Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Bob Brinker: Market Savant & Radio Host -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 249443 who wrote (24508)	8/28/2006 9:53:30 PM
From: Honey_Bee	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 42834

Great minds think alike...I was just posted this at Honey's BOB BRINKER Beehive Buzz at Suite101, and decided to copy it here--just because I'm so nice. :) . As Peter mentions here, David Korn writes an outstanding commentary about Bob Brinker's Moneytalk programs each weekend. In David's newsletters, David adds a lot of additional and very valuable information of his own. . * By Peter Brimelow, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 12:30 AM ET Aug 22, 2002 . NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- I asked for it and I got it. An extraordinary number of e-mails denouncing my August 15 column on Marketimer's Bob Brinker, either for being too hard on Brinker, or for not being hard enough. Sigh. . ( Read my previous column on Brinker.) Interestingly, about half were from Brinker backers. That's unusual. Generally, people only write when they're mad. Both sides in this fierce fight accuse the other of mass e-mailing under fake names. Maybe they're both right -- although if so, they're individualizing cleverly. . Some Brinker backers mounted articulate defenses of his disastrous QQQ trade in 2000, for example arguing that he made it clear it was a speculation. But one critic has actually posted Brinker's famous bulletin on the Web. It does make chilling reading for a stock that went from above 80 to a recent 25.75. Another critic sent this distressing note: . "I have never written anyone on this topic before but your article spurred me to write back to you. I retired early in the first half of 2000. I had been following [Brinker's] advice based on his excellent track record and comments he made during a personal appearance in Rochester NY in the late 1990s. "Shortly after I retired I got Bob's bulletin to put up to half my stock market funds into QQQ 'immediately.' I followed Bob's advice and it has ruined what should have been a wonderful retirement for me and my wife. We bought in at 82. What REALLY is unforgivable is that Brinker had NO EXIT STRATEGY for this horrendous trade. Even today he is still telling us to hold the QQQ (even though down 75 percent). Does he realize how many lives he's ruined?" . To be fair, another correspondent says Brinker saved his retirement -- by getting him out of the market in 2000. But still... . All of which leads me to four observations: . 1. Much of the Brinker brouhaha stems from things he's said on his ABC radio show or in the commentary section of his letter. Or allegedly said -- there's often total disagreement among my correspondents. . Perhaps because of this, there's now a letter and a Web site, begininvesting.com, devoted to monitoring Brinker's radio show.. . This of course underlines the wisdom of Mark Hulbert's decision to stick to monitoring Brinker's model portfolios. It was because Hulbert caught the fact that QQQ had not been put in Brinker's model portfolio published in the letter subsequent to the Special Alert that he sold it out, and didn't take any more loss. Quite obviously, most readers and listeners are not so systematic. . 2. But Brinker must realize his readers and listeners are not so systematic. In fact, notwithstanding the fine record of his model portfolios by Mark Hulbert's count, Brinker's behavior in this whole affair does seem odd. There's bitter disagreement about whether he provided the follow-up advice he promised. But what kind of a "counter-trend rally" is it that he's still holding QQQ for (outside his model portfolio, of course) after two years? . 3. Do not, repeat -- NOT -- gamble the rent money, much less the retirement money, on any market timer's recommendations. Only speculate with money you can afford to lose. . 4. If there are many more stories like my poor friend from Rochester, we're going to see massive re-regulation of the financial markets -- a repeat of the 1930s." . marketwatch.com . .