Market-topping newsletters
July 30, 2004
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| Top newsletter performers, 10 years |
| Name | Avg. annual gain |
| The Prudent Speculator | 26.0% |
| No-Load Fund-X | 18.3% |
| BI Research | 17.1% |
| Equity Fund Outlook | 17.1% |
| The Oberweis Report | 16.2% |
| Source: Hulbert Financial Digest. All results are through June 30, 2004 |
The value-investing approach of Al Frank Asset Management's The Prudent Speculator resulted in strong gains for much of the past two decades. NoLoad Fund*X, as its name implies, ranks no-load mutual funds and shifts investments as funds drop in its scoring system and are replaced at the top by others. BI Research uses fundamental analysis to evaluate midcap and small-cap stocks. Equity Fund Outlook tries to find the best-managed funds by using a formula that compares performances in bull and bear markets to see which funds provide the best return over the long haul.
"The more overarching generalization to make is how varied those newsletters' approaches are," says Mark Hulbert, who has been tracking financial newsletters for 24 years as editor of the Hulbert Financial Digest. "It's just amazing. One of the conclusions I like to draw from having looked at newsletters for this length of time is that there is more than one road to riches. ... I think that perhaps the generalization that might apply to these as well as the other top-performing newsletters is that they have a discipline that they're willing to follow through thick and thin."
That said, Hulbert notes that value investing tends to be a popular approach among newsletters that have beaten the market for at least 10 years.
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