CPM Investing LLC - Research Publications
While the DJIA has the best performance over the recent 20 years, the NASDAQ has had clearly better performance since late 2019. NASDAQ is prone to sharp declines - even with our loss-avoiding algorithms - as one can see in the 2000 to 2003 period (purple line).
Beginning in 2023, we will use NASDAQ, commodity, and other ETFs tactically over time. Adding them to the main portfolios makes implementation easier for subscribers.
Over the period shown, the Diamond-Onyx Mix had a return of 13.4% (annualized) and variability of 11.8%. The ratio of these two numbers is 1.14.
The return for VBINX was 9.1% with a variability of 10.7%. The ratio of these two numbers is 0.85.
Our goal is to create portfolios with high return for the level of variability endured. The Diamond-Onyx Mix is better than VBINX using this measure.
We achieve these results by trading based on the MRI conditions of the various ETFs in the model portfolios.
What Subscribers are Saying
Doctor S...
I started investing with Focused 15 Investing in early 2016. I was and still am a novice investor – very novice. Focused 15 Investing appealed to me because it seemed to offer something very positive and unique compared to investing advice I had followed for the prior 30+ years.
My husband and I decided to do an "apples-to-apples" comparison. For the following three years, we invested the same amounts, me following Diamond in the Focused 15 publication, my husband investing through the best financial advisor we have used over our thirty years together. At the beginning, my husband's IRA was larger than mine by just a few thousand dollars. Three years later, my IRA is over 30% larger than my husband's.
Investing through Focused 15 has become a task I look forward to each week. While I spent a little more time on each trade at the beginning, I now spend approximately 20 minutes to trade three accounts each week. I trust the research of Focused 15 and don’t second-guess it.
I have learned a great deal about following the research and have done so at my own pace. The research is laid out clearly and is very easy to follow. I focus on the trading and have always used “market orders.” I currently trade on Schwab.com but have gone through periods where I use StreetSmart Edge. Both work easily.
I still consider myself a novice investor. I do not use any other investment research and don’t follow the markets closely. I am busy with my own practice. But I feel like my performance through Focused 15 is that of a master investor!
I enjoy the process of doing my own trades. It is empowering and I feel confident doing it. That is not to say I haven't made mistakes. I have missed an occasional trade. I have made a few mathematical errors. But I enjoy being involved this way in my financial future and cannot imagine a better way to improve my financial condition.
- Dr. S July 2019
Investment Industry Marketing Professionals...
My husband and I have known Jeff since the mid-1990s, when Jeff was Director of International Management Consulting at Russell Investments. We’ve followed his career as he’s held various roles: founding a start-up that created analytics on some of the top actively managed mutual funds in the U.S. while performing the research on which Focused 15 Investing is based, and actively managing money at Nikko Asset Management, where he first used the model that became Focused 15 Investing.
We own a marketing communications business, specializing in writing about and for the investment industry. As such, over more than 25 years, we’ve had the privilege of working for dozens of investment firms, interviewing specialist (and generalist) money managers and writing about their processes.
In all my years in this business, I’ve never met a more astute and innovative investment professional than Jeff. When he launched Focused 15, we were enthusiastic about using his approach.
For one, we have a tremendous amount of respect for Jeff’s integrity, his innovative mindset—and his attentiveness to practicalities as well as theories. We had heard about his groundbreaking research at Nikko targeted to pension funds and institutional investors in Japan, and were excited that “retail investors” like us could access a similar strategy.
And two? We both wanted to retire within 10 years, and were dismayed at the kinds of returns we’d been achieving with our traditional 60% stocks/40% bonds buy-and-hold approach. Bond yields were at all-time lows. And we weren’t willing to amp up our risk exposure to take a chance at gaining higher returns through an over-reliance on riskier equities or alternatives. We’d carefully saved for retirement throughout our careers. But at that point, we knew that if we were to retire at 65 and live into our 90s, the possibility of our financial assets lasting in this kind of market environment was shaky.
We were among Focused 15’s first subscribers, starting in July 2014. We began with the Diamond portfolio, which has enabled us to solidly outperform our prior strategies, as well as its own benchmark. Just as importantly for us, we had the confidence that we had more downside protection than a traditional buy-and-hold portfolio.
Over time, through trial and error, we learned about our tolerance for risk, and decided that Diamond wasn’t the right portfolio for us. We’ve since moved to a different portfolio that we believe will deliver market-like returns or better, with strong downside protection.
Jeff’s system takes a lot of pressure off of us: Instead of looking at the market all the time and agonizing over whether we’re positioned properly, we’re simply confident in his market resilience model. And, after five years of successfully investing with Focused 15, we are also now in a better financial position. I might still be concerned about running out of money when I’m 95, but I worry a lot less.
- E. Talcott August 2019