The 2013 All-America Research Team: Economics, No. 3: Torsten Sløk

Repeating at No. 3 is Torsten Sløk of Deutsche Bank Securities. Sløk has been tracking the U.S. housing market, whose recovery he believes is “real and getting stronger.” The share of homes that are financed with a conventional mortgage has been rising. Distressed residential sales have fallen from 25 percent of properties sold a year ago, he says, to 10 percent as of August. And most important, Sløk notes, home prices are rising at an annual rate of roughly 10 percent. The market’s turnaround, moreover, has engendered a “virtuous cycle [among] housing, consumers and banks,” he explains, “as higher home prices raise household wealth, which raises consumption.” Clients appreciate the analyst’s thorough research, hailing “the breadth of information that he gathers and passes along,” as one puts it. “I get most everything I need from just one source.” Sløk has also been advising clients to discount the potential impact of certain demographics concerns, noting that an aging U.S. population will not be a drag on the economy and share prices. He concludes that counteracting forces “are all positive and outweigh the modest negative effect from aging that we will experience in coming years.” Sløk, says another buy-side backer, is someone “I can count on for original perspective. He just looks at things differently.” — Paul Sweeney