Become A Member

Hey, I know it’s tough out there

Making money in the markets can be both confusing and frustrating.

It’s confusing because of all the myriad of choices you must make. You must choose your markets, your investment vehicles, your entry and exit strategies, your position sizing models. It goes on and on.

It’s frustrating because it’s difficult. After all, most of the major stock market indices (Dow, S&P, Nasdaq, etc.) are actually below where they were ten years ago. That kind of non-performance can make achieving financial goals seem impossible. If your 401(k) plan or IRA hasn’t been doing well since you began investing, you’re not alone.

But you still have to be a successful investor if you ever hope to become financially free — so if you choose to work for a living it’s only because you want to, not because you have to.

So what do you do?

You could read investment books. I have a library full of them and a lot of them are very good. However, the authors are never around when you have a question.

You could subscribe to financial Web sites and newsletters that have tons of educational material. But you have the same problem – you’re on your own. Nobody’s around to help you when you need help.

You probably don’t have a lot of time to read books. You probably don’t have the time to absorb all the information available online. You probably need some help.

There is a solution

My name is Larry Holmes. I have over 30 years of experience a financial professional who has worked with thousands of people in helping them reach their financial goals. I’m also a public speaker and teacher who has presented almost 2,000 financial seminars and workshops in all 50 states in the U.S. and other parts of the English-speaking world.

Over the years I’ve leaned what works and what doesn’t work. I’ve also learned how to communicate complicated financial concepts to people in language they can understand. And I know how to give you the financial solutions you need.

I thought about offering personal coaching and consulting. But I would have to charge too much for most people – hundreds of dollars an hour.

That’s not what I wanted. I wanted to be able to help anybody who’s serious about reaching their financial goals, no matter what their current financial circumstances may be. And I wanted to be able to do it at a price that anyone could afford.

That’s why I started the…

The Grail Investing membership site

This is your opportunity to learn what works in the world of investing and trading. In fact, this is an opportunity to get the answer to any financial question you may have.

You will not be sold expensive courses. You will not be sold expensive coaching. You will not need an expensive financial advisor or planner.

You will learn how to use profitable investment and trading strategies taught by someone who has spent decades learning — not only by trial and error — but from some of the most knowledgeable financial experts in the world.

In other words, you will have an experienced expert focus to show you the way for a fraction of the money you would have to spend to get that kind of personal attention elsewhere.

Does that sound better than reading books or subscribing to expensive one-size-fits-all investment Web sites? It should sound a lot better.

Before I get into how to become a member I want to tell you some things about the Grail Investing investment philosophy — about what I’ve learned that works.

What’s your edge?

The reason you can’t make money gambling and the reason the casino over time always makes money is the casino has an edge. It has the probabilities in its favor.

For example, in the game of Roulette the casino has a 5.26% edge on most bets. It means that over a large number of bets the house realizes a 5.26 cent profit on every dollar bet. And that includes every time the house loses.

Some gamblers come into the casino and win big. That’s okay. The house has no idea if it’s going to win or lose on any single bet or on any series of bets. It doesn’t care because the casino knows when all is said and done it is going to get its 5.26%.

It’s the same with successful investors. They have figured out a way to be the house. They have developed strategies that put the probabilities in their favor. They have an edge.

The good news is that at Grail Investing I have already done the work for you. I have already found investing and trading strategies that give you a decided edge.

But, like the casino, I have no idea if an individual trade will result in a profit or loss. And, again like the casino, I don’t care. All I know is that over time Grail Investing strategies will make money because the probabilities are in your favor.

However, you can only be successful with a profitable strategy if you do two things: 1. Have an exit strategy and 2. Size positions properly.

Let’s talk about exits first. Seven Covey, the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, says the second habit of highly effective people is they always start with the end in mind. In investing and trading it means you must have an exit strategy before you enter a position.

It’s the exit, stupid

The overwhelming majority of investors/traders spend much more time thinking about how to enter an investment than how to exit one.

What stock should I buy? Which mutual fund is best? What fundamental or technical indicator should I use?  What’s the market going to do? How should I enter the market?

Those are all questions about entry.

The most successful investors spend little time thinking about entry because the know that entry is way overrated. They spend much more time planning their exit. How and when they will exit a position – when to sell.

For example, there are many investment clichés that have been passed down over generations. And many of them are true, that’s why they are so often repeated. But if I had to choose the one old adage that I think holds the most truth, it would be…

“Cut your losses short and let your profits run.”

That quote can be traced back to David Ricardo (1772-1823), an English economist who amassed a large fortune by doing that very thing – cutting losses short and letting profits run.

And over the succeeding couple of centuries Mr. Ricardo’s maxim has been accepted as gospel because it’s hard to argue with its wisdom. Now whether investors actually follow it or not is another matter entirely.

But what does it mean? It means when you have an investment or trade working for you, stay with it. Let you profits run. But when it starts to go sour, get out and get out fast. Cut your losses short.

All successful trend-following systems are based on the notion that you must cut your losses short and let your profits run.

But notice that there is nothing about this fundamental truth that has anything to do with entering a position. The cutting losses and letting profits run philosophy is all about the exit – when and how you get out, not when and how you get in.

So you must have an edge. You must have an exit strategy. And you must know the answer to the question of how much.

Size matters — a lot

Money management, risk management, risk control, position sizing – whatever you want to call it, matters and matters tremendously. In fact, position sizing alone can make the difference between success and failure.

Position sizing is the answer to the question of how much. How many shares should I buy in relation to the size of my account and my risk tolerance? How many contracts or options? What is the correct size for my position?

How important is position sizing? It’s just about the most important thing there is if you want to be successful.

For example, in his book Trade Your Way To Financial Freedom, Dr.Van Tharp tested five position sizing models. The details of the five models are not important right now. However, the results are very important.

He used a million dollar hypothetical portfolio. The portfolio consisted of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks. He tested five separate position trading models. All trades were made using the exact same buy and sell rules. The only difference in the five models was the size of the positions.

He made 595 trades over a 5.5 year period. The system produced 273 profitable trades and 322 losing trades for a success rate of 45.9%.

Here are the results:

The first model simply bought 100 shares of stock whenever a buy signal was given and sold the shares whenever there was a sell signal. It couldn’t have been more simple. The problem was the performance. The model only made $32,567 over five and a half years –a 0.58% annual return.

The second model used a fixed amount based on equity. It bought 100 shares of stock for every $100,000 of account equity. So, at the beginning balance of $1 million, the model would buy 1,000 shares whenever there was a signal. It made $237,457 for a 5.75% annual return.

The third model allocated 3% of equity to each position. So for a $1 million account the portfolio would buy $30,000 of stock each time a signal was given. It made $231,121 for an annual return of 3.86%

The fourth was a percent risk model. It risked no more than 1% for each position. In other words, whenever there was a 1% of equity loss it got out of the position.  So for a $1 million account it was risking no more than $10,000 per trade.

That model made $1,840,493 for a 20.92% annual return.

Hmm… now it’s getting interesting.

Finally, the fifth model was based on percent volatility. To measure volatility it used “average true range” (a common way to measure the volatility of a stock and one we use at Grail Investing) over the previous ten days. It sized positions at 0.5% volatility, or $5,000 per position based on a $1 million account. Therefore, it limited exposure to current market volatility or $5,000 per position. So if the average true range for a stock over the previous ten days had been $5 a share, the model would purchase 1,000 shares.

This model made $2,109,266 for an annual return of 22.93%.

Think about it. All five models started with the same amount of money. All five bought the same stocks and used the same buy and sell signals. The only difference was the size of positions.

One model made $32,567 over a 5.5 year period. Another made $2,109,266.

That’s the difference position sizing makes. It’s a realization that can change your financial life.

I worked for Wall Street firms for over 20 years. I trained on Wall Street. I participated in hundreds of training courses, seminars, workshops. I read thousands of articles about investment strategy. But I seldom received training on risk management. And what I did receive was limited to simple asset allocation strategies.

The importance of sizing positions properly has changed my whole perspective on investing and trading.

So we believe in having an edge,  in exits over entries,  and we believe in position sizing.  What about specific strategies? Here’s a brief overview of the profitable investing and trading strategies we’re currently using…

The ATR Trading Strategy

We use the Average True Range (ATR) indicator to exit individual stock and Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) positions and often to enter positions as well. We also use a multiple of ATR to size positions.

This is a trend following strategy that focuses on an intermediate time frame (weeks to months).

The COT Strategy

The Commitments of Traders (COT) strategy is based on the weekly Commitments of Traders reports released by the U.S. Commodity Trading Commission every Friday (except holidays) for positions as of the previous Tuesday.

It’s based on the theory that big commercial participants in futures markets are the “smart money.” They are the ones “in the know.” They tend to have bullish futures positions when markets are relatively cheap and they tend to have bearish positions when markets are relatively expensive.

The idea is to buy when the smart money is historically bullish and sell when they are historically bearish. The time frame for this strategy is a period of a few months to a couple of years.

Risk and position sizing is based on a multiple of Average True Range.

The Grail Magic Formula Strategy

This strategy is based on the book, The Little Book That Beats The Market by Joel Greenblatt. With this strategy we’re trying to buy partial interest (shares) of the best businesses that are publicly traded companies, but only when they’re selling at a bargain price.

In his book, Greenblatt documents that over a 17-year period owning a portfolio of Magic Formula stocks would have returned approximately 30.8% per year.

At Grail Investing, we enhance this strategy with superior position sizing and exit techniques. The time frame for holding stocks according to this strategy is approximately one year.

The Long Term Timing Strategy

This strategy is based on a white paper written by Mebane Faber of World Beta. The idea is to only be in the stock market — or any market — when it is in a long-term bullish trend and to be out of the market when it is in a long-term bearish trend. It keeps you out of market disasters such as the one we saw in 2008 and ensures that you will be in the market during great times like we saw during 1995-2000.

It is great for  retirement plans like 401(k)s and IRAs, or if you prefer to keep at least some of your money in long-term investments.

The time frame for this strategy can be as long as several years.

The RSI Reversal Strategy

This strategy is based on the theory that markets tend to trend over the intermediate and long-term, but tend to revert to the mean over the very short-term.

This strategy uses the Relative Strength Index (RSI) indicator developed by J. Welles Wilder. This is a short-term strategy with an average time frame of about five calendar days. We use leveraged Exchange Traded Funds as short-term trading tools.

A word about performance

The cumulative return (not considering taxes and transaction costs) of each Grail Investing strategies is prominently displayed on the right sidebar of this site. Returns are updated at least weekly and sometimes more often that that.

We don’t play games with performance. In other words, we don’t cherry pick investments that have done particularly well and display only them while ignoring the ones that haven’t done as well. We show you what the performance is during good times and bad.

We have faith that you realize that web sites and services that claim unrealistic performance numbers are just that — unrealistic. We want members to stay around over the long haul. And the only way to achieve that goal is to shoot straight with you. You can count on us to be truthful.

Ask Larry

In addition to great investing and trading strategies, you will be given a special email address to ask any financial question you want to ask. Questions and solutions will be posted on the Grail Investing membership site without the name of the member who asked it. You may also request that your question not be posted on the site and you will get your answer emailed directly to you.

In other words, you’re going to get an incredible amount of information and support. Our goal is to completely eliminate any stumbling blocks that may be keeping you from reaching your financial goals.

A Grail Investing membership is perfect for you if you’re just now getting starting investing or trading and you want to do it the right way.

A Grail Investing membership is perfect for you if you’ve tried to make money in the markets and you haven’t been as successful as you would like.

A Grail Investing membership is perfect for you if you have already achieved a level of success but you just need some help in getting to the next level.

And a Grail Investing membership in perfect for you if you sometimes have questions on any financial topic and you want answers immediately and at a very low cost.

So tap into my experience and expertise – and make it yours today.

How much does it cost to be a member?

As an introductory offer — and it is only an introductory offer — your membership fee will be a ridiculously low…

$12/month

Or if you prefer to pay annually you can do so at a deep discounted fee of…

$110/year

(a 24% savings equivalent to a little over $9/month)

Even though the price will be raised , if you join now your membership fee will be $12/month or $110/year as long as you’re a member.

Fair enough?

So stop being frustrated with financial and investing issues. Get solutions to your challenges and get your questions answered immediately.

And to make this easier for you here’s our unconditional, ironclad, no-questions-asked guarantee…

If you prefer the $12/month option, use the button below to subscribe via PayPal…

If you prefer the $110/year option (a 24% savings), use the button below to subscribe via PayPal…

I know that with a little help you can achieve your financial goals. I look forward to helping you any way I can.

Best Wishes,

Larry D Holmes

Larry D. Holmes
Owner, Grail Investing and President, L. D. Holmes & Associates, Inc.

P.S. There are only so many people I can properly serve for $12/month or $110/year. The fee will be raised  substantially, but if you join now you will only have to pay the introductory fee as long as you’re a member .