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What's new this week?

As you can read in this week's Trend Timing School issue below, MARKETTREND Advisors, our money management sister company, is planning to increase their fees for new clients on September 12, 2005. We want to make sure that all TimingCube subscribers have an opportunity to sign up for this great investment service and lock in the current bargain prices.


Signal Update
Current Signal Performance as of
Signal Type
Trade Date
Index
Return since issued
Nasdaq 100
Russell 2000
S&P 500
QQQQ

Cumulative Returns since First TimingCube Live Signal () as of
Index
Long Only
Long Only
with
Margin
Long & Short
Long & Short
with
Margin
Buy & Hold
Nasdaq 100
Russell 2000
S&P 500
QQQQ

Note: QQQQ returns are included for continuity sake.

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Market Update
It has been a seesaw week, with markets moving up one day and down the next. On Tuesday, the Fed increased the funds rate by 25 basis points to 3.50%, the tenth consecutive time it has done so. It also signaled that it will continue to raise interest rates at a measured pace. The decision had no impact on the markets as it had been widely anticipated. On Friday, stocks had to face a string of disappointing news: first, Dell missed analysts' sales forecast for Q2 and revised its Q3 revenue guidance lower. Then trade deficit numbers for June came in worse than expected and consumer confidence for August fell unexpectedly. The net result was a down day for stocks. Still, both the Dow and the S&P 500 moved higher on the week, the latter gaining 0.32%. The Russell 2000 declined by 0.42% while the Nasdaq 100 posted a 0.61% loss. All four indices remain above both their respective 50-day and 200-day exponential moving averages (EMAs). There is no change for us and our Buy signal remains in effect.

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Trend Timing School
A chat with Don Lansing of MARKETTREND Advisors

Since we are rapidly approaching one year since MARKETTREND Advisors was formed, we felt it would be timely to give our subscribers a quick inside look at who they are and what they have been up to, and for that there is no better way than to have a short chat with Don Lansing.

Don Lansing is a founder and partner at MARKETTREND Advisors (MTA), TimingCube’s money management sister company. As Chief Investment Officer of MTA, Don is responsible for defining and implementing investment strategies as well as overseeing their trading operations and compliance. You can find Don’s biography, along with that of the other MTA founders, on the "About Us" page of their Web site.

Without further ado, let’s begin the interview.

Don, could you share with our subscribers how you got involved with Trend Timing?
Don: I have a long standing passion for helping people better understand and improve their financial lives, and prior to MTA I was already working with the clients of my own investment advisory firm to achieve these objectives. I have always believed that attaining superior investment returns involves participating in all meaningful market rallies but, maybe more importantly, managing the downside risk.
As part of my ongoing research I stumbled onto TimingCube and, as luck would have it, realized that we were collocated in Austin, Texas. After spending time with Frank and Serge, the TimingCube founders, and analyzing their Model I became convinced that Trend Timing and index investing strategies are the lowest risk method to achieve consistent above market returns.


Can you tell us about the company and its short history?
Don: An early survey of TimingCube subscribers revealed the broad-based interest in providing Managed Accounts to implement the TimingCube strategies. As a result, MTA was formally founded in September of 2004 as a full service advisory firm. After a couple of months spent getting staffed, registered and organized we did a low-key TimingCube-only announcement in early November, and signed our first customers the same month. Today, nine short months later, we count over 200 customers and have well over $37 million under management.


What type of individuals sign-up to your service?
Don: To begin with, the most obvious profile is someone sold on the Trend Timing philosophy but who does not have the knowledge, patience or the time to implement the signals reliably and consistently. We have some of those clients. But as we have further developed our strategies, we have gained clients who appreciate the broad power of our unique investment approaches. I think we have done a good job of demonstrating how we can generate excellent returns while keeping risk extremely low. As a result we have more and more clients who come to us wanting their full portfolio managed using a complement of mutual funds, stocks, bonds, as well as our core index investing strategies.
In addition to individual investors, MTA also serves the professional and institutional investment communities, and this part of the business has begun to grow very fast.


What do you mean by full service advisory firm?
Don: I believe that solid long-term relationships begin with the personal touch, and I want to make sure we fully understand the individual circumstances, needs, and objectives of every single client. We are perfectly happy to implement the purely mechanical trading of a straight TimingCube strategy. However, we can add a lot of value by tailoring the strategy to meet the needs of the individual investor. For example we have active profit management techniques we use to minimize drawdowns or take faster profits. We can turn the dial on how much leverage is applied as a function of market conditions. We make full use of a wide breadth of investment vehicles such as options.
Many of our clients begin with relatively small amounts to try us out, but end up increasing the assets under management as they get comfortable with us. Some entrust their entire portfolios to us and we can accommodate strategy diversification. Although we are fully comfortable with our unique brand of index investing strategies, we also understand the rationale for strategy diversification. Some investors want a portion of their assets invested in certain stocks, or gold, or income generating securities. Others want to aggressively exploit the never ending sector rotation. For example, while broad markets have been sputtering and range-bound during the first half of 2005, we have been able to boost returns for some of our clients by exploiting the hot energy sector.


What is your performance track record so far?
Don: We do not have a very long history but for the first half of 2005, we returned an overall gain (all client assets under management and strategies combined) of about 5%, well ahead of the market. As a point of comparison, during the same period the S&P 500 lost 1.77% and the Nasdaq returned -5.85%.


How do you see the future of MTA?
Don: I first need to mention our upcoming public launch scheduled for September 12, 2005. From our initial "stealth mode", during which we have not attempted to get any visibility outside of the tightly knit TimingCube subscriber base, we intend to make our presence known in the industry.

One of the side effects of going public is that starting on September 12, we will discontinue our introductory pricing and new clients will be charged fees of 1.5% per year, and 1.25% above $3 million under management. Any clients prior to the launch date will not be affected by this price change. Not only will the fees on their existing accounts remain unchanged, but new moneys and new accounts they (or their family members) open remain at the same level.

In the mean time we will push for continuous improvements in the techniques, strategies and tools we apply to making Trend Timing and index investing strategies the lowest risk methods of achieving consistent above market returns.

We are very excited that investors and, of course so many TimingCube subscribers, have embraced our services. We want to help individuals achieve outstanding investment results. We hope that our genuine desire to help comes across in how we do business. I think that matters to people and will keep us growing.

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FAQ of the Week
Question: What happens to my TimingCube subscription when I sign up with MarketTrend Advisors?

We certainly do not want to deprive you of the benefits of your TimingCube subscription when you become a MARKETTREND Advisors client, and we do not intend to double charge you either. Therefore, your TimingCube subscription becomes complimentary and remains free for as long as you are a MARKETTREND Advisors client.

Further, if you are on a yearly TimingCube subscription when you sign up with MARKETTREND Advisors, you will receive a MARKETTREND Advisors monthly credit of $25 per "unused" month left on your yearly TimingCube subscription.

Warm wishes and until next week.

The TimingCube Staff

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