On Our Way To A Banner Year

Let's face it, sometimes making money in the markets is tough, even for professionals. Some of the big names in the hedge fund industry have under-performed the market and even lost money over the last several years.

Every year, hundreds of hedge funds go out of business due to investors becoming disenchanted with mediocre to poor returns (remember, with hedge funds there is a management fee of usually 2% on invested capital and 20% of any profits).

Every investors’ dream is to find a way to consistently make money in the market with the least amount of risk. The question is, does something like that even exist? Continue reading "On Our Way To A Banner Year"

Are You Looking For A Consistent Way To Make Money?

Every investors' dream is to find a way to consistently make money in the market with the least amount of risk. The question is, does something like that even exist?

The answer to that question is yes and no. What I mean by that is yes, you can consistently make money market, but only if you adhere to a strict game plan and discipline.

Let me prove it to you... For the past 8 1/2 years, we have provided details for the World Cup portfolio. Every day the MarketClub team posts the signals to either enter or exit a market for each of the six markets tracked in this portfolio. These signals are available to every MarketClub member on a daily basis. Over the course of 35 trading quarters, the World Cup Portfolio has only had 6 negative quarters which gives it an 83% success rate. On an annual basis it has never failed to make money which answers the question, "can you consistently make money in the market?" I believe that the World Cup portfolio which has proven itself over 8 1/2 years in all kinds of market conditions to be a winning formula for success.

The World Cup Portfolio (WCP)

Q1 turned out to be a good quarter for the World Cup portfolio. In this diversified portfolio, six futures markets are traded. Here they are along with their Q1 results: Continue reading "Are You Looking For A Consistent Way To Make Money?"

The Official 2015 Trading Results For MarketClub's Model Portfolios

2015 was a difficult year for investors and professional hedge fund managers alike. Last December’s -0.77% aggregate hedge fund industry return pushed the annual aggregate returns further negative, ending at -2.01% for the year.

Despite overall hedge fund returns being negative for 2015, the distribution of returns across the funds was nearly even in terms of positive vs. negative annual performance (49% positive, 51% negative). The positive average return was 8.12% and the average negative return was -9.87%.

One of the major challenges in 2015 was that markets went nowhere and created lots of false and deceptive trends. Prior to 2015, the markets had seen strong trends almost every year. I believe that 2015 was a transition year and marked the end of the six-year bull cycle.

So how did the model portfolios fare? Continue reading "The Official 2015 Trading Results For MarketClub's Model Portfolios"

Here's How The World Cup Portfolio Performed In 2015

There is no doubt about it 2015 will be viewed as a very tough year for most investors. Most of the large hedge funds were not immune to losing money with many of them going out of business. This is in sharp contrast to the easy money years of 2009 through 2014 when the Fed was dropping rates and printing money like it was going out of style.

Today I'm going to be looking at the World Cup Portfolio and see how it performed quarter by quarter market by market. The World Cup Portfolio was not immune to the challenges of 2015, but it did finish the year in the black.

While the World Cup Portfolio showed a positive return at the end of 2015, it was the lowest return that the portfolio has had since its inception. The 19.4% return for the year while positive and still very respectable by most measurements was somewhat disappointing by our standards.

So let's go through the markets quarter by quarter and see how the WCP was able to show a positive return when many others didn't. Continue reading "Here's How The World Cup Portfolio Performed In 2015"

Double Digit Returns In Q3 For The World Cup Portfolio

The World Cup Portfolio once again showed its resilience and produced a solid return of just over 16% in Q3. For many traders, Q3 was a difficult quarter and there were certainly parts of the World Cup Portfolio that did not fare well either during this quarter. However, those losses were offset with profits from other parts of the portfolio. That is one of the principal reasons why the portfolio trades six different markets that have a low correlation rate.

In case you are not familiar with MarketClub's World Cup Portfolio, here are the six markets: corn, wheat, soybeans, crude oil, gold and the dollar index. Out of those six markets, the portfolio made money in five of them, the only disappointment was the dollar index which has proven to be a frustrating, trend-less market over the last couple of quarters.

Here are the individual results for each market trading one contract. Continue reading "Double Digit Returns In Q3 For The World Cup Portfolio"