In This Issue:
Investor Advisory Service Named as a Top Newsletter for 2010
In the December 2009 issue of the Hulbert Financial Digest, the publication that tracks the performance of U.S. stock and mutual fund newsletters, Editor Mark Hulbert named his 2010 Investment Newsletter Honor Roll. We are pleased to note that the Investor Advisory Service is among the just nine equity and mutual fund newsletters included on the 2010 list.
To be included on Hulbert's Investment Newsletter Honor Roll, newsletters must show above-average performance, on a risk-adjusted basis, in both up and down markets over the past decade. Since Hulbert began tracking the Investor Advisory Service in 1998, this is the first year that the Service has been eligible for inclusion. Of the fund and equity newsletters named to the 2010 Investment Newsletter Honor Roll, the IAS is ranked third in "Grade in Up Markets" and third in "Gain of Domestic Equity Portfolios" since June 30, 1998.
Are you taking advantage of the power of IAS to help build your portfolio? Each month, subscribers receive three long-term oriented, high-quality stock recommendations, written by Seger-Elvekrog's team of Chartered Financial Analysts. Each stock pick includes a detailed write-up and a completed Toolkit 6 Stock Study, and every issue includes market commentary, updates about previously-recommended companies, and sell recommendations.
Learn more about IAS and download a free sample issue, and then subscribe today. The regular subscription price is $299 for the online edition and $399 for the mailed print edition, but use promo code X4PQ and pay just $175 for online or $249 for print! That's as little as $5 per stock recommendation — how much would you pay for time-tested stock investing advice?
Join the Club!
by Amy Rauch Neilson
I have a friend who, as he was becoming increasingly successful in his career, wisely decided to put some of his earnings away for a rainy day. Paying off the house, funding the kids' college funds, and planning for an early retirement were at the top of his list.
Because computer programming is where his talents (and interests) lie, he decided to keep it simple by investing primarily in index funds. He did his homework, selected a few funds — small, medium, and large cap — authorized automatic monthly withdrawals from his checking account and whammo! He had a long-term plan for financial success that requires little attention.
For most avid investors, that sounds like a yawner. Where's the strategy? Where's the excitement? Isn't it not only more challenging, but more importantly — more profitable to invest in managed mutual funds? After all, index funds, by definition, mirror the overall stock market and its returns, while managed mutual funds attempt to outperform the market.
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How Is Your Club Portfolio Performing?
One of the key reasons that investment clubs fail is because key portfolio management principles were ignored, leading the club to underperform the market — or even to lose money. Clubs need to make sure that they are selecting stocks with an eye towards building a portfolio that is diversified by company size, and by sector and industry. Diversification is a technique used to reduce the level of risk in the overall portfolio, which in turn can contribute to a higher rate of total return.
In addition, the task of knowing when to sell a stock that's not meeting your expectations is also a problem for many clubs. Hold on too long, and a company might continue to deteriorate fundamentally and take down your club's returns with it. Being able to spot subtle trends before they become disasters is so very important to
To help clubs better manage their holdings, myICLUB.com has launched a suite of new portfolio reports and graphs that help with the varied tasks of portfolio management. Log in to your club's myICLUB.com website, and click the Reports tab. Here, any club member can view the five new fundamental-based Portfolio Reports, as well as the six new Portfolio Charts.
Based on the reports in Toolkit 6, these new reports can help you pinpoint problems in your club holdings. They each use Take Stock's default judgment for projected growth rates and buy prices, which provides an ultra-conservative approach to portfolio management.
The new reports include:
- Portfolio Offense: Highlights stocks with low returns and/or excessive risk.
- Portfolio Summary: Displays key indicators relating to the price and valuation of holdings.
- Portfolio Defense: Highlights stocks that fail to meet growth expectations.
- Portfolio Trend: Summarizes operational trends of companies relative to EPS, sales, and pre-tax profits.
- Portfolio Review: Provides PERT-style early warning signals to reveal sub-par performance.
The new Charts are already being used and printed for many club meetings, since they show important factors in a visual format that any club member can easily absorb. The new Charts include:
- Club Assets Chart: Shows the growth of club assets.
- Member Ownership Chart: Shows the ownership of the club by member.
- Portfolio Performance Graph: Shows the performance of the club portfolio over time.
- Security Performance Graph: Shows performance of a single security.
- Company Size Diversification Chart: Shows the diversification of the club holdings by company size.
- Sector & Industry Diversification Chart: Shows the diversification of the club portfolio by both sector and industry.
To learn more about how to use these new reports and graphs, join ICLUBcentral's Doug Gerlach for his next Investment Club Orientation webinar on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 9:00 PM EST.
Thanks for making myICLUB.com the most popular investment club website in the world! |
February 25, 2010
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