Bob Brinker's Infamous QQQ Trade

Happy New Year!

These are updates of articles I wrote at Suite101 that vanished after I left.

• Detailed summary of Bob Brinker’s QQQ Advice
• Bob Brinker's Follow-up QQQ Advice

This is yesterday's article that updates 2014 global market performance:

• Jan 01 Year 2014 in Review  - Happy New Year! 

Top Newsletters Cover Feature

Moneytalk with Bob Brinker Host Show Summary - Recap

I am getting some questions via email about Moneytalk with Bob Brinker.  Maybe someone will answer this one in the comments section

Tuned into Bob today (1/27/13) for the first time in a long time and heard that he recommended a sale of all QQQs (Charts and quote) in October 2012. I bought some in the low 80s when he suggested a buy about 12 years ago. Do you know if this is the first time he suggested that the position be closed out?

This person is talking about Bob Brinker's famous  QQQ Advice.  

Effect of QQQ Advice on Reported Model Portfolio Results

QQQ Charts and quote

I am enjoying my Sunday, a beautiful day in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I will post a recap of the show later this week along with an answer to this question.

Powershares QQQQ Reverts Back to QQQ

The NASDAQ just announced it was changing the trading symbol of QQQQ back to QQQ (QQQ charts and Quote) effective immediately.  Bob Brinker's long-term subscribers remember QQQ well.  In fact, if they followed his advice to the letter, then they are still holding a large percentage of their portfolios in this fund well below their purchase price over a decade ago!

The last time Bob Brinker raised cash and lowered his asset allocation from 100% in equities was in early 2000 when he went from 100% equities to 35% equities and 65% money market funds.

See => Bob Brinker's Asset Allocation History

Bob Brinker's advice to his newsletter subscribers in early 2000 was to keep the cash liquid and wait for instructions on how to deploy that cash for short term trading "opportunities.
Starting on October 16, 2000, Brinker’s subscribers started to get a special bulletin vial the US mail advising them to "Act Immediately" and buy QQQ in anticipation of a 2 to 4 months "counter trend rally" for a 20% or more gain.  The message boards related to "The Bob Brinker Fan Club" were on fire with activity because Brinker recommended even his most conservative subscribers put a large percentage in this risky asset class.  Confused subscribers who called the Marketimer office were told "Bob is comfortable with QQQ at $86" by office staff.

See => Bob Brinker's QQQ Advice

Many of the individual stocks inside QQQ rallied but the majority did not so QQQ continued its plunge.

Click for full size image

When it came time to publish his November 2000 Marketimer newsletter, Brinker decided to "hedge" by not including the QQQ trade in his measured results while using full pages to justify his belief in the rally with new recommendations to buy in latter Marketimer newsletters as QQQ fell to the $40s where he eventually said "hold for future recovery" and never mentioned the trade again.

I believe he dishonestly advertises his results because he does not include this QQQ trade in his performance numbers.  Several of us did a calculation to see what the overall effect of the advice on his results:

=> Effect of QQQ advice on reported results

With his partner Sheldon Jacobs, Bob Brinker used to manage money for a fee.  As the letter below shows, those people didn't have a choice to not include the QQQ trade in their results as the BJ Group made the trade for them.

PowerShares Symbol Changes

Please note that effective immediately, Nasdaq has implemented the following ETF symbol changes. Any open ETF or option orders for impacted symbols have been cancelled.

Please update your Watch Lists and Alerts for these new symbols as the old symbols will no longer be recognized.

ETF Symbol Changes	Current Symbol	New Symbol
PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1	QQQQ	QQQ
PowerShares S&P SmallCap Materials Portfolio	XLBS	PSCM
PowerShares S&P SmallCap Energy Portfolio	XLES	PSCE
PowerShares S&P SmallCap Financials Portfolio	XLFS	PSCF
PowerShares S&P SmallCap Industrials	XLIS	PSCI
PowerShares S&P SmallCap Information Technology Portfolio	XLKS	PSCT
PowerShares S&P SmallCap Consumer Staples Portfolio	XLPS	PSCC
PowerShares S&P SmallCap Utilities Portfolio	XLUS	PSCU
PowerShares S&P SmallCap Health Care Portfolio	XLVS	PSCH
PowerShares S&P SmallCap Consumer Discretionary Portfolio	XLYS	PSCD

Copies of Bulletins sent in the mail

Copies of Bulletins sent in the mail

Click to View what Brinker sent in the US Mail