VoSI members please note that we have added a fifth service called Short-Sale Set-Ups. All reports will be emailed out to members just as with the other services then archived on the reports page. Non-members can access these reports without time delay for the first month so they can get an idea of how these reports are written.
Gil's audited account shows how he achieved a +182.72% gain in 2001, during the throes of the bear market, by going short the right stocks. Gil also achieved as many of you saw from the brokerage statement he sent out in May 2010 somewhere around a 100% return in his own account that month. Gil has been shorting the market with success since the 1990s which prompted Bill O'Neil to want to write a book about shorting the market with Gil in 2004, and How To Make Money Selling Stocks Short published by John Wiley & Sons was the result. Keep in mind, however, that Gil has also experienced his largest losses while shorting, so it is imperative that stops be maintained and adhered to. Each Short-Sale Set-up (SSS) report will give short-sale action price, stop price/guide, and potential target price. This information should be sufficient for members to operate off of, since not in all cases will we discuss a short-sale idea that was stopped out per the parameters outlined in the original SSS report. Members who intend to take advantage of the SSS service should read Chapter 6 of our recent book, "Trade Like an O'Neil Disciple," and the book Gil co-authored with Bill O'Neil, "How to Make Money Selling Stocks Short," for an understanding of essential principles that Gil employs on the short side. Whether members choose to participate in the SSS ideas or not, we believe it will at least offer an excellent real-time educational experience for any member simply following along.
On the ETF front, Dr K's Market Direction Model achieved nearly a +40% return in 2008 (unaudited using 1x ETF QQQQ) by going 100% long QQQQ on a buy signal, 100% short QQQQ on a sell signal, and 100% cash on a neutral signal, a year when most funds lost half their value. It went on to achieve +118.3% in 2009 and 104.5% in 2010 (unaudited using 3x ETF TYH) by going 100% long TYH on a buy signal, 100% short TYH on a sell signal, and 100% cash on a neutral signal.
As requested by members and non-members, we just added a graph of one-year's performance of TYH here: https://www.virtueofselfishinvesting.com/results to give investors a better understanding of the buy/sell/neutral dynamics of the model. This graph appears in one of the FAQs but it became clear that we should make it more visible since finding this chart in the growing FAQ section was not obvious.