New monthly newsletter from TheMarket.co.za for investors:

What many traders don't realise is that the really big money is made by catching the big trends of the market. The kind of trends that go on for months and sometimes for a few years.

Granted, short-term trading if done correctly will provide a steady stream of day to day income. But the really big money, the creation of real wealth i.e. the kind of wealth that is passed down from generation to generation in families (what I call "generational wealth") is made by catching the big trends in the market place.

Jesse Livermore, who is widely regarded as the best trader of all time, made this point very clearly in his classic biography, "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator". The really big money is not made in catching small day to day fluctuations in the market; it's in catching the large overriding trends.

 

With this in mind, TheMarket.co.za started a new newsletter in 2011 (in addition to the weekly newsletter) called The Big Picture monthly newsletter.

AIM OF THE BIG PICTURE NEWSLETTER:

Its aim is quite simply to:

1. Identify the start of a new bull market.
   
   
2. Ride that bull market to completion (while interfering as little as possible with it).
   
   
3. Once we have a clear signal that the bull market is over, to then either exit completely, or to hedge ones portfolio with Alsi futures or options. (Until the next bull market begins).
   
   
4. There will be times along the way up where one should add (buy) more shares i.e. after large corrections. And there will be times to partially reduce long-term holdings e.g., after climactic moves up. These are really the only times one will "interfere" with the bull market.

In a nutshell, this is the way to create real, long-term wealth from the stock market.

Does this mean one shouldn't be a trader? Not at all. As mentioned, trading is a good way of making short-term income. But we believe the majority of one's stock market funds should be in a longer-term portfolio, in order to create real, sustainable wealth. The kind of wealth you can retire on, and far more - that is passed down for many generations. Even full time traders should have a large chunk (i.e. the majority) of their money in a long-term portfolio.

WHY NOT JUST INVEST IN UNIT TRUSTS THEN?

Managing your own long-term wealth portfolio, if done correctly will vastly outperform unit trusts. The reasons are:

1. Asset Management companies (unit trusts) charge significant annual fees to manage your money.
   
   
2. Their performance is mediocre, at best.
   
   
3. They are restricted by the specific mandates of their fund e.g. to always be at least 40% invested in stocks; or to always own the 10 largest industrial stocks (regardless of market direction); or to never have more than a certain percentage in cash etc. etc.
   
   
4. DID YOU KNOW: The REAL benchmark of a unit trust manager is not the stated JSE All Share/Top 40 index. It's actually how other, rival, fund managers are doing. So, if the unit trust you own is down 40% in 2008 (for example), but it's still in the top quartile of funds in that category (e.g. other funds are down 43%), the fund manger 'pats' himself on the back and receives a huge performance bonus. However, the man in the street is still down 40% on his portfolio!

THE SOLUTION: We have been working on long-term techniques with technical analysis for many years. The Big Picture newsletter is the culmination of this work.

Each issue of the monthly The Big Picture report contains:

• About 17 longer-term charts.
  
  
• Different asset classes are compared, and asset allocation advised.
  
  
• Individual stocks recommended.
  
  
• Three Model Portfolios: each issue contains three different model portfolios for investors, as well as changes to the portfolios when made. One portfolio is JSE stocks. The other two are US stocks and ETFs. All three portfolios have significantly outperformed their benchmarks since inception.
  
  
• Educational insight into the investing (as opposed to 'trading') method, and frame of mind.
  
  
• ... and more.
  
  

- Even if you do have funds in unit trusts/or a retirement annuity, The Big Picture newsletter will help you determine when to switch from more defensive funds to more aggressive funds, or from one asset class/or main sector to another eg., from stocks to bonds (or money market), or from industrials to resources etc or vice versa.

The Big Picture newsletter is available on the first Monday of each month.

TESTIMONIAL:

"I find the Big Picture newsletter particularly useful...it provides a useful mechanism for ascertaining the direction of the market and thus provides insight on asset allocation."
T. Rossini, Johannesburg

"Thanks for the wonderful info - I really enjoy the benefit of being a subscriber (to The Big Picture) and I can no longer go without this product".
Johan van der Meer, Cape Town

"Nobody would have expected 2015 would turn out to be my best year of all times purely due to the great swings we had and the rand/$ trades adding nicely. Hope to at least catch a few this (coming) year even if we could move a lot lower. Thanks for the help in identifying the direction during the past year."
Danie V., Centurion

"I subscribe to your weekly and big picture newsletter. I must say have been really impressed with your calls. So much so that my wife has taken to the financial markets and is likely to take up full time trading next year. I see you have some courses coming up soon..."
Andrew Perkins
Durban


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TheMarket.co.za research is always independent. All recommendations and forecasts made, therefore, are objective and unbiased.

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