Stock Market Newsletter

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There are quite a variety of stock market newsletters, available to investors today. Unfortunately, few stock market newsletters, or any hot pick type service, deal with what it really takes to become a successful investor. You can subscribe to the "best" stock market newsletters on the market, but the simple fact is that, at the end of the day, most stock market newsletter subscribers will fail to match the newsletter's model portfolios. On paper, many stock market newsletters tracked have a great long-term track record. The reality, however, is that these high-ROI stock market newsletters have generally not translated well for most investors subscribing to them. Often, the tendency is to blame the newsletter, but it has been my observation that the fault lies elsewhere. It is this exact pessimism that motivates millions of investors to panic-sell their positions, and it is very common for most investors to freeze at this juncture of the market, and thus never become fully invested at the best possible time.

Let's face it: if to become a successful investor, all it took was to subscribe to a stock market newsletter, then the word would spread rapidly, and that one stock market newsletter would have more customers than any other entity on Wall Street. The reality however, is that there has never been such a success. Why? Because in the final analysis, 9 out of 10 investors fail due to two simple reasons: Position Sizing, Investing emotionally, instead of mechanically. The majority of investors who sign up to popular stock market newsletters are extremely naive. In their minds, the process is as simple as, "Just give me your recommendations and let me become as successful as you are." In addition, the majority of stock market newsletters' recommendations tend to be triggered at times of extreme pessimism, as the market is selling off for one reason or another, which means stocks are falling to desired stock market newsletter buy targets.

Unfortunately, as any money manager knows, entry points account for very little in the overall success of a portfolio.  Following a successful stock market newsletter's recommendations is pointless, when Position Sizing is not part of the equation. We all know that Warren Buffet is a value player, but so are millions of other smart value investors, so why are they not as successful? The most interesting aspect of any stock market newsletter's model portfolio is the fact that the overall ROI is notably improved by the strong performance of a few great-performing, high-volatility stocks. Unfortunately, in a real portfolio with real money at stake, instead of diversifying amongst all the recommended stocks in the model portfolio, stock market newsletter subscribers often pick and choose only those stocks that they view as safe bets, or having the greatest potential, and therefore cause their actual returns in a real portfolio to be far lower than what a model portfolio portrays.