Why are so many SMART money managers
buying so many DUMB investments
and losing investors so much MONEY?
The way most financial planners and fund managers are treating you is INSANE!
They throw your money at investments that are continuing to crash and burn …
And when they’ve lost 50% … 60% or even 95% of your investment, they nick you again for outrageous fees!
Dear Investor,
They should be ashamed of themselves:
-
Financial planners and investment advisors who know this crisis could last for years — and who still urge you to buy the stock of companies that a blind man could see are at death’s door …
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Mutual fund kingpins that cavalierly throw your hard-earned money at real estate and construction firms … automakers … banks and other companies they know are doomed …
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Managers at trust funds, pension funds, retirement funds and college savings funds who make themselves richer investing your money in things they know will probably only make you poorer …
Where do they get the nerve to charge you outrageous fees after they’ve destroyed your wealth?
Every schoolchild in America knows we’re in a recession. Every New York taxi driver knows that banks, insurers, oil companies, automakers and consumer companies are getting killed.
And yet dozens of supposedly smart managers like Fisher Investments, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and bank trust departments are buying and holding investments that have plunged 50% … 60 % … or even up to 95% IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS ALONE.
Just look at these losers in their portfolios …
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Citigroup: DOWN 94% …
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AFLAC: DOWN 74% …
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Occidental Petroleum: DOWN 45% …
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GM: DOWN 95% …
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Target: DOWN 48% …
It would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic: With brain-dead investments like those, it’s little wonder why, with the markets down about 40%, America’s 25 largest mutual funds are down MORE: An average of 55.1%.
But WHY are all these supposedly smart investment experts making such boneheaded moves?
The answer is clear:
They’re still using BULL market rules
to invest in this BEAR market!
That’s a shame. Because with the right investments, each of the 50% losses could have been a 50% profit … and each of the 90% losses could have been a 90% profit — all by applying our 11 bear market laws that have made investors rich in previous crises … and that empower you to confidently use a similar approach to grow your wealth even in the worst of times.
And to help you do just that, I’ve just scheduled a very special — and completely free — online event …
THE 11 LAWS OF BEAR MARKET SUCCESS
How To Prudently Grow Your Wealth
Even When Others Are Losing Everything
In this fast-paced, one-hour, online video briefing at noon on Thursday, February 26, I’ll bring you quickly up to date with the latest dramatic changes that pose grave new risks — and open great new opportunities — for every dollar you have invested, including …
The Washington Bailout Disasters: How and when the new stimulus and bank rescue packages will backfire, plus what you must do now to protect your wealth and your family.
Wall Street Treachery: How big mutual funds, financial planners and Wall Street brokers have dumped pure garbage into your portfolio.
Main Street Sabotage: Why many of the investments they tell you are “safe” — “too-big to fail” banks, “insured” municipal bonds, and junk bonds masquerading as quality bonds — are little more than ticking time-bombs set to blow your portfolio apart at virtually any moment.
Bomb Disposal 101: How to quickly spot and get rid of the landmines concealed in your portfolio.
Bear Market Bonanzas: Precisely how this bear market gives you hundreds of opportunities to make money more quickly than virtually any bull market. Six types of investments that make that possible immediately.
The 11 Laws of Bear Market Success: My 11-point checklist for making money in times like these — the rules I follow to determine what I’ll buy or sell, to improve my timing, to lower my risk, and to boost the profit potential in all markets.
This must-attend briefing is FREE
and registering takes only seconds …
Just click this link to tell me you’re coming and to make sure we can get you the instructions for attending.
And when you’ve reserved your place, please come right back and post a comment to tell me the one thing I can do for you at this event that will help you most!
Good luck and God bless!
Martin
{ 55 comments… read them below or add one }
Martin- I have been reading you and your associates for a few years now, and have enjoyed a good deal of protection to my IRA. I tend to lean to the gloom and doom scenarios being espoused in the alternate media today, and I must confess that your predictions of the last few years were even a bit much for me to believe, or I would have made much more money being short the financials and real estate markets. I am shocked, appalled, and disgusted at the clowns in Congress and the White House who have sold us down the river. I would love to hear you explain EXACTLY what you see coming in terms of bank closings, civil unrest, food riots, martial law, etc. What exactly will bankruptcy of the federal gov’t. entail ? Can you put a more definite face to this insidious fear and anxiety we all feel? What else should we do to prepare ? Thank you and your team, and keep up the good work. Gary
Yes– talk about possible RISKS of short-term liquid tbill accounts (how could this turn into a dangerous place to be?) and explain why you say be 90% in this investment while also recommending stocks, ETFs and currency trades. I’m confused.
I noticed on your list of banks…No mention of Wells Fargo-Chase & Bank of America???
Want your opinion on the money the President is putting into Fannie Mae…
Good or bad…
Thank you
Martin;
Is converting your mortgage to an interest only….a good idea to secure the savings difference to invest?…going to a meeting tonight to learn about…thanks
I emailed this a while back & don’t know if it went thru..Just intersted
Fannie Mae…what is your opinion of buying stock with them.
I did get the other information I wanted from your office about Banks.
iam new at this and need to make money for my life to come how can i get the help i need? thank you BRIAN
What should people do? If they still have money in bank’s mutual funds which droped almost 50%? Thank you.
My holdings in mutual funds are much smaller than a couple of years ago, in part because they have been bad investments, but also because I have been liquidating them one by one. I am interested in your advice on how to protect what is left of my holdings. Most now is in laddered CDs with local small banks, in GLD in my TDAmeritrade account, in my government Thrift Savings Account (G-Fund) and some other very conservative low yield bond funds.
I am now becoming more and more uneasy that anything I have located in the US and denominated in dollars is in peril. Ideas and how-to-do-it information on shifting wealth out of the country is of increasing interest to me.
When the dollar finally falls apart, what investment vehicles in other currencys would you reccomend?
How a novice, with confidence, can earn 5%.
What online broker/s would you recommend for new investors?
What is the probability Citicorp, Morgan, National City, and BankAmerica will go bankrupt? If they don’t go bankrupt will they keep paying dividends on preferred, as US Government now owns preferreds as part of TARP?
Will major European banks be nationalized due to derivatives crisis, bad debt on books, and more bad debt to come as Eastern Bloc defaults on debt they own, particularly Barclay’s?
Martin; I am a school teacher without much money to invest, but managed to buy gold bullion in Novemeber before gold prices jumped up. Thanks for your advice on investing in gold! For those of us middle class earners, what do you recommend to safeguard the small savings/nest egg with out knowledge of stock/bond investment. I teach financial skills to 7th graders and could really use some safe advice.
Thanks, Diana
I don’t live in the USA, but in Singapore. What do you suggest I should do? Probably the only safe way is to invest in currency and paper gold?
I have been away for some time. Are you still endorsing any ETF’s or options? Or what have you been looking at? Anything promising?
I need some direction here!
Martin….look…No government solutions have worked for one reason! They don’t understand the cause.
Banking/credit are NOT the source of the problem….they are accessorys to the crime.
We are undergoing an economic culture change. The demand for goods and services was built on a faulty foundation. Namely, escessive credit spending on the part of the consumer to include everything from houses to groceries! We are now rapidly moving from a credit-based economy to a “cash and carry” economy. This credit binge got so bad last year that many people were buying everyday necessities on their home equity line of credit. They refinanced every year at a higher house value than the year before and spent the difference on basic necessities. They maxed out all available credit cards and ended up taking money ouf of their home equity. All the time this was going on….middle income people were experiencing income decreases! Excessive greed on the part of consumers – lending institutions – and business built a false economy that could not stand. The ‘killer’ was $4.50 gas and increasing interest rates. The knee-jerk response was to choke credit which put the final nail in the coffin.
Both Costco and J.C. Penny reported a marked change from credit purchasing to cash purchases in November 08.
We will discover that even if credit is loosened most will not take advantage of it except for autos and houses, and then at a much lower level. The President of NCNB bank in Charlotte said on TV that- monehy is available but the real problem is there is no demand for it!
Everybody…banks…consumers….business….have been badly burned. It is not likely that credit purchasing will ever return to its former level in our lifetime. Businesses such as Circuit City, and thousands just like them survived on credit purchases. It ’s over my friend. I calculate that a basic cash and carry economy is about 80% of a credit-based economy. Thousands and thousands of business will fail until the level of supply…matches the level of cash and carry spending. We will then have a ‘true economy’ where supply matches demand.
The country must downsize! Think about this. You’ll discover the heart of the real problem and find that there is no answer to a economic culture change such as this.
Ok, so I need to find investments for my clients, your almost average joe if you will, most of them retired who want low risk growth on their money. Besides me having to move money in and out of ETFs when an email is sent out…which I might miss, because I am in an appointment, what else do you suggest?
I will not be on the call as I will be flying to Tampa.
A personal response is greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Jo Rae Perkins, CFP(r)
All my money manager has talked about for the last year, is you must stay invested and buy and hold. He says that his strategy has paid off for 30 years and he is sure this market is going to rebound. When the market rebounded to 9300 I sold all my holdings and have been sitting on the sidelines for 3 months. He even had the nerve to charge my account outrageous fees for handling the cash.
Where should I invest for the short term? How do you define short-term?
martin,if it appears that the government is planning,or does outlaw the trading of gold either physical stocks or etfs, or actually does confiscate any or allforms of gold,then what should my actions be in all of these senerios?
I realize this is somewhat improper, but would you be willing to tell us what an incredibly well informed individual like you has lost/gained in your personal portfolio over the past year, in percentage terms?
pieter
Hello so where is a good place to put the money we have left in 401’s and 403B’s that is safe and will return a reasonable profit.
Do you foresee natural resource stocks recovering anytime soon? Are there certain resources that will bounce back quicker?
Martin,
Thanks for all the advice you’ve given us. It’s been at least partly responsible for saving my retirement assets from destruction over the past year.
At the “bear market briefing” could you explain to us how to pick the right stocks to sell short, and how to decide the right moment to place such a short sale?
What will happen to the value of the US dollar, especially after the fiscal stimulus?
My assets are mostly is cash. House is paid for and my personal economy is mostly cash; I do not rely on credit.
Thanks,
Bob
BSD, 5/5768, 2/19/09
PLEASE DEVOTE TIME TO THE PROFITABILITY OF OPTION CURRENCIES.
SALLY
I would like to receive recommendations about bear option trades like you did in September 2008, e.g. Wachovia.
Martin,
God Bless You for your Money and Markets work you do. I have learned SO much. Thanks for even ASKING what you could do to most help me out. Here it is: I am so very inexperienced, and worse, I am of the “working poor” —- I literally need a way to invest a hundred dollars at a time, without paying fees, or at least understanding what fees they are and how much they are. I know I risk losing it, but I can afford to lose that much once in a while, if I can gain overall. Once I make some gains, I will have also gained the experience to try more of your suggestions, and to pass them on to others in this poverty stricken but teachable corner of the great Northwest. We can help pull this little community up by its (and my) bootstraps. THANKS!
tell me how to protect my £ sterling cash in a save place that will give me a income
Martin,
What do you make of the breach of Swiss banking secrecy by the UBS deal with the US Government? Is this the beginning of the end of bank secrecy in Switzerland? And what does it mean for the Swiss Franc as a currency?
Dr. Weiss,
I currently have a lot of cash in T-Bill only mutual funds you have recommended. I am thinking of waiting, possibly for several years, until the stock market bottoms and then buying an S&P indexed annuity from Pacific Life (A rated by TheStreet.com). Your thoughts, please, on indexed annuities? Thanks!
At some point the bottom of the market will stop? Who however will be left to lend to allow growth in all markets?Today there are many Companies and Sole Traders making money who are happy to pay higher than normal interest rates given the chance to borrow funds? The demand is therefore there but who is willing to insure the risk?
Prehaps then those with cash may wish to step forward. We are sat here waiting to take instruction?
What can I do about my Roth IRA? It has lost about 40% since last July. I am sick watching it go down. I am old enough to take it out without penalty so I think I could do that. I went to my Edw. D. Jones broker in August to reinvest it to other safer areas and was fed the usual hold on–it will go back up–line. So I did, but my gut was against it. I am in two funds: Capital World Growth and Income Fund–Class A–and The income Fund of America–Class A. Please advise so I can do something before it goes down any more. The EDJ broker seemed to be clueless about Treasuries and ETFs too. Thanks.
Generally speaking will American Funds Go Up ?
How do I figure what to do with my 401K? The losses are hard to handle…
I am new to your information, what should I do with my 401K? The present losses almost guarantee I will have to work ’til the day I die.
I need to know whether the few IRAs and annunities I have should be taken out of major companies, even though those funds are currently managed conservatively? Should they go into bank CDs that offer hardly any return but keeps it safe? Or are they not safe there? Where should we go to keep what’s left of our retirement safe? My husband and I are in the 5-8 yr. retirement age bracket. I trust your advise but do not know how or where to begin to navigate own my own with confidence that I will actually increase investments. I can risk only very small amounts. I need a step by step guide of what personal investing looks like on a daily basis. How and where does the investing happen? What needs to be done each day, along with when and why, and who is trustworthy? I am willing to read and learn but I need a blueprint for success to get started.
Martin,
You’ve been telling us for a while that because of recession markets are not going to be profitable for a while. But I keep recalling year 1991. It was one of the worst years from the employment and overall economy perspective, but was a great year, actually one of the best years, for stock market. So, sometimes there seems to be no correlation between real economy and stocks behavior. Also, you’re saying that oil companies are brain-dead. But they’re down because oil is down, and most analysts agree it’s a very temporary relief from high oil prices, due to increasing China/India demand.
Can you please comment on those two points?
How about you leading the masses and start a movement to reduce the obscene price of gasoline.If every one of your readers started a local protest and boycott maybe things could change.That would help me,personally, more than any bail out or govt program. It would be instant.
Frank
Will Treasury bills continue to be a “safe” instrument?
Will Treasure bills continue to be a “safe” instrument?
Hello- I just want to say thanks for trying to warn everyone about the current crises!!…
I noticed something was afoot, too, and made some “adjustments.” However, I got stuck in some commodities investments that have been in the tank lately. That being said, if I hadn’t paid attn. to your advice on inverse ETFs, I would have been much worse off over the past year. Seriously, thank you. These are tough times for the honest “little guys” and hard-working savers out there!
In sum, I absolutely do not see how our markets and economy could collapse this quickly unless there has been some intentional major criminal activity behind it! There’s now way. And we all know the last Administration encouraged all matter of corporate theft! They’re crooked to the core. This macro outcome is no coincidence!
Correction: There’s NO way.
In sum, I absolutely do not see how our markets and economy could collapse this quickly unless there has been some intentional major criminal activity behind it! There’s no way. And we all know the last Administration encouraged all matter of corporate theft! They’re crooked to the core. This macro outcome is no coincidence!
Is a not-so-distant devaluation of the dollar a possibility? Would gold be a protective move? But where do you store the bullion? Or are gold coins a better choice ? Where can I buy gold? From whom?
Thanks for your broadcasts. Straight talk instead of pie in the sky or blindly optimistic!!!
Is a not too distant devaluation of the dollar a strong possibility? Would not gold, the actual metal or coins be a good hedge? Where to buy?
Thanks for your straight from the shoulder advices!!!
Hi, Mike, Could you please touch on advising those of us who still have not exhausted all their equity loans for renovations, whether we should take all the contracted amount and put it into a savings account. I am afraid my bank will cut my equity loan down due to the lower value of my house now. I can afford the interest on the entire amount of my equity loan, (of 250,000 I have used only 113000. so far for home renovations). I have no other loans on my house. I don’t intend to pay the principal yet. I will enjoy my renovations for a few years and in a couple of years, the market may have stabilized and I am ready to move into a retirement home anyway. I will just pull out from the house after sale whatever is left after paying off the equity loan. I live in a high-end real estate area. Before the mortgage slump, similar homes in my area were selling for almost 1mill, now down to about 700,000. Any advise? Thanks. Marianne
Hello! should I exhaust my equity loan by taking all the money out. Am afraid my bank will trim it down or cancel unused portion due to home devaluations. Put it in a savings account and continue my renovation?
I like your analysis regardng what is happening around us.Good work.
Martin,
Please tell me how to conservately earn income on my savings which is in a short term treasury money market fund, earning nothing, I am losing a large part of my income every month. I am also concerned with coming inflation with all the new money the govt is putting out. Perhaps a safe fund with good earnings and a contra dollar fund?
Thank you,
Joanne
Have you ever looked at the mutual fund investment restrictions?? Before jumping to conclusions about mishandling of money you might look at the government restrictions with regard to fund constructs and the ability to change liquidies, or even buy and sell shares. The other problem is that the amount of money these funds have in various stocks can drastically affect market prices if they should decide to enter the market in any big way by dumping or buying shares.
This has always been the problem with Mutual funds and rumor has it was the down fall of the stock market in the 30’s. It would be interesting if you did a report on this effect instead of just condeming them as ignorant fools.
i have a 401 account losing money.should i let it ride or bail out while i still have something left.
with prices so low how can a bear market strategy work or are things to get worse that we have never seen before
cOUNT ME IN.
I am not going to be able to attend the seminar on 26 February. I can say AMEN to your comments about financial managers performance. I am trying to determine the best way to find a reliable advisor who can not blindly buy and hold (hope). I see positions that are down over 75% with no apparent strategy to have limited the losses. I question the strategy and the best I am getting is – these will come back.
When might it be reasonable to expect that i should start looking at the market for investments again. (My money is now is U.S. short-term treasuries… and this is my retirement livelihood, which I am now living on.)
Question on the “Million-Dollar Contrarian Portfolio” On Average how many positions would you have in the portifolio? 5, 10, 20 ? I did not hear or see anything on this issue!