localized until I made a call 5-6 years ago when everyone was in love with Wal-Mart WMT and I said that the ‘emperor had no clothes,' causing the sale of Wal-Mart in our shop. This caught the attention of Bloomberg for their retail, so I started doing more television with them. CNBC picked up on that. They were looking for a retail analyst to talk about something, and I got a call out of the blue. I agreed to do a spot on Fast Money that night, did the spot, and got an offer to become one of the regulars.” Fast Money is an educational, yet entertaining approach to investing. Any regular watcher of the show knows that all of the contributors act as if they were one big family. While discussing the market may be the show's priority, there are always laughs and jokes going on. When asked what it was like being on the set, she said, “one day last April I snuck into the set partway through the show, and Pete & Jerry got up off the set during commercial break and gave me a hug. It's very congenial, and it feels like when I was a kid at the dinner table with my brothers, and it was all about who could make the smartest and wittiest comment at each other. It hasn't changed much; I'm just doing the same thing with different people.” Away from Patty's Fast Money family, she has kids of her own and says it can be a big job, but gets a lot of help from her husband of 20 years, who has retired from the military. As a final note for her conversation with Benzinga, Patty said she is a fan of Red Robin RRGB, since her boys love it. Be sure to check out our full interview with Patty Edwards on Zing Talk.