NOT a sales letter from Topdown Charts
No hype, no sell, just the facts and details (as usual)...
Hi there, as noted in the title, this is *not* a sales letter trying to persuade you with all sorts of tactics/tricks and “AIDA“ into hypnotically and mindlessly upgrading to a paid membership at the Topdown Charts Substack service…
I don’t have enough skills experience or creativity to write such a sales letter!
So instead, I’m just going to provide:
a gentle reminder to consider a paid subscription,
details on what you will get if you sign up,
performance of past ideas covered in the reports
share what our clients think of the service
No hype, no sell, just the facts and details (as usual) so you can easily figure out if it makes sense to give a paid subscription a try.
What you get as a paid subscriber:
The main thing you get is regular reports that provide insight and clarity on the macro/market environment and practical conclusions for asset allocation. These reports get emailed to you, or you can access the full report archives (and comments/Q&A) online.
At a high level, here’s what the reports cover:
Weekly Insights Report: this report covers a series of ideas/risks/macro themes, along with market commentary, alerts on the near-term outlook, and a selection of hand-picked charts with clear implications and takeaways.
Monthly Asset Allocation Review: this report takes the pulse of the cycle with a clear global snapshot of value/cycle/policy, economic and risk outlook, concrete views on the major asset classes including tactical allocation guide, and longer-term expectations.
(optional) Quarterly Strategy Pack: slide deck containing our best ideas, macro and market outlook, along with clear asset allocation recommendations. Also includes access to the quarterly webinar and live Q&A sessions.
So that’s what you get with the service…
…but by now you are probably wondering: “hmm, sounds interesting, but is it actually any good?“ — so let’s see if we can answer that with a look at performance, and perspective of paying subscribers.
Performance of closed ideas:
The table below provides a look at ideas covered in the reports over the past couple of years. The outcome/return columns are probably going to be of most interest — and basically the takeaway is that yes: I don’t always get it right, *but* because of my process and chart/data driven approach, I tend to get it right more often than I get it wrong. So as a basic fitness for purpose as a research provider I think I’m doing ok.
But also of interest in the table above is the type of ideas typically covered in terms of timeframe, bull vs bear positions, and assets/markets covered — this should give you an idea of what to expect to see covered in the reports… AND: importantly, whether this actually fits with your style > > do not buy it if it is not a fit!
What our clients think of the service
I conducted a series of surveys earlier this year where I asked why people signed up and how they rate the service (and how likely they are to recommend). But I also looked at why people were unsubscribing. From that analysis I crunched the data to get an overall weighted average rating across current happy paying subscribers and those who unsubscribed and canceled the service (chart below).
As you can see: 90% of current subscribers think it is good or very good. And even those who unsubscribed, 70% said it was at least OK or had positive things to say about it — I think it’s a good sign if even those who cancel have mostly good things to say.
And FWIW, those who had negative things to say: it was mostly because it was not a right fit with their style (hence my comment earlier: this service is not for hyperactive daytraders, you can still buy it if you are a hyperactive day trader and maybe the high-level directional views can be helpful, but do not expect advice and ideas to suit a goldfish attention… short-term for me is months).
What people say about the service
Here is some of the feedback I got from the surveys I mentioned above, I am happy with this feedback because it endorses a lot of what I am aiming to deliver with the service (and with over 200 paying subscribers, and decent retention rates, I think it’s fair to say that the service is reasonably successful so far).
“I like the organized and somewhat systematic nature of views”
”A weekly go-to for me. Simple but powerful, usable insights.”
”Data helps confirm instincts and or rationale for allocations”
”Enjoy the macro thoughts expressed graphically”
”Great Summary of current macro perspective”
”Helpful in visualizing the big picture, and to get different perspectives”
”I’m always on the lookout for possible negations or contradicting views to what has been done or invested in. Vigilance is useful.”
”Material is concisely and thoughtfully presented. Good mix of technical and substantive analysis.”
Longer comments/testimonials
”I really appreciate Callum's unbiased economic insights and his charts. I use these charts in client communications all the time, and his tactical asset allocation guide is very useful in helping me determine sector allocations. I feel that this data gives me an edge over my peers and most importantly has improved the relative rate of return of my clients' portfolios.”
”Not only am I scoring more victories, I'm learning an incredible amount of information that helps and will continue to send me further towards my goals. Tools, techniques, charts. It's a brilliant newsletter for the type of person I am and where I am at in my life.”
”I like the fact that this information unbiased and independent since many of firms have their own agenda (big bank economists never seem to have negative views on real estate, for example). This service's low price is a big help, well worth the $. The concise form factor is also easy for me to digest, just the right length for me. The best part of the service is the asset class rating and TAA guide which are extremely useful for an asset allocator such as myself.”
“thank you for providing individual investors the opportunity to get insights into markets. I use Topdown Charts to get a macro picture and make adjustments to my portfolio. Thank you again.”
So there you have it, a simple explanation of what you get with the service, a summary of performance, and a look at what our satisfied and unsatisfied customers think of it.
Subscription for the monthly + weekly reports is $399/annual.
If you want the added benefits of the quarterly slide deck and Q&A sessions with me then you can take the $1000/year option “Add Quarterly“ to get that as well.
Kind regards,
Callum Thomas
Head of Research & Founder at Topdown Charts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Callum_Thomas
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/callum-thomas-4990063/