Top Performing Newsletter Subs

Investment Analysis Clubs Saul’s Investing Discussions
1

Happy Valentine’s Day! Thank you for the great insights you share on this board.

I saw this review of top performing newsletters over the past 7 years: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-best-performing-advisers…

I know there are other objective reviews of newsletter returns and reviews vary based on time horizons, risk, etc., but this appears to be a reasonably objective report on the returns of various newsletters.

Congrats to TMF, whose IV (12.2% annual return), SA (11.1%), and RB (10.8%) newsletters rank #5-7, respectively, in this review! I’m grateful to have found TMF years ago and for the investing education they’ve given me.

This review led me to research a little more about the newsletters with the top 4 total 7 year annual returns:
4) Forbes Special Situation Survey: https://www.specialsituationsurvey.com/newsletters/sss/ (12.9%)
3) Nate’s Notes: http://www.notwallstreet.com/ (blog updates are free to view) (15.5%)
2) Teal Linde: http://www.lindeequity.com/ (16.3%)

  1. BioInvest: http://www.bioinvest.com/ (16.7%)

The subscription prices for these newsletters runs around $200-$400 per year and generally come with money-back guarantees and/or pro-rata refunds. A couple of them provide sample newsletters. Most of them are more active in “sell” recs than TMF, which many people here seem to want (this hasn’t been a concern for me, as I look for ideas to start to invest, but don’t depend on TMF to determine when to lighten or sell, which I rarely do).

So I’m interested in testing one or more of these out. If their returns beat those of other newsletters, it would seem worth considering investing at least some of my time and money into them in addition to, or in lieu of, my current TMF newsletters. What I like about TMF services are the boards and the “motley” perspectives and the expert advice of some of the posters and analysts. As a believer in the value of proven expertise of individuals based on objective performance (e.g., Buffett, Tom E.), I put a lot of weight into who is analyzing a given stock, which attracts me to add’l newsletters by analysts with proven records of top performance (unfortunately, the analysts behind TMF newsletters change relatively frequently, and their investing performance varies widely).

The biggest cost for me in considering following these newsletters isn’t the money (any reasonably priced newsletter that helps me achieve great returns will pay for itself), but the time it will take to add new info to my research and to test and develop trust in a given analyst, newsletter and approach. While I’m tempted to stick with TMF only and continue following the handful of analysts and investors I know and trust here (based often on CAPS scores–I have strict criteria for scores I trust based on how they are achieved), I feel I should start trying out some of these other newsletters given the returns.

So my current idea is to pick one and follow it for 2-6 months and see if it’s worth my time and money. But if others here already subscribe to these or other newsletters with proven public records, I’d really appreciate hearing your reviews. Or if any here would like to test out some newsletters with me, we could possibly make it an interesting project to add to our TMF resources.

So what other newsletters with proven annual returns do you recommend?

What do you like about TMF newsletters and services over other newsletters?

Any thoughts on the specific newsletters listed above?

Any interest in testing out add’l newsletters with me and sharing our findings?

Denton

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2

To me, the newsletters are about 5% of my interest in TMF. The other 95% is the boards. I only subscribe to any of the premium services to get access to the associated boards.

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3

I haven’t used a paid newsletter for the past 12 to 15 years but I have experience with three of them which might be worth sharing.

My first subscription was to AAII http://www.aaii.com Then didn’t have portfolios with buy and sell recommendations but they worked at education investors. I was a novice back then and found the stuff interesting but not particularly useful. My take was that their business was to sell books. The reason I bring them up is because they have a data subscription service that a lot of smart investor find rather useful. I never used it.

My second subscription was to Louis Navellier’s MPT Review which he no longer publishes. I made good money following his recommendations but I didn’t learn anything. Navellier is a master of double talk, after a perfectly plausible explanation you have learned nothing. This was the kind of newsletter where you simply bought and sold as suggested. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Navellier

My third and last subscription was to George Gilder’s Gilder Technology Report which is no longer published but the discussion forum still exists. http://www.gildertech.com Gilder is a very influential and smart thinker and writer. He always claimed that the Gilder Technology Report was not an investing newsletter but a technology letter. We used it as an investing guide nonetheless. Not being being an investing newsletter it had no exit strategy. I made a mountain of money in the Telecosm bubble but lost most of it afterwards.

My next stop was here at TMF where I have never bought a paid service.

My takeaway is as follows:

1.- If you just want to make money, find an investing newsletter and just buy and sell their recommendations.

2.- If you want to learn about investing, newsletters are not the best source. They won’t give away how they do it. Use discussion forums instead and read good books specially by and about highly successful people: Buffett, Lynch, Fisher, Graham, Jesse Livermore, Market Wizards and so on. Not just about investors but also about traders and speculators too. That gives you a better understanding of markets.

3.- Make sure the investing newsletter has an exit strategy. I’ve lost an incredible amount of money by not exiting otherwise successful stocks, for example FMD. This board partly exists because TMF didn’t have a Westport exit strategy. Don’t ever fall in love with your stocks, they don’t know you and they don’t love you back. :frowning:

Denny Schlesinger

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Also keep in mind that with enough newsletters, some have been successful due to blind luck. Or due to one 100 bagger pick, with all the rest being mediocre.

IMO anybody that can consistently outperform markets wouldn’t bother with writing a newsletter.

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