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Editor Dan Sullivan began his stock newsletter, The Chartist, in 1969. A second newsletter, The Chartist Mutual Fund Letter was launched in September 1988.

Dan Sullivan's investment strategy is based on the theories presented in Battle for Investment Survival by Gerald Loeb, and How I Made Two Milion in the Stock Market by Nicholas Darvas. Both authors advocated buying stocks that were already moving up rather than buying stocks at their absolute lows and then waiting for them to move. In other words, buy high and sell higher. The basic concept of relative strength is that the stocks that are stronger compared to their peers will appreciate to a much greater degree than the average issue. This dictates buying stocks after they have already made significant gains. In addition, a predetermined stop loss point is given to each stock in his portfolio. On the upside, Sullivan uses a rising mental stop, which gives the stock leeway for normal corrections. This prevents him from being "shaken out" of a position too early in the cycle before it has a chance to achieve its maximum profit potential.

Because these stocks have the potential for outsized gains in bull markets, but will be among the hardest hit during bear markets, Dan Sullivan combines his stock selection process with market timing. His proprietary indicators measure the risk in the stock market. This strategy allows Dan Sullivan to invest in top-performing stocks while keeping the overall risk low.

When Dan Sullivan make recommendations in The Chartist (TheChartist.com), he gives subscribers the name and ticker symbol of the stocks or mutual funds and the allocation percentage. All of the information is posted on his hotline, after the market's close. This allows subscribers to act on the next day's opening at the same time Dan Sullivan acts for the Chartist real money accounts. The Chartist is one of the very few advisory services that actually buys and sells the stocks it recommends. In fact, The Chartist Actual Cash Account that is featured on the front page of every edition of The Chartist belongs to a member of the Sullivan family.

Dan Sullivan uses the same investment theories and advice for the mutual funds recommended in the monthly Chartist Mutual Fund Letter, and also publishes the funds that are currently held his Actual Cash Account.

The Chartist
P.O. Box 758
Seal Beach, CA 90740
1-800-942-4278

The above description was assembled using information from the publisher's site. All registered or unregistered trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners, and no trademark rights to the same are claimed.

There are quite a variety of investment newsletter services available to investors today, which achieve a decent track record. In reality, however, many newsletters have not translated well for most investors that subscribe to them. The reason? Money management. Without the proper position sizing using the right money management tool, you are only dealing with half the formula for success.

Let's face it: if there was one consistently successful investment newsletter, then the word would spread rapidly, and that one investment newsletter would have more customers than the population of China. The reality is that there has never been such a success. Why? Because in the final analysis, 8 out of 10 investors fail due to one simple reason: position sizing.

The majority of investors who subscribe to investment newsletters think that the process is as simple as "Just give me your recommendations and let me become as successful as you are". Unfortunately, as money managers know, entry points account for very little in the overall success of a portfolio. Find out why!