The Hulbert Guide to Financial Newsletters

The Hulbert Guide to Financial Newsletters gives objective evaluation and analysis of the performances of model portfolios of more than 120 monthly newsletters. It is targeted to both individual investors and professionals who want to know which newsletters are really outperforming the stock market and which are actually living up to their investment claims.

In 1980, when Hulbert first appeared on the financial scene, investment newsletters were viewed with such skepticism that the Wall Street Journal would not even accept their ads. Now there is the recognition that some are good, some are bad, and the critical factor is selection of one that meets readers' needs.

The explosion in the number of individual investors who play an active role in managing their portfolios has been accompanied by growth in the number of advisory publications available to them. There are many books and periodicals that describe and/or promote investment newsletters; most are mere directories. The Hulbert Guide to Financial Newsletters is different. In addition to basic information for more than 120 top financial newsletters (address, telephone number, frequency, subscription rate), the description indicates whether a telephone hotline and/or money management are included in the price, and each entry reproduces the front page of the newsletter in question. The useful introduction discusses the wide range of options when seeking investment advice. Hulbert describes the pros and cons of newspapers, television, and the financial press; personal or business acquaintances; stockbrokers; and investment newsletters.

The distinguishing feature of The Hulbert Guide is its statistical analysis of the past performance of the newsletters. Each newsletter analysis includes a graph showing its portfolios' performances compared with the market as a whole. Accompanying tables also show the newsletters' performance over various periods of time, including quintile rank among all newsletters tracked for that period.

Appendixes provide tables that rank newsletters on the basis of their total returns and risk-adjusted performances over different periods of time. Separate tables rank mutual funds newsletters. Finally, a newsletter directory lists trial subscription prices.

Readers familiar with earlier editions of this book and with the monthly newsletter, "Hulbert's Financial Digest," are aware of the straightforward approaches of each and with the statistical analysis that backs them both. They have proven their usefulness over the past 12 years, and it is almost unthinkable that the business section of a public or academic library would not purchase the latest edition of The Hulbert Guide.