Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I subscribe to your service?

In these volatile financial times, it is becoming more important than ever to protect your hard-earned retirement savings from major stock market declines. Large, Wall Street investment firms have access to market data which informs them when the stock market is becoming vulnerable to a major decline. When these firms see the possibility of a major downturn, they start selling stocks like there's no tomorrow. This drives the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the other major stock market indexes down substantially, leaving uninformed retail investors with devastating losses in their retirement accounts. Like most people, you probably work hard to make wise decisions about your financial well-being and that of your loved ones, but sorting through the overwhelming abundance of financial information in magazines, on TV, and on the internet can be a difficult task. At ProtectMyRetirementAccount.com, we assist individual investors in the protection of their retirement savings by delivering clear, concise, unbiased answers about the current condition of the stock market.

I have an IRA with a big name brokerage. Why don’t they offer a service like this?

That is an excellent question, which can probably be best answered by reading the following excerpt from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia:

Brokerages may favor institutional investors at the expense of smaller retail investors

“…market timing is difficult to carry out on a consistent basis, particularly for the individual investor unschooled in technical analysis. Retail brokers are also generally unschooled in both the mind set and the tools needed to successfully time the market, and indeed most are actively discouraged by the brokerages themselves from moving their clients in and out of the market. However, as market makers, many of these same brokerages take the opposite approach with their large institutional clients, trading various financial instruments for these clients in an attempt to "predict future market price movements" and thereby make a profit for the institutions. This dichotomy in the treatment of institutional vs. retail clients can potentially be controversial for the brokerages. It may suggest for example that retail brokers and their clients are discouraged from market timing, not because it doesn't work, but because it would interfere with the brokerages' market maker trading for their institutional clients. In other words, retail clients are encouraged to buy and hold so as to maintain market liquidity for the institutional trading. If true, this would suggest a conflict of interest, in which the brokerages are willing to sacrifice potential returns for the smaller retail clients in order to benefit larger institutional clients.

The 2008 decline in the markets is instructive. While many retail brokers were instructed by their brokerages to tell their clients not to sell, but instead "look to the long term", the market makers at those same brokerages were busy selling to cash to avoid losses for the brokerages' large institutional clients. The result was that the retail clients were left with huge losses while the institutions fled to the safety of short term bonds and money market funds, thereby avoiding similar losses.”

Click here to link to the entire passage at Wikipedia.

Why does ProtectMyRetirementAccount.com sometimes advise subscribers to transfer their retirement savings into money-market mutual funds?

A money-market mutual fund is a type of cash equivalent investment that does not gain or lose value with fluctuations in the stock market. Money-market mutual funds pay interest like a savings account and are designed to provide high yields with no loss of capital. Money-market mutual funds are not insured by the FDIC but are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. When our AccuTrendSM market timing model detects that the stock market has become vulnerable to a major decline, we issue an E-mail alert to our subscribers to transfer their retirement savings into money-market mutual funds so that they will be protected from a potential major market decline.

My 401(k) doesn’t offer a money-market mutual fund, but offers a stable-value fund. Should I use this fund instead?

Yes, stable-value funds are a good alternative to money-market mutual funds. A stable value fund is an income investment that typically returns 1% to 1.5% more than a money-market fund, but like a money-market fund, it preserves your principal.

How does your service differ from other market timing services?

Our extensive market research has shown us that virtually all other market timing services try to time every twist and turn of the market. At ProtectMyRetirementAccount.com, our market timing model focuses only on the long-term or “secular” trend of the stock market. Because of this, we are able to time the stock market with much greater accuracy.

How can I trust that your claims are legitimate?

Our record is constantly scrutinized by a third party verification service called “Timer Trac”. They have been keeping track of the performance of market timing services since 1999. Just click on the Timer Trac logo on our home page and a link will take you directly to their website where our results will be confirmed.

When I subscribe to your service, who retains custody of my investment account?

It is understandable that ever since the Bernard Madoff and Allen Stanford scandals have made the news, people are very concerned about who retains custody of their retirement savings. Since our service is designed for self-directed investors, your retirement savings will remain at your current brokerage or in your company’s 401(K) plan.

Can your service be used to manage non-retirement investment accounts?

Yes, our service may be used to manage any type of long-term investment account that invests in stock mutual funds, including college 529 plans, non-retirement stock brokerage accounts, etc.

How often does your service issue an E-mail alert?

The time frame between E-mail alerts depends totally upon stock market conditions. Historically, it has been anywhere from a few months to several years between alerts. For further details, please visit our results page.

I’m a new subscriber and the current alert was issued a long time ago. Should I follow this alert?

Only if the alert advises investors to be invested in money-market mutual funds. If your investment account has suffered a significant loss due to a declining stock market, following the advice of our alert to be invested in money-market mutual funds will prevent any further losses to your investment account. If you desire to invest a lump sum of money into stock mutual funds and you subscribed after the stock mutual fund alert was issued, then our recommendation is that you wait for the next stock mutual fund alert before investing.

I’m concerned that I might not get the E-mail alert. How can I check to make sure that I didn’t miss it?

One way to check is to make sure that you are receiving our PMRA Weekly Market Update newsletter. If you are not receiving it, this probably means that we no longer have your current E-mail address. In this case, please send an E-mail to info@ProtectMyRetirementAccount.com and we will update our records. Another way to keep up with our current alert is to log in to our website and check the “Results” page at any time. The “Results” page lists our current alert and the cumulative profit of our timing signal. It is updated every Friday evening by 7:00 PM Central Standard Time.

In my 401(k), one link says “Change Future Investments” and the other link says “Transfer Money”. What is the difference between them?

“Change Future Investments” changes how your future contributions will be invested. “Transfer Money” changes the investment of your current balance. When ProtectMyRetirementAccount.com issues an E-mail alert, both current balances and future investments need to be transferred.

If we were unable to answer your question here, please send us an email: info@ProtectMyRetirementAccount.com