Is this another Ponzi Scheme?
NO! Your hard-earned capital remains 100% in your account under your complete control. Alpha Investors does NOT accept client funds to invest. Alpha Investors only provides advice and what ETFs individual investors should hold. How you implement that advice is entirely up to you!
How can I invest with Alpha Investors?
It’s very simple! All you need is:
- A brokerage account approved for trading stocks – Alpha Investors recommends tax advantaged IRA or Roth IRA accounts
- Working capital – Alpha Investors recommends minimum capital of $10,000
- An active subscription to Alpha
Which brokerage should I choose?
The one you that you are most comfortable with! What criteria should I use:
- How do you like user interface
- What platforms do they support, IOS, Android, mobile, laptop, desktop?
- What are their commissions and fees?
Several links offering advice for brokerages:
https://www.stockbrokers.com
https://www.thestreet.com/online-trading/compare-best-online-brokers.html
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/investing/best-online-brokers-for-stock-trading/
Will my returns equal Alpha’s returns?
Not quite! Individual investors should realize that Alpha is a mathematical model in a computer and does not account for:
- Taxes – Alpha algorithm does not account for capital gains or dividend taxes individuals pay.
- Transaction costs – The costs brokerages charge investors for buying/selling stocks.
- The Alpha algorithm allocates funds equally among four (4) ETFs. Individual investors are likely to allocate funds to the nearest whole number divisible by 5 and are likely to have residual cash balances at the risk-free interest rate.
- The Alpha algorithm assumes ALL buys/sells occur at the close on the last trading day of the week. Individual investors are likely to buy/sell funds on the following trading day slightly higher during up-trends and slightly lower during down-trends.
Alpha is a low-frequency, long-term strategy, therefore, these differences are expected to be small in non-taxable accounts.
What is an ETF?
An Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is a basket of securities (stocks, bonds, commodities, or physical assets) that trade like common stock on a public exchange. Alpha typically selects ETFs based on a narrowly focused index or geographic/economic regional index.
Exchange
ETFs are listed on exchanges, typically BATS, also NYSE and NASDAQ.
Traded
ETFs can be bought or sold continuously throughout the trading day in a brokerage account.
Fund
ETFs are also like mutual funds, dividing ownership of the basket of securities into shares that can be purchased providing fractional ownership of all the securities.
http://www.visualcapitalist.com/what-is-an-etf
Conviction
A normalized proprietary measure of an ETF’s relative performance today within the context of the past decade or since inception. When investors notice conviction bouncing between +.1 and -.1, the relative performance of the ETF has become unstable! Investors should be cautious of churn, selling one week, buying the following week only to sell it a week later. Once sold, investors should consider waiting for relative performance to stabilize – in cash($). Once a consistent direction is re-established, investors can evaluate establishing another position.