| TimingCube
Services and Subscriptions Questions
General Questions
World
ETF 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? |
 |
We offer
two subscription plans. You can subscribe on a Monthly
basis ($49.95 per month) or a Yearly basis (499.95
per year). The Yearly plan provides the
best value as it saves you almost $100.00 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 "Subscribe"
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.
|
Can I upgrade from a Monthly to a Yearly subscription
plan? |
|
Yes!
Upgrading is advantageous and simple. A Yearly
subscription plan costs $499.95 and will save you nearly $100.00
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 "My Profile"
page.
|
What do I get as part of the service? |
|
Once a subscriber,
you can log in to the site to access the latest update of the
World ETF ranking list, as well as the current
TimingCube
signal and other subscriber-only information such as the latest
Weekly Updates. You will also be able to call
the "Signal by Phone" number at anytime and
check the current signal.
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.
|
Do you offer Managed Accounts? |
|
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? |
|
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.
|
Do you have a Referral Program? |
|
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.
|
How can I give a TimingCube
Subscription? |
|
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)
|
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.
|
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 650, 700
...
- 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.
|
How do you generate your timing signals? |
|
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.
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.
|
Are your results verified by an independent third
party? |
|
At TimingCube,
everything we do is based on absolute integrity. For complete
accountability, our trades and returns are independently verified
and tracked by TimerTrac.com.
Click 
for details.
|
How and when do I get notified about signal changes? |
|
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.
|
How do I cancel and discontinue the service? |
|
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? |
|
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; a Cash signal
can issued when the Model detects conflicting trends or as a
stop loss security.
Trend Timing is both completely unemotional and extremely profitable.
|
Does the same signal work with all the U.S. and international
indexes? |
|
Yes. TimingCube
delivers only one signal that applies to the broad stock market.
We trade very little, and disconnect 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" and "Correlation
of world stock markets" in the June 11, 2004
and March 14, 2008 issues of our Weekly
Updates. Recognizing that relative strength always
changes between markets we offer the World strategies
to help you diversify your portfolio by investing in markets
that show the strongest momentum.
|
Why try to time the stock market? |
|
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 and early 2008, 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.
|
What are index funds? |
|
We recommend
using diversified investment vehicles that mirror major U.S.
and international market indexes such as the Nasdaq 100
, Russell 2000
, S&P 500
, the Brazilian's Bovespa, the Hong Kong's Hang Seng
...
Index tracking investments mostly fall in two categories: Exchange
Traded Funds (ETFs) and mutual funds, nonetheless the popularity
and variety of ETFs is increasing at a fast pace, while mutual
funds are losing momentum. 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. ; since ETFs can be
found to match, double, inverse, and double inverse performance
objectives for most indexes, they can be used to implement the
TimingCube
strategies and are viable alternatives for qualified retirement
accounts where "shorting" and "margin trading" is not allowed.
Mutual funds on the other hand are usually traded at the market
close.
|
I am a new subscriber. How should I act on your
current active signal? |
|
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, according to the latest ranking, 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. You can review the March
28, 2008 issue of the Weekly Update "How
to invest when starting mid-signal" for more details about
dollar cost averaging.
- 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? |
|
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.
|
Your current signal is losing money. Should I move
to a money market |
|
|
fund and wait for a signal change? |
|
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.
|
Your current signal has gained so much, isn't it
time to take some |
|
|
profits? |
|
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? |
|
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, 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.
|
Is the TimingCube
Model related to the ETFTide System? |
|
No!
ETFTide and TimingCube are separate and different services, and they are independent of each other. While it is good to use complementary services for strategy diversification, you should not attempt to mix the two. Specifically, the ETFTide portfolio is not meant to be timed with broad market trends because many of the ETFs which represent sectors or commodities are not correlated.
First we
need to emphasize that the three services are different and
their recommendations are completely unrelated. Unlike TimingCube,
the TradeGuru
System exclusively looks at historical fundamental data to select
the stocks we recommend. It performs top down company selection
based on valuation and leadership fundamentals such as earnings
growth. The ETFTide
system uses a momentum based model to rotate the type of investment
depending on market action.
The differences are detailed in the table below.
Comparison of TimingCube,
TradeGuru
and ETFTide
| |
TimingCube |
|
|
Style
|
Index
investing |
Stock
picking |
ETF
investing |
Strategy |
Trend
following |
Special
stock opportunities |
Ranking
based on Momentum |
Market
side |
Long/Short |
Long
only |
Long
only |
Investment
vehicles |
ETFs,
mutual funds, options |
Individual
stocks, options |
ETFs,
options |
Investor
profile
Character
Risk tolerance
Time horizon |
Moderate
Low
Long-term
|
Aggressive
High
Short-term
|
Aggressive
Medium - High
Medium -term
|
Average
trade frequency |
4
trades per year |
1
trade per month |
1
trade per month |
Average
trade duration |
3
months |
2
months |
4
months |
World
ETF Ranking Questions
|
Can I use the World strategy with the TimingCube
signal? |
|
The answer
depends on your style of investing and your risk tolerance;
please refer to the "Our Service" page for
detailed explanations. There are two basic strategies you can
implement with the World ETF Ranking:
- Long
Only: This strategy follows the World ETF
Ranking recommendations when the TimingCube
signal is Buy
and goes to cash when the signal is Sell
- Long
and Short: Follows the World ETF Ranking
recommendations when the TimingCube
signal is Buy
and shorts the QQQQ
or instead buy the corresponding inverse ETF (ticker symbol
PSQ
) when the signal is Sell
We
also provide the returns for the Buy and Rebalance strategy,
which ignores the timing signals altogether and stays fully
invested in the World ETF Ranking's Top 5 ETFs
at all times, rebalancing every 4 weeks. Because this strategy
is always invested and never short, it is similar in concept
to the Buy and Hold approach for a single index/ETF and therefore
provides for an appropriate way to compare returns.
|
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. Furthermore, our extensive testing using simulated inverse indexes have demonstrated that shorting the Nasdaq 100 was delivering better results than shorting the top indexes themselves.
So for simplicity and efficiency sake, we use the Nasdaq 100, which offers a well traded ETF (QQQQ) and inverse ETFs (PSQ
), 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 "Signal and Ranking"
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 ETF Ranking system? |
|
TimingCube's
World ETF 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 positions should I trade 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 ETF Ranking recommendations?
|
|
You have
three options:
-
If you are starting a new portfolio, decide how many positions
you want to trade and purchase your investment vehicles
of choice (ETFs, ETF options) 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 ETF Ranking recommendations? |
|
You first
have to decide how many positions you want to trade (see "How
many positions should I trade in my portfolio?"). And
next you should trade according to the latest ETF ranking.
|
When to trade after a new list has been issued? |
|
TimingCube's
World ETF 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 ETF 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 ETF slip a few positions, it could take
a while before this impacts the returns.
|
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 strategies?
|
|
The backtested
World ETF 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.
|
