I'm curious, does anyone know how Kirk from The Kirk Report did in 2008? I'm assuming not so well since he took down the performance page on this website, also 2008 was bad year to buy for oversold bounces, which he did well for the previous 5 years.
The guy doesn't sell a service for stock picking. He ask for a donation to cover his expenses (and rightfully deservingly so) as he puts a lot of time into writing about the stock market daily. He does NOT sell a stock picking service and his trading performance was never meant as a marketing device to pull people in - he is a blogger and a good one at that.
He DEFINITELY used his trading performance to get people to subscribe, until now that is. He had a page that showed every trade and every year positive % P&L performance. He also used it to get a puff piece interview write-up in Barrons. I think it's pretty small of him not to publish his 2008 performance. Every great investor has a bad year once of in a while. To only publish his performance only in the good years is pretty weak.
I subscribe to the service.. pretty decent overview and links as a blogger. You do get good ideas for overall trends, though most of his info is all "after the fact". Of little use to a short term swing trader. He is a professed long-term trader, and he is not a stock picker as someone else pointed out. What I have learned from the report is more about market trends and how to anticipate moves or momentums. P.S. He took off for the holiday break and should be back on week of Jan. 5th. I would expect his P/L chart that week. If not, I agree that it is pretty weak that you don't show your bad years with your good years. I hope he reads this and hears us now.
Until now? Wrong. I am a yearly subscriber. He made it very clear last year he wasn't going to post his trades nor performance - it was his business and his business only. It is not a stock picking service. People subscribe to his blogging service.
I think what the others are trying to say here is that if the total value of a portfolio is published (which Kirk has done in the past years), then one would expect that to continue being published, even in bad times. Disclaimer or not, many people who subscribe to the service are drawn to Kirk's track record - and that record is the growth or decrease of a portfolio. No one is going to beat down a long term trader becuase 2008 was a bad year. But unless you are picking really well (or not trading as long term as one would think), your portfolio most likely shrunk last year. If it didn't (and it would be interesting to see if Kirk's did or did not), then an explanation of which asset classes and stocks were chosen to avoid any big losses would be helpful to all readers (particularly the paying subscribers).
I actually subscribed couple years ago and didn't renew because I didn't find it helpful at all. I will admit I was attracted to him BECAUSE of his performance track record. I'm just curious how he did in 2008. Many of the best managers in the world from Buffett, to hedge funds, etc. had big down years. It's fine if Kirk did, but not to report it is pretty weak (being that he published every big up year last 5 or so years).
Moreover he had his previous years' performance up on his free website for MOST of 2008 trying to get new subscribers, I'm sure of it because I remember seeing it just a few weeks ago.
That's right. I used to read him rather regularly, but when he started asking for donations, I lost interest.