.Several people have sent emails and others have posted comments saying that they no longer subscribe to Bob Brinker's Marketimer but that they had received an email from Marketimer stating that Bob Brinker had issued a special bulletin on August 9th.
Some of those people said that they haven't subscribed for several years and they wondered why Bob Brinker had sent an email about a special bulletin now? That's a very good question. Why would he notify former subscribers?
And why would Bob Brinker bother sending his subscribers a special bulletin for no apparent reason? We know he considers radio listeners "freeloaders" (he has said so) but what about subscribers? Why treat them so contemptuously?
Let's look at Brinker's latest Moneytalk stock market-timing prognostications and see if we can find a clue. On July 31st (when Brinker was last on the show), he said this:
"Remember we had a caller when the market was at 1268 at the end of June who asked whether he should sell out of the market because of the debt ceiling debate......Of course, the market is now at 1292, a couple of percent higher than when that call came in at the end of June. So this is what happens. If that individual would have sold out at 1270 at that time, he would be faced now with either sitting it out or re-entering at a higher level.......And certainly we've seen some nice dollar-cost-average opportunities this past week in the market. I must admit on Friday I was taking advantage of some of the bargains that were out there with the market ............I know many of you also have been taking advantage of the dollar-cost-averaging opportunities on short-term weakness - and certainly it's minor. I mean, 5% is really noise when you look at the market over time.......If you've been listening to this broadcast, we have not been part of the panic-brigade here on Moneytalk."
The S&P 500 Index has been down as much as 18% from the year-to-date high (1363.61 on April 29th). (Brinker likes to hearken back to the year-to-date numbers on Moneytalk.) However, in the past couple of days there has been some recovery, so the S&P is now down "only" about 15% from the high of the year.
But in the past two weeks, the stock market has been on a frightening roller-coaster ride. As of now, the S&P 500 Index is down 8.78% from the day that Brinker said he had been buying bargains and had bragged about his listeners also "taking advantage" of the (at that time) 5% dip.
So rather than giving you my conclusions, let me just ask some questions:
* How embarrassed is Brinker that the market dropped another 10% almost immediately after he bragged that he had advised callers not to sell, and said he was "buying bargains"?
* How many listeners and subscribers bought stocks first thing Monday morning after Brinker recommended it on Sunday and have lost at least 10% of their money?
* Was there a rash of Marketimer cancellations when the market started dropping drastically?
* Was this bulletin fabricated as a "tough cheese" message to subscribers who were bugging him for reassurance and advice or for some other reason?
* Was this an opportunity to entice former subscribers to log in, and out of fear and anxiety, subscribe just to read this "bulletin"?
