Why My Wife's 401(k) Ended My Retirement

Editor's note: Regular Empire Financial Daily readers will remember our friend and colleague Marc Chaikin, the founder of our corporate affiliate Chaikin Analytics... Marc worked on Wall Street for decades as a trader, broker, and analyst – personally developing analytical tools and indicators that some of the Street's biggest firms and traders across the globe […] Not rendering correctly? View this e-mail as a web page [here](. [Empire Financial Daily] Editor's note: Regular Empire Financial Daily readers will remember our friend and colleague Marc Chaikin, the founder of our corporate affiliate Chaikin Analytics... Marc worked on Wall Street for decades as a trader, broker, and analyst – personally developing analytical tools and indicators that some of the Street's biggest firms and traders across the globe still rely on today. Now, Marc uses his "Power Gauge" system to help individual investors put quantitative stock analysis to work. But most folks might not know how Marc got to where he is now. In today's essay, he shares the details... --------------------------------------------------------------- Why My Wife's 401(k) Ended My Retirement By Marc Chaikin --------------------------------------------------------------- [Have you heard of 'SWaB'?]( More than 100 countries around the world are rolling out a system called "SWaB" that could have a bigger impact than the Internet in the days ahead. Here in the U.S., it's already being implemented in 38 states and counting. This year, massive investments are pouring into this innovation from some of the richest people in the world – like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett. Even the world's most powerful companies, like Apple, Microsoft, and Google, are spending billions to onboard it. That's because every single modern technology – 5G, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, IoT, robotics, quantum computing, and EVs will have to switch over to SWaB to stay relevant. [Get the details here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- I retired in 1999, hoping to spend the rest of my days relaxing and playing tennis... After all, I had worked almost nonstop for more than 30 years on Wall Street to that point. During my career, I developed the now-ubiquitous "Chaikin Money Flow" oscillator. The vast majority of regular investors probably haven't heard that term before. And I'm willing to bet that they haven't used the tool in their personal financial research. But today, the Chaikin Money Flow is built into the world-famous Bloomberg Terminal... And Thompson Reuters, Bloomberg's major competitor, has it on tap as well. Traders use the Chaikin Money Flow to get a read on the money moving behind the price action of a stock. And fortunately, by the late 1990s, it had become an industry-standard tool. I had spent my life's work collecting and interpreting financial data to get to that point. It had paid off... And now, I was ready for a life filled with tennis, books, and relaxation. My wife, Sandy, wasn't ready for retirement, though... After working for several years as a vice president at beauty-products company L'Oréal (LRLCY), she built her own business in marketing and consulting. And fortunately, her business was still growing in 1999. Despite my Wall Street successes, we managed our retirement funds separately. And since her business was getting bigger, she didn't have much free time on her hands... She was simply too busy to chase down the best mutual fund of the day. At the time, it made sense for Sandy to pay an expert to look after her retirement. So she made what was a pretty common and reasonable decision at the time: She handed the care of her retirement over to a professional who actively managed her account. Sure, the fees were high... But as the overall market rose throughout the early 2000s, the fees didn't seem that important. Sandy was busy with her business... And her retirement nest egg was growing alongside it. In short, life was good. I was enjoying my retirement, and our wealth was still growing. Then, 2008 came along... --------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Link: [Bill O'Reilly reports on 'the next great medical breakthrough of the decade']( The Gates Foundation, Fidelity, and Elon Musk are going all in on a new development that Inc. magazine says "will change health care forever." [Click here for more on O'Reilly's special report on "the next great medical breakthrough."]( --------------------------------------------------------------- 'Marc, I'm paying him to ride my account to zero'... That's what Sandy said to me midway through 2008. As the financial crisis set in, Sandy's 401(k) account was bleeding value almost every day. And at the time, it looked like there was no end in sight... To make matters worse, her high-fee active manager didn't want to talk to her... The few times she was able to get him on the phone, he was dismissive. Then, something incredibly ominous happened... On September 16, 2008, money market accounts "broke the buck." That's the fancy way of saying that money-market savings accounts were now losing money. I vividly remember the exact words I told Sandy at the time: "This means we're in deep trouble." I called my friend, Bill Griffeth. He was CNBC's Closing Bell host at the time. "Marc, what's going on? We're just about to air," Bill asked me. He hadn't heard the news about money-market accounts yet. It stunned him. Even worse, Sandy's actively managed account was down much more than the overall market at the time... It was sitting on losses of about 50% at that point, while the broader market was down about 20%. Sandy's portfolio manager didn't know what to do. And she wanted out – rightfully so. Unfortunately, Sandy's investing horror story isn't that unique... Thousands of everyday Americans watched helplessly as their retirement savings were cut in half – or worse – during the Great Recession. It was awful. And then, many folks made the worst decision they could possibly make... They got out right at the bottom. Then, they stayed on the sidelines... They wanted to wait to get back in once things had settled down and weren't as volatile. (Of course, this line of thinking really means after stocks have recovered... But most folks don't realize it.) Sandy was more fortunate in that regard... She had me at her side. And after more than 30 years as a Wall Street insider, I knew what we had to do. "You have to stay invested," I told her. "Stocks won't stay down forever. We need to ride this out." Sandy understood. But she had also lost all confidence in her portfolio manager. And I don't blame her... The guy still wouldn't give her the time of day. Still, I knew that just "stepping aside" and waiting for things to settle down was the worst possible move. That's because of how volatility tends to work after a big crash... When it comes to the broad market, big volatility up follows big volatility down. A quick glance at the benchmark S&P 500 Index's biggest moves make this clear... Major rallies have always come after a big bust. So in the end, Sandy fired her portfolio manager and we took things into our own hands... We rolled her retirement into an index fund at Vanguard. The first priority was making sure she didn't miss the upside in the recovery that was coming... But after that, what was Sandy supposed to do? It was so painfully obvious. I had spent my career building quantitative tools for Wall Street. And I was darn proud of the work that I had done in helping many elite investors find success with those tools... But when it came to my wife – and the thousands of everyday investors who lost a large chunk of their wealth, just like her – well, I hadn't done a whole lot for them. Although I was enjoying my retirement, I knew that I had the ability and knowledge to fix this problem. After all, I had developed the tools used by many Wall Street insiders. As Sandy searched for a better solution, I promised myself that I would build the best set of quantitative tools for individual investors on the market. So I ended my retirement and got to work... That's how the 'Power Gauge' came to life back in 2011... After exiting retirement that year, I went on to develop a set of quantitative tools specifically for individual investors. These days, it's called the "Power Gauge"... The Power Gauge takes 20 quantitative factors into account. It's a boatload of data. It looks at everything from price performance... to fundamentals... to insider buying trends... to expert consensus. Collecting and analyzing the data that the Power Gauge uses would take months for most individual investors. And that's assuming you know what to look for and where to find the data. But fortunately, the Power Gauge pulls all this data together in a matter of seconds... With the Power Gauge, you just put in the ticker of the stock you're interested in. It pulls all of the data using our 20 factors almost instantly... and builds a complete report for you. You can see the readings on each of the 20 factors that the Power Gauge uses. And more importantly, you get a simple overall reading – from "very bearish" to "very bullish" – on the stock. It couldn't be simpler to use. But that doesn't mean it's anything less than professional level... Today, the Power Gauge rivals the tools that Wall Street's insiders use every day... Along the way, Sandy joined me on this project. We focused all of our time and resources into bringing it to life... We built a beautiful website that's easy to understand. We grew our team. And we built a variety of tools for individual investors seeking to grow their wealth and retirement funds. Most importantly, I was able to keep my promise to myself... In the end, I came out of retirement and developed the best set of quantitative tools for individual investors on the market. The Power Gauge is the culmination of my life's work... Simply put, it levels the playing field. Every day, it helps investors make winning decisions in their portfolios. In the coming days, I'll be walking you through exactly how the Power Gauge works. And I'll be sharing some of my market insights with you along the way, too... Tomorrow, we'll cover the first 10 quantitative factors that the Power Gauge uses to identify the best – and worst – stocks in the market at any given time. In the meantime, I've created a way to get free access to my Power Gauge system... On November 15, at 10 a.m. Eastern time, I'm holding a free special event to share the details about a historic financial reset in 2023 that could cause a run on the banks unlike anything we've seen in our country's history. I'll also share the name and ticker symbols of which stocks to buy for a chance to double, triple, or even quadruple your money – and which stocks to sell immediately – as this story unfolds. To get free access to my Power Gauge system and reserve your spot today – [just click here](. Regards, Marc Chaikin November 9, 2022 --------------------------------------------------------------- If someone forwarded you this e-mail and you would like to be added to the Empire Financial Daily e-mail list to receive e-mails like this every weekday, simply [sign up here](. © 2022 Empire Financial Research. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution, in whole or in part, is prohibited without written permission from Empire Financial Research, 380 Lexington Ave., 4th Floor, New York, NY 10168 [www.empirefinancialresearch.com.]( You received this e-mail because you are subscribed to Empire Financial Daily. [Unsubscribe from all future e-mails](