| TimingCube
Services and Subscriptions Questions
General Questions
World Index Ranking Questions
More
Subscriber Questions
You
can find many more answered questions by looking-up the FAQ
of the Week Index.
TimingCube
Services and Subscriptions Questions
|
How much does your service cost? |
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We offer
two subscription plans. You can subscribe on a Monthly
basis ($39.95 per month) or a Yearly basis ($399.95
per year). The Yearly plan provides the
best value as it saves you almost $80.00 over
a one-year period. Both
plans give you full access to TimingCube's
services and come with an unconditional
30-day money back guarantee for first time subscribers.
If not satisfied for any reason during the first 30 days,
TimingCube
will be glad to issue a full refund. Please read our Refund/Cancellation
Policy.
There is no long term commitment.
You can cancel at any time but after the initial 30-day period
there are no refunds.
If you decide to subscribe to our service, you will first
be billed after you complete our subscription process (using
our
page). You will then choose a User ID and Password which gives
you immediate access to our current signal and other subscriber-only
resources of the Web site.
Unless
you cancel the service, your subscription plan will automatically
renew at the end of the subscription period, and you will
be billed accordingly. This helps prevent any lapses in membership
during which valuable signals could be missed.
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Can I upgrade from a Monthly to a Yearly subscription
plan? |
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Yes!
Upgrading is advantageous and simple. A Yearly
subscription plan costs $399.95 and will save you nearly $80.00
annually.
To find details and initiate the upgrade process, monthly subscribers
must log in and click on the "Show me how"
upgrading button located on the "Current Signal"
page.
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What do I get as part of the service? |
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Once a subscriber,
you can log in to the site or call the "Signal
by Phone" number at anytime and check the current
signal, up-to-date results, as well as other subscriber-only
information such as the latest Weekly Updates.
Since its introduction on September 15, 2006, the World
Index Ranking service which provides the ranking of
U.S. and international indexes, is included with the TimingCube
subscription. This service will help you diversify your portfolio
by investing in markets that show the strongest momentum.
In addition to the most recent signal and market update, Weekly
Updates include the highly regarded Trend Timing School section
-- teachings on the Trend Timing Model and philosophy -- and
the FAQ of the Week.
TimingCube
also automatically sends an e-mail notification to all active
subscribers whenever a signal change occurs and, optionally,
a Weekly Update e-mail notification. That way, you don't have
to check the site every day to ensure that you are not missing
out on a new signal or other critical information.
In addition to our time-tested Model and the consistently superior,
index-beating performance it has generated, the TimingCube
service is renowned for the peace of mind that comes from knowing
that you can depend on an unemotional Model to keep you on the
right side of the market.
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Do you offer Managed Accounts? |
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Yes, indirectly.
We have arranged for Managed Accounts tracking the TimingCube
strategies and signals to be made available from MARKETTREND
Advisors. For details see the "Managed
Accounts" page.
|
As a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), broker/dealer
or institutional investor can I use the TimingCube
signal for my clients? |
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A professional
subscription is required to use the TimingCube
system and signal to direct the investment of your clients'
assets. The benefits range from offloading the day-to-day research
and money management to a proven and successful approach, to
a continuing record of long-term market-beating performance.
Our professional and institutional services are available through
our sister company MARKETTREND
Advisors, and they extend from simple licensing of the signal
and strategy counseling, to full money management.
To find MARKETTREND
Advisors' contact information please refer to our "Managed
Accounts" page.
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Do you have a Referral Program? |
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Yes, we
do! You can refer any friend, relative or colleague and we reward
you for each new subscriber with 1 month free subscription.
You can refer as many people as you like, and will keep receiving
a free subscription month for every one that subscribes and
remains a subscriber for at least 30 days. Some creative subscribers
even post their referral URL in online chat rooms, forums, newsgroups,
etc. to get credit.
For all the details on our Referral Program visit the "Referrals"
page after you log in.
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How can I give a TimingCube
Subscription? |
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The best
way to proceed is to simply go through a brand new registration
by clicking on the "Subscribe"
link on our website and following the simple steps. You will
want to select the "Yearly subscription"
because with automatic renewal a Monthly subscription would
be an open ended gift (and giving just one month would not be
of great value). In Step 3 we recommend you
fill out the Personal Information for the gift recipient with
the exception of the e-mail address which should initially be
yours (or the gift recipient will receive our confirmation e-mail
with the amount you paid as well as any other e-mails we send
prior to you informing her/him of the gift). Of course the Payment
Information is yours and it is perfectly secure as we do not
display the full card number in the "My Profile"
page.
The only extra steps remaining to complete your gift subscription
are:
- Send
us an e-mail to support@timingcube.com
requesting us to remove your credit card information from
the gift account to prevent automatic renewal at the end
of the 1st year (make sure you include the
User ID of the gift account in your request)
- Last
but not least, at the time of your choosing, inform the
lucky recipient of your wonderful gift and be sure to
give her/him the website address www.timingcube.com
and their personal User ID and Password.
You should also instruct them to go to the My
Profile page when they first log in and change
the e-mail address to their own (or they will not receive
our signals or any other notifications)
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Can I check the signal over the phone? |
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When away
from the Internet or e-mail, subscribers can obtain the Current
Signal over the phone by using our "Signal by Phone"
service. The message is updated daily, at the same time as the
Web site, after the market close by 9:00pm ET. Access number
and code details can be found in the "My Profile"
page after you log in.
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Can I access the current signal with my SmartPhone? |
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A SmartPhone
is a mobile device combining the capabilities of a wireless
phone with PDA-type functionality. They let you communicate
via voice or text along with the ability to access online information
so you can stay in touch while on the go.
As part of our ongoing efforts to keep our subscribers informed
in a timely manner wherever they are, TimingCube
introduces secure SmartPhone access to the current signal and
trade results.
In order to function with our service, the SmartPhone must be
equipped with:
- An
Internet access
- A
JavaScript-enabled browser accepting secure pages (HTTPS
protocol)
Examples
of compatible devices:
- Palm
OS 5 (or later) SmartPhones, e.g. PalmOne Treo 600
- Windows
Mobile 2003 (or later) SmartPhones, e.g. Samsung i600
All you
need to do is enter the https://www.timingcube.com/app/html?page=pda_login
URL into your SmartPhone's browser and follow the usual login
steps.
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How do you generate your timing signals? |
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The market
timing Model that generates our signals is based on price and
volume action on the Nasdaq Composite Index
. It is 100% mechanical and unemotional, but the specific ingredients
and recipe are proprietary and are therefore not disclosed.
Our Model provides an excellent way for investors to time the
broad stock market. The Model was developed in early 2001 using
years of market data and experience and has been backtested
since January 3, 1989. Our Model is not intended for day traders,
but for long term investors, as it generates few signals. On
average three to five signals per year will be issued, but over
the past 15 years, acting on these signals has proven extremely
profitable, as shown on our
page.
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Are your results verified by an independent third
party? |
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At TimingCube,
everything we do is based on absolute integrity. For complete
accountability, our trades and returns are independently verified
and tracked by the Hulbert Financial Digest and TimerTrac.com.
Check our
for details.
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How and when do I get notified about signal changes? |
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TimingCube's
Model is run at the end of each trading day. If a new signal
is issued, it will be posted on this Web site and accessible
by subscribers at the Signal by Phone number
by 9:00 pm ET that same day. Subscribers are also notified of
the signal change by e-mail.
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How do I cancel and discontinue the service? |
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You can
cancel at anytime. You simply have to send a cancellation request
by e-mailing us at support@timingcube.com
or by using our
page. Please specify your User ID in the message.
Please
read our Refund/Cancellation
Policy.
General Questions
|
What is Trend Timing? |
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Trend Timing
is an investment approach pioneered by TimingCube,
which enables investors to profit in both up or down markets
by implementing a Model that follows the broad market trends.
Our purely mechanical Model observes past and current market
action to determine the general trend. The Model is developed
for long-term investors and instead of daily or weekly trading,
it only generates on average 3 to 5 trades per year. Owing in
part to its long term orientation, the Trend Timing Model has
the unique ability to capture the high correlation that exists
between major stock markets over extended periods of time, and
in turn allows the exact same signal to be applied successfully
to various market indexes, both U.S. and international. As trend
followers, we do not predict how long a trend will last or how
strong it will be. No one can do so consistently. The beauty
of the Model is that we always know exactly where we stand,
as long as the major trend is up we have a Buy
signal, and as long as the trend is down we have a Sell
signal.
Trend Timing is both completely unemotional and extremely profitable.
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Does the same signal work with all the U.S. and international
indexes? |
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Yes. TimingCube
delivers only one signal that applies to the broad stock market.
We trade very little, and disconnects between indexes do not
last long, even international ones. For more information about
the correlation of broad markets, you can review the Trend
Timing School article titled "The Trend is contagious"
in the June 11, 2004 Weekly Update. Recognizing
that relative strength always changes between markets we offer
the World Index Ranking to help you diversify
your portfolio by investing in markets that show the strongest
momentum.
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Why try to time the stock market? |
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Many people
will tell you that it is useless to try to time the market,
because it cannot be done consistently. We disagree, and we
hope you will too after checking our
page.
Many investors fail to time the market because they make decisions
based on emotions, not facts. Human nature pushes us to follow
the crowd and overpay for a stock that is about to peak, or
dump another one because of a scary market drop, when we should
in fact be buying it. Because of this, we believe that the key
to successful market timing is to use a 100% mechanical system
that completely removes emotions from the investing process.
Of course such a Model will only be as good as the criteria
and indicators it uses to generate timing signals. The Model
TimingCube
has developed provides an excellent way to time the broad stock
market. As Buy and Hold investors have learned in 2000, 2001
and 2002, being invested in stocks during a significant market
drop can be devastating. An investor following TimingCube's
signal would not only have avoided those losses, but could also
have profited tremendously from the market collapse.
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What are index funds? |
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We recommend
using diversified investment vehicles that mirror major market
indexes such as the Nasdaq 100
, Russell 2000
and S&P 500
as well as other U.S. and international indexes which we track on our site.
Index tracking investments mostly fall in two categories: Exchange
Traded Funds (ETFs) and mutual funds. Similar to stocks, ETFs
can be bought long, sold short, on margin, and can be traded
at the market open, the day following a signal change. Mutual
funds on the other hand are usually traded at the market close.
However, since mutual funds can be found to match, double, inverse,
and double inverse performance objectives for most indexes,
they can be used to implement all four strategies and are viable
alternatives for qualified retirement accounts. A representative
list of such index funds is provided in the
section of our "Resources" page.
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I am a new subscriber. How should I act on your
current active signal? |
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You have
three options:
- You
can decide to follow the current active signal. For example,
if a Buy signal
has been in effect for some time, you would just buy shares
of your selected ETF or equivalent mutual fund and become
fully invested at the time you join
- A
more prudent approach would be to use dollar cost averaging.
For example, if you intend to invest $10,000 using our
market timing signal, you could start your investment
with 20% of that total immediately, and add 20% to the
position each week until you are totally invested, or
until we issue a new signal
- Finally,
you could simply wait until the next signal, but this
might keep you on the sidelines for several months
It is up to you to decide which option to
choose, based on your tolerance for risk.
|
When to trade after a new signal has been issued? |
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TimingCube's
Model is run at the end of each trading day. If a new signal
is issued, it will be posted on this Web site and accessible
by subscribers at the Signal by Phone number by 9:00 pm ET that
same day. Subscribers are also notified of the signal change
by e-mail. In order to achieve the full benefit from the signal,
you should act on it as soon as possible. If
your selected investment vehicle is an ETF, your order should
be placed before the market opens on the next trading day.
Since ETFs trade like stock, they can be bought or sold at
market open. All performance results posted on this site assume
the trading occurs at market open, the day after a signal
change. This is the only realistic way to measure performance,
as you could not possibly have acted on the new signal any
earlier.
If your
selected investment vehicle is a mutual fund, your order should
be placed before or during the trading hours of the day following
the signal change. Since most mutual fund families only calculate
the Net Asset Value (NAV) at the end of each trading day,
this ensures that you will buy the mutual fund at the first
available price. This is a significant difference between
ETFs and mutual funds: whereas you can buy an ETF right at
market open, you in effect have to wait until market close
to buy an equivalent mutual fund. Over time the performance
impact of the one day delay should be fairly minor but, nevertheless,
you should be on the lookout for fund families that are starting
to offer intra-day mutual fund pricing.
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Your current signal is losing money. Should I move
to a money market |
|
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fund and wait for a signal change? |
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No, you
should not! If in doubt, have a look at our
page and you will see that the best course of action is to simply
follow the signal.
Furthermore, because we recognize that no timing system will
be right 100% of the time, we designed a way to limit losses
in our Model: a Cash
signal is automatically issued by our Model if the Nasdaq Composite
Index moves against our current position by more than 9% from
our Buy or Sell
entry point. This is designed to keep any losses to a reasonable
minimum from the entry point when we are most vulnerable, as
no timing Model will always be 100% right. Once the Nasdaq Composite
Index has advanced 7% or more from our entry point, the maximum
drawdown limit is ratcheted-up to 15% and the Cash
signal becomes a trailing stop. This means that from then on,
if the Composite declines 15% from its most recent closing high
on an active Buy
signal, or moves up 15% or more from its recent closing low
on an active Sell
signal, a Cash signal
will be issued and you will be notified. When a Cash
signal is generated, you should liquidate your current long
or short investments and keep the proceeds in cash or in a money
market fund until a new Buy
or Sell signal is
issued.
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Your current signal has gained so much, isn't it
time to take some |
|
|
profits? |
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It is, of
course, for you to decide! Just be aware that, in the past,
our trades have lasted up to a year and a half and returned
over 200%, so there is nothing that says we are close to the
next signal.
If in doubt, have a look at our Results
page and you will see that the best course of action is to simply
follow the signal.
|
Can the TimingCube
Model be used to invest retirement funds |
|
|
such as 401(k) and IRA? |
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The answer
is an emphatic yes. Moneys you set aside for your retirement
are the funds that most necessitate a sound, disciplined, long-term,
all-weather investment method. Retirement funds have a number
of ideal characteristics as investment assets, namely that you
are unlikely to withdraw and spend them in the short term and
that gains and dividends are typically reinvested. Even if you
are already retired and are living off the nest egg, you still
have a long term perspective for your retirement assets. In
addition, if the funds are in a qualified retirement plan such
as an IRA or 401(k), you further benefit from tax deferred growth.
By fully reinvesting dividends and capital gains and not having
to pay taxes until you start withdrawals, you unleash the full
power of compounding as we discussed in the Trend Timing School
topic above.
The most common challenge in qualified retirement plans is finding
available investment vehicles and in turn adapting to the most
appropriate strategy. By law, the use of short selling and margin
trading are prohibited in retirement accounts. If your IRA account
is with a large financial services or brokerage firm you most
likely have access to mutual funds that track broad market indexes
or their opposites, with or without leverage, such as ProFunds
and Rydex families we describe in the
section of the "Resources" page,
which should allow you to fully implement any of the four strategies
you decide is right for you. Even if your brokerage firm or
401(k) administrator offers only a few choices there typically
is at least one index fund suitable to implement the Long
Only strategy. While not the most aggressive strategy,
Long Only should still let your retirement
capital substantially outperform Buy and Hold.
|
Is the TimingCube
Model related to the TradeGuru System? |
|
No!
The two services are different and their recommendations are
completely unrelated. Because of this the two services are complementary
and having a portion of your portfolio dedicated to each should
work well and provide strategy diversification.
|
How does TimingCube
Model compare with TradeGuru? |
|
First we
need to emphasize that the two services are different and their
recommendations are completely unrelated. Unlike TimingCube,
the TradeGuru
System uses a two part approach 1) top down company selection
based on their leadership fundamentals such as earnings growth,
and stock price appreciation and, 2) a 100% mechanical issuance
of buy and sell signals based entirely on technical analysis.
The differences are detailed in the table below.
Comparison of TimingCube
and TradeGuru
| |
TimingCube |
TradeGuru |
Style
|
Index
investing |
Stock
picking |
Strategy |
Trend
following |
Special
stock opportunities |
Market
side |
Long/Short |
Long
only |
Investment
vehicles |
ETFs,
mutual funds, options |
Individual
stocks, options |
Investor
profile
Character
Risk tolerance
Time horizon |
Moderate
Low
Long-term
|
Aggressive
High
Short-term
|
Average
trade frequency |
4
trades per year |
2
trades per week, and up |
Average
trade duration |
3
months |
31
days |
World Index Ranking Questions
|
Can I use the World Index Ranking strategy with the TimingCube
signal? |
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The answer
is definitely yes; please refer to the "Strategies"
page for detailed explanations. There are three basic strategies
you can implement with the World Index Ranking:
- Long
Only: This strategy follows the World Index Ranking
recommendations when the TimingCube
signal is Buy
and goes to cash when the signal is Sell
- Long
and Short: Follows the World Index Ranking
recommendations when the TimingCube
signal is Buy
and shorts the QQQQ or any shortable investment of your
choice when the signal is Sell
- Buy
and Rebalance: While this strategy can be implemented,
it delivers much lower returns than the two previous ones
since it does not take advantage of the TimingCube
signal; we mainly list it as a reference for comparison
sake. It is a somehow equivalent to a buy and hold strategy,
except that the positions are rebalanced every four weeks
according to the World Index Ranking
|
Why short the Nasdaq 100 instead of the index itself?
|
|
Depending
on the indexes, there may be limited choices of investment vehicles
available and they can have trading restrictions.
So for simplicity and consistency sake, we use the Nasdaq 100, which offers a well traded ETF (QQQQ), instead of the international index itself to implement the
Long and Short strategy.
|
How do you rank the indexes? |
|
The Model
used to rank the indexes is mostly momentum based; it is 100%
mechanical and unemotional, but the specific ingredients and
recipe are proprietary and therefore are not disclosed. The
result of our calculation translates in a TimingCube
proprietary Strength Indicator which determines
each index rank. This indicator is provided for information
in the ranking table of the "Current Signal"
page; the higher the number, the higher the momentum and the
higher the rank (#1 is the highest rank).
|
How and when do I get notified about changes in
the World Index Ranking system? |
|
TimingCube's
World Index Ranking Model is run at the end
of each trading week on Fridays, and the updated list will be
posted on this Web site by 9:00 pm ET that same day.
|
How many indexes should I include in my portfolio?
|
|
Our extensive
backtesting has demonstrated very good results of portfolios
with five indexes. This does not mean that this is a minimum
or a maximum; depending on the size of your portfolio and the
amount of diversification you are seeking, you may want to trade
more or less positions.
|
How should I act on your World Index Ranking recommendations?
|
|
You have
three options:
- If
you are starting a new portfolio, decide how many indexes
you want to trade and purchase the corresponding investment
vehicles (ETFs, ETF options or mutual funds) following
the most recent ranking
- You
are at the end of your rebalancing cycle (typically four
weeks), so you get the latest ranking from the TimingCube
Web site and trade accordingly
- You
are in a middle of your rebalancing cycle, simply ignore
the recommendations, and wait until it is time to rebalance
|
I am a new subscriber. How should I act on your
current World Index Ranking recommendations? |
|
You first
have to decide how many indexes you want to follow (see "How
many indexes should I include in my portfolio?"). And
because indexes cannot be traded, you will purchase investment
vehicles that track these indexes. With the major ones, you
will be able to choose between ETFs, ETF options and mutual
funds while some others indexes may only offer one mutual fund
for example.
|
When to trade after a new list has been issued? |
|
TimingCube's
World Index Ranking Model is run at the end
of each trading week on Fridays, and the updated list will be
posted on this Web site by 9:00 pm ET that same day. When your
four week period is up, you should rebalance your positions
as soon as possible, typically during the next trading day.
To alleviate the potential risk for opening gaps on new recommendations,
for thinly traded ETFs, we do not recommend placing market orders
before the market open. Instead, you should trade manually after
the open to wait for any significant gap to close back down.
If you cannot do that, we would recommend a limit order with
the limit set at say 1% above the previous closing price.
|
Why not rebalance my portfolio on a weekly basis
when you update the World Index Ranking? |
|
The ranking
is updated on a weekly basis to allow new comers to build their
positions without having to wait too long between updates. Nonetheless
there may be little changes from one week to the next and our
backtesting has demonstrated that rebalancing every four weeks
delivers good results without incurring too much trading. Since
our Model is momentum based and long-term oriented, it is unlikely
that the ranking will change dramatically from one week to the
next. Anyway, would an index slip a few positions, it could
take a while before this impacts the returns.
|
How do I select ETFs that match the foreign indexes?
|
|
Some of
the international ETFs are fairly new and use instruments that
do not match exactly the foreign indexes listed on our ranking
table.This is particularity true for closed-end funds which
frequently are actively managed and do not follow a published
index. Also, each foreign index is typically measured in the
local currency, therefore, ETFs bought in U.S. dollars might
diverge from the index due to the currency fluctuation. So we
encourage everyone to use some caution while selecting foreign
ETFs. You can use some of our recommendations in the
section of the "Strategies" page,
and evaluate the correlation between the index and the associated
ETF.
|
Can I use regional rather than country specific ETFs? |
|
Using regional ETFs covering wide areas like Europe, South America or Asia/Pacific can be an alternative to cherry picking a selection of country specific ETFs, especially in times when our ranked list shows top performers coming from the same region. However, this is a more conservative approach and might miss on some of the best performance of the countries outperforming their peers.
|
Do you use stop losses with the World Index Ranking?
|
|
The backtested
World Index Ranking returns available on the TimingCube
Web site were obtained without the use of any stop loss. Nonetheless,
due to the volatility of some of the international indexes,
during certain periods some of them may experience significant
drawdowns, so depending on your risk tolerance, you may feel
more comfortable if you implement your own stop loss.
|
