We have provided financial advisory services for
over 20 years. We currently manage over $200 million for more than 400 clients.
Our business has grown through the appreciation of our accounts and the referrals
from our clients.
Our core strategy is to identify broad
asset classes that we believe will outperform market averages for months (and
sometimes years) and then to select the best-performing no-load mutual funds
within those asset classes. We concentrate our investments in these mutual
funds. We avoid “formulaic” asset balancing because that strategy tends to
return only market averages. We have developed our own sophisticated software
that allows us to make trading decisions for all our accounts based on the
“attributes” of the particular positions within each account, such as a
position’s percentage of the account, its length of time held, and the
taxable/non-taxable status of the account. While we primarily buy mutual funds,
we sometimes buy individual stocks and exchange-traded funds.
Our near-term strategy is to identify
investment opportunities that we believe will be profitable for shorter periods
than months, ranging from same-day trading to holding for several weeks. We
generally use: (a) the Rydex and Profunds families of mutual funds, which have
no trading fees and which offer both “long” and “short” market index and market
sector funds as well as some non-equity-based funds such as government bonds,
currency, or commodities funds; or (b) exchange-traded funds.
Our client accounts are allocated among: (a) our
“core strategy”, (b) our “near-term strategy”, and (c) money market funds. All
holdings in our accounts are publicly-traded.
Our billing method (for those investors
meeting a minimum net worth requirement) is 10% of the profits in the account
(adjusted for any deposits or withdrawals that the client makes) since the last
time we billed. We look at the account value at the end of each calendar
quarter; if the account value is lower than it was at the last bill, then the
account has to rise above its previously billed value (adjusted for deposits or
withdrawals) before we bill again, and then we bill only on the increase since
the last bill. We receive no other fees from the client (or from any other
source), including no transaction fees nor a percentage of assets under
management. The more we grow your account, the more we earn.
Account performance varies from account to
account, depending on such factors as when moneys were deposited or withdrawn,
and whether the account is a taxable account or a retirement account. For
example, in retirement accounts we do not have tax considerations such as
short-term vs. long-term gains and the tax efficiency of the transaction.
The better performing mutual funds within the
broad asset classes we select as part of our “core strategy” usually have
short-term redemption fees to discourage frequent trading (which increases fund
overhead and distracts the fund management from focusing on growing the fund
for its shareholders). As part of our “core strategy”, we plan to hold the
mutual funds we buy for you for at least these minimum periods, unless changing
market conditions indicate the need to sell. It is important for you to know
that any short-term redemption fees that might occur (and we generally try to
avoid them) are NOT paid to us. In rare cases, there may be a mutual fund that
will charge a minor transaction fee; most of the funds we trade have absolutely
no transaction fees once the minimum holding periods have been met.
We help open accounts for you at Fidelity
Investments, which acts as the custodian of your assets. Fidelity provides you on-line
access, monthly statements, and all year-end tax reporting detail. You
authorize us to trade within your accounts, but we never have custody of
your assets, nor are your assets co-mingled with any other investor’s assets.
We are free to choose from thousands of mutual funds, and we have absolutely no
requirements to purchase any “branded” Fidelity mutual funds or any other
“branded” mutual funds. There are no fees for opening or maintaining accounts.
Our principal, John Parker, makes all investment
decisions. John is assisted by a research staff of one (1) full-time employee
and two (2) part-time consultants, trained on an ongoing-basis by John in his
methodologies. The administrative side of our business has an additional three
(3) full-time employees to assist you with all client service matters.
We encourage our clients to invest with a
“long-term” view of at least several years, avoiding the urge to be panicked
out of the market when it is down and then be panicked in when it is up.
Throughout the market’s history, there have always been crises in the world,
and we encourage you to let us navigate your accounts for you through the
inevitable ups and downs. As your financial advisor, we will do our best to
grow your accounts, but please realize that there are inherent risks in all
investing, and it is possible that your account(s) may incur substantial
losses.
For more information please contact using the
contact information listed above. Thank you for considering our services.