(Investment news with a personal touch)

FOUNTAIN OF SUCCESS

There are, I believe, only 2 things on earth that are eternal--the Word of God and people. For many years I have filled spare moments with the study of both and found that one of the best ways to study people's is to study money and its history. The continuous search for the fountain of success has led to many studies of successful people, which have repeatedly found that written goal setting was the critical achievement factor for success as most people define it.

If your financial goals are security and freedom, financial growth will be an important objective. There may be no best way to achieve this for everyone; however, the investment vehicle you choose should have the potential to achieve your goal. It should also be one to which you will feel comfortable committing a large share of your investment.

WEALTH BUILDER

Most financial advisors agree that the 3 primary drivers of wealth accumulation are time, return, and savings rate, in that order of importance. At a 15% return, a person saving $100/month for only the first 10 years out of 40 years will retire with $1,600,000 compared to $560,000 for the one who saves for only the last 30 of the same 40 years. About 80% of millionaires in the US are over 65 years of age, having set time to work for them.

The rate of return is also important. For instance, the time to double your money will increase as return drops: 42%-2 years, 26%-3, 19%-4, 15%-5, 13%-6, and 6%-12, etc. The least important of the three is how much you save. So, the formula for building wealth is:

MONEY x RETURN RATE x TIME = WEALTH

Globig Investment News (GIN) was created to help others achieve my written goal of 2X the S&P, long term. GIN was also begun to respond to a need for simple investment guidance. After securing my Masters in Business Administration at Canisius College in 1990, I began to apply my years of training and practice in numbers analysis as a Mechanical Engineer, PE to investment theory and people's behavior.

Modern Portfolio Theory, the basis for most professional investment advice, says that stocks (7%) will roughly double the return of bonds (3+%), as has been true over the last ~100 years. The way to reduce risk is to spread a portfolio over stocks, bonds, and cash. It also says that no method of investing will, over the long term, earn a higher return than this.

However, analyses of methods that use moving averages to determine when to move in and out of the stock market show that most outperform the market on a risk-adjusted basis. (If the market is above its average, you should buy or hold; below its average, sell.) GIN uses a 39-week average that, with back testing, has provided an exit signal before every major US stock market drop since it began in the 1920’s and generated less than 2 trade signals per year on average.

INTERNATIONAL INVESTING

The US has, perhaps, one of the most adversarial relationships between government and business in the world. Dividends are taxed as a corporation and again when paid to individuals. Environmental, liability, and employment laws also detract from the profitability of domestic companies compared with competitors worldwide. So, savvy US investors often move their dollars to international markets where returns may be higher.

INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHY

GIN provides a trading model to follow market uptrends and avoid declines. We invest in stocks through appropriate ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) when there is potential for growth and relatively low risk. We place all investments in the best fund. This eliminates individual business risk while increasing leverage on economic risk. This applies Jesus’ teaching that to every one which has shall more be given. If no US or international fund is attractive, we use Bonds until a market segment returns to an upward trend relative to its 39-week moving average. Although this strategy carries high short-term volatility, it has proven to reduce risk enough that most subscribers feel comfortable committing most of their funds to it. This results in higher returns than “spreading of assets” among several market segments, which prevents high participation in the most profitable sector. Investing can be emotional, so it is important to fully understanding of our investment philo

SERVICES

A bi-monthly newsletter with a summary of recommended trades will be sent to each client. When a signal for a trade occurs, GIN will notify each subscriber by email within 1 business day of market close--usually based on a Friday’s closing numbers. It is up to each subscriber to then contact his/her broker to make the trade or do it online. Help will be provided, if requested. This allows subscribers to mirror the GIN model with similar funds in their 401k or 503c. I did this with my own 401k within DuPont until I became independently wealthy by the criteria described in GIN story.

FEES

GIN’s annual news and hotline fee are the lesser of $600 or 1.0% of funds used to follow GIN recommendations, billed at 0.25% quarterly (required by the SEC) on 1/15, 4/15, 7/15, and 10/15. For example, $6000 invested would mean a quarterly fee of $15.00 (minimum); $20,000 would mean $50, etc., up to a maximum of $150. For convenience, multiple quarters my be paid ahead. 

Professional management is available at 3% annually, (0.75% automatically withdrawn at the start of each quarter). Most long term clients use professional management, which eliminates quarterly billing (required by the SEC) and frequent access to their accounts to make trades.