Benzinga Talks With Fast Money's Patty Edwards (TIF, JCG)

Patty Edwards is a frequent contributor to both CNBC's Fast Money as well as the Fast Money Halftime Show which takes place during the middle of the trading day. She is an investment manager at Trutina Financial, formerly known as Storehouse Partners, in Seattle, Washington. Patty was nice enough to recently sit down with Benzinga.com for an exclusive interview. Edwards told us that she began in the money management business in 1986. Within two years of beginning her finance career, she was managing $150 million! This is quite an impressive feat, considering that she originally wanted to be the editor of Newsweek or Business Week, and had received her master's degree in journalism. Patty is well known for her knowledge of the retail sector. We were very curious about her outlook for the consumer. She told us that based on all the earnings commentary and economic data, her opinion is that the "consumer is in a world of hurt," and will remain that way for some time. She added, when the consumer is 70% of GDP, "you have to have your pulse on the consumer." She does, however, believe that the high end consumer may be coming back, noting that "consumers are not a homogenous unit, you're going to see things like the higher end companies do better because those consumers are mostly focused on what their balance sheet looks like, whereas consumers in the middle and lower income levels are just trying to survive." Patty told us that while she is far from bullish on the retail sector as a whole, some individual stocks look attractive. She said that she recently bought Tiffany's TIF, which is clearly a name that is leveraged to the high end consumer. She also likes J. Crew JCG, but said that the outlook for the company for the rest of 2010 looks challenging. Therefore, she suggested the $30 level as an attractive entry point in JCG. The shares currently trade at $32.20. She told Benzinga that her investment style is primarily to look for good growth stocks that are trading at reasonable valuations. Her background, however, is very diverse. She has worked at value firms, quantitative firms, and has even run an equity income fund. Generally, however, she likes revenue growth. She said, "I am looking at revenue growth, I think if you have revenue growth the you've got earnings growth. I sometimes buy stocks that have better earnings growth than revenue growth but it better be a good story." Patty also shares with us a little bit about what it is like being on CNBC's Fast Money. She said that the cast is very congenial and 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." She noted that Fast Money requires a huge amount of preparation time, however. Her first call of the day is at 6 a.m. since she is based on the West Coast. "There are multiple emails flying back and forth between us and the producers, another call around noon, and then one final conference call about a half hour before we go on air. It's a lot of homework, but it benefits my clients." This interview is a must for anyone that is interested in the world of investment management, as well as fans of Fast Money. Patty comes across as a very down to earth and likeable person on CNBC, and those same qualities are obvious in our interview. She also knows an awful lot about stocks and investors can learn definitely make money listening to her advice. Be sure to check out the full interview here.