Past newsletters | Muscular Portfolios

Issue #55 — May 31, 2023
• Even a 7-year-old beats the market

Issue #54 — Apr. 30, 2023
• How to avoid a flash crash
• The Star Trek universal translator is here today

Issue #53 — Mar. 31, 2023
• The market is still bearish
• You’re fired if you don’t know how to use GPT-4

Issue #52 — Feb. 28, 2023
• More evidence for best day of month

Issue #51 — Jan. 31, 2023
• Your account passes the Monte Carlo test
• Fix File Explorer folder views in Windows 10 & 11

Issue #50 — Dec. 31, 2022
• An unbroken 50-year track record of gains
• Lazy Portfolios have proved to be total failures
• The best tech secrets of the year

Issue #49 — Nov. 30, 2022
• Your money is beating the S&P 500 and Nasdaq
• Windows 11 and DuckDuckGo strive for market share

Issue #48 — Sept. 29, 2022
• Maximize your money from Social Security

Issue #47 — July 31, 2022
• Frequently asked questions — and answers!
• TikTok steals your files, passwords, and more: FCC official

Issue #46 — June 30, 2022
• Pain for the S&P 500, profit for you

Issue #45 — May 31, 2022
• S&P nears a bear, but your account is up
• Laptop power specs may be hard for you to find

Issue #44 — Apr. 30, 2022
• Market-like returns, bond-like volatility
• Which technology will run your life a few years from now?

Issue #43 — Mar. 11, 2022
• A new way to pick portfolio winners
• How Muscular Portfolios save you from crashes
• News: Homemade AirTag “clone” easily evades Apple security

Issue #42 — Feb. 13, 2022
• Lazy Portfolios equal lousy performance
• Free PDF for you to download

Issue #41 — Dec. 31, 2021
• “Environmental” ETFs: it’s hard to be green
• News from the leading edge

Issue #40 — Dec. 17, 2021
• PDBC pays 26% dividend — a problem?
• News from the leading edge

Issue #39 — Nov. 7, 2021
• Hedge funds badly underperform
• News from the leading edge

Issue #38 — Oct. 24, 2021
• Other assets far outdo the market
• News from the leading edge

Issue #37 — Aug. 30, 2021
• Papa Bear Portfolio trounces S&P 500
• News from the leading edge

Issue #36 — July 3, 2021
• Crypto staking: high yield or high risk of loss?
• Web developer wanted for iframe consulting
• News from the leading edge

Issue #35 — May 16, 2021
• Free performance stats — now updated daily!
• News from the leading edge

Issue #34 — Apr. 16, 2021
• The $69m NFT buyer & seller were partners
• News from the leading edge

Issue #33 — Feb. 26, 2021
• AAII tries to end chapters, then pivots

Issue #32 — Dec. 30, 2020
• Goodbye Folio — hello to, um, what exactly?

Issue #31 — Dec. 15, 2020
• And the winner is…
• Folio shifting users to Interactive Brokers

Issue #30 — Oct. 30, 2020
• Why not hold both Mama *and* Papa?
• What to do if the top three ETFs change at the close

Issue #29 — Sept. 30, 2020
• Which day of the month for the Papa Bear?
• The Papa Bear is having a great year

Issue #28 — Aug. 24, 2020
• Which day of the month is best?
• The Papa Bear aces the pandemic test

Issue #27 — July 17, 2020
• Is weekly trading better than monthly?

Issue #26a — June 19, 2020, newsletter update
• See seminars you may have missed

Issue #26 — May 13, 2020
• New authorities confirm our results
• Publisher offers a 50%-off coupon!

Issue #25 — Apr. 13, 2020
• S&P crashes 33%. You’re down just 8%. Success!

Issue #24 — Mar. 2, 2020
• Do you make these behavioral errors?

Issue #23 — Jan. 31, 2020
• Performance results for the year

Issue #22 — Dec. 31, 2019
• ETFScreen gives away the signals
• New way to access past issues

Issue #21 — Nov. 30, 2019
• “Free” commissions actually aren’t
• Most market timers fail, Hulbert study shows

Issue #20 — Sept. 25, 2019
• Will ETFs crash the market? No.

Issue #19 — Aug. 16, 2019
• Stocks go down, but your money goes up
• A fireside chat with Mebane Faber
• Sharpe and Sortino ratios debunked — by Sortino himself

Issue #18 — July 8, 2019
• Fresher ETF price data for you
• The S&P 500’s coming five-year return? How about zero.

Issue #17 — May 15, 2019
• The market hit a new high — now what?
• No change in the Mama Bear formula
• Buying a new fund? Don’t even THINK about it.
• Free stuff you might like

Issue #16 — Apr. 8, 2019
• A proposed change to the Mama Bear
• What two assets can you combine for the most gain?

Issue #15 — Mar. 4, 2019
• Target-date funds are hazardous to your wealth
• Pardon me, there’s a bubble in your bong
• Handling tracking error makes you a better investor

Issue #14 — Jan. 28, 2019
• Which way will the S&P 500 move?
• Detailed portfolio stats are on the way
• Bogle leaves us his final revelations
• Free stuff you might like

Issue #13 — Dec. 17, 2018
• Rock your “529” college savings plan
• Federal Thrift Savings Plan traps 5 million workers
• Complete statistics are coming in January
• Free stuff you might like

Issue #12 — Nov. 11, 2018
• StockCharts.com gets muscular
• Yahoo Finance TV showcases some old wisdom
• Get the book that frees you from Wall Street

Issue #11 — Oct. 9, 2018
• Your feedback is great
• Which funds represent small-cap equities best?
• Pixel phones need fixing to support redirection

Issue #10 — Sept. 11, 2018
• Get up to 10 times more yield on your cash
• Free stuff you might enjoy

NOTE:

Newsletters prior to Issue #10 were beta-test editions and were published irregularly, not monthly.
The website and newsletter began in 2015 with the temporary name Goldilocks Investing but changed in January 2017 (Issue #8) to Muscular Portfolios.

Issue #9 — June 1, 2018
• What are the best ETFs for individual investors?
• The S&P’s small-caps are better than Russell’s
• Free stuff you might enjoy

Issue #8 — Jan. 3, 2017
• The market last year and 2017 to come
• Slow and steady wins the investing race

Issue #7 — Oct. 13, 2016
• See trading costs of major ETFs for free
• In normal times, ETF spreads are less than 1.0%

Issue #6 — July 6, 2016
• Brexit shows how Muscular Portfolios work
• Mama and Papa are having a great 2016

Issue #5 — May 2, 2016
• Introducing the Papa Bear Portfolio
• The Papa Bear has higher returns but larger declines, too

Issue #4 — Feb. 10, 2016
• What happens to us in a bear market?
• The Mama Bear started tilting toward bonds in mid-2015

Issue #3 — Nov. 1, 2015
• Market stats are now available for free
• Don’t trade more often than once a month
• How’s the Mama Bear done since it was revealed?
• Crash tests show how the Mama Bear outperforms long-term

Issue #2 — Aug. 30, 2015
• Reallocating the Mama Bear at August’s end
• Don’t place market orders when the market is closed

Issue #1 — Apr. 28, 2015
• A small change to the Mama Bear
• Why PDBC is replacing RJI in the book
• Why 1099 income is better than K-1 income
• Using StockCharts to pick the 3 ETFs

About the Author

Muscular Portfolios

What can this site do for you?

Even a 7-year-old beats the market

How to avoid a flash crash

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BRIAN LIVINGSTON is a successful dot-com entrepreneur, author of Muscular Portfolios (2018, BenBella Books), and a contributor of scores of articles to MarketWatch, StockCharts, and AskWoody. He is also the author or coauthor of 11 books in the Windows Secrets series (1991–2007, Wiley), which has sold more than 2.5 million copies. From 1986 to 1991, he worked in New York City as assistant IT manager of UBS Securities; a consultant for Morgan Guaranty Trust (now JPMorgan Chase); and technology adviser for Lazard Ltd. He was the weekly Windows columnist for InfoWorld magazine from 1991 to 2003. During portions of that period, he was also a contributing editor of CNET, PC World, eWeek, PC/Computing, Datamation, and Windows magazine. In 2003, he founded the Windows Secrets Newsletter, which grew from zero to 400,000 email subscribers. He served as its editorial director until he sold WindowsSecrets.com in 2010. He is president emeritus of the Seattle regional chapter of the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII).