Are "market timing services" any good?

23Feb07

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum (my first post also). I have a question about the so-called "market timing services." For the last 4 years I've utilized one service by the name of "TimingCube." It proclaims to have great results over the simple buy and hold (or as I call it buy and hope) strategy. Over the last year and a half, it has issued several eratic "sell" signals that have made it seem unworthy of my patronage. It hasn't performed well at all in my opinion and the false sell signals have cost me much time and some market profits.

Has anyone had good experience with a similar market timing service online? When I signed up for TimingCube, it was one of only 3 or 4 I could find at that time. However, since then several dozen have popped up and they all look very similar. TimingCube is charging $400 a year for their services and that seems high for what they're actually providing (a bunch of false signals for the most part).

I do not buy individual stocks, but like to have a timing service up my sleeve to monitor the overall market health and use the services to get out of the markets on significant down-turns. I buy ETFs and mutual funds and sometimes use the leveraged mutual funds like ProFunds and Rydex to take advantage of margin and short-selling.

Please tell me your experiences, alternatives you've found, or good things about any timing services you know of.

Thanks!
CN

Plenty of guru's around and all of them have the answer! If you could time the market don't you think you would be rich enough so that you wouldn't have to sell the service.?
There may be some successful day traders alive who have consisently timed the market well but I haven't seen or heard of anyone outside "Cramer" of course!
I think you do your homework well and hold on to stuff, the short term captial gains cut into your profits as well as all the account churning! Now maybe you have made money over the past 4 years doing this but I would not be a believer.
Your mutual funds and EFT's are probably going to do you real well over the future years but it also sounds like you don't like to do much homework and so your fund selection might also reflect your desire to put your faith in other services without question. I don't mean to sound critical but it doesn't take much wisdom to listen to a market timer who tells you when to buy or sell? just your money....
sorry to not be of much help but I have never seen any one personally be successful on a consistent basis trying to time the markets. then again If they were really good at that they probably wouldn't be travelling in my circle of contacts.
good luck and share your ideas for market timing with us, I would like to see the great stocks ready to move! Thanks in advance and I will be waiting!

Market timing is VERY difficult, if not impossible, to do (no offence to Cramer lovers, but he has lost tons, as well as made tons -- hardly an unqualified success).

I wouldn't trust any person, company, or system that claims to be able to successfully time the market. It practically screams "I'M A SCAM!"

can you time the market (or find a program to do it for you)? no. silly rabbit, tricks are for kids.

1MO

As the other posters - they are a scam.