Cake Financial Investor Metrics for November 2008; Trading Down 50%, Pulling Out of Mutual Funds, Technology Sector Attractive
Top Performing Investors Reduce Cash Positions, Putting More in Market
San Francisco, Calif.—December 5, 2008—Cake Financial, the website that gives personalized investing insights to help investors maximize returns, today released the first of its monthly metrics, providing a lens into the behavior of individual investors. November’s metrics show the average retail investor is down 42.25% this year, made half as many trades as they did in January, and withdrew 20% from mutual funds, reflecting increased concern over the crisis on Wall Street.
The best performing investors on Cake – those members ranked Elite – are beating major market indices and have reduced their cash positions significantly since October to invest more in the market.
“The stock markets have been brutal on investors everywhere but many using Cake are holding their own,” said Steven A. Carpenter, CEO of Cake Financial. “Our November metrics suggest mutual fund companies may be in for a difficult year as many investors pull their money out of underperforming funds.”
Cake’s Elite (top 1%) investors have experienced losses this year of just 13.9% as compared to major market indices losses of 42.7% for the NASDAQ, 34.7% for Dow Jones and, 40% for S&P 500 during the same timeframe.
Possibly seeing a buying opportunity in December, top performers significantly reduced their cash positions from 29% of assets at the end of October to 18% at the end of November. They are using this cash primarily to buy equities, 36% of which are in the technology sector.
Carpenter added, “It’s been encouraging to see how investors are handling the toughest market we’ll likely see in our lifetime. Drawing from their insights, I’ve been able to improve my own investing strategies in an effort to safeguard my retirement account.”
In the month of November, 16 stocks, ETF’s, and mutual funds moved up from F to A in Cake’s ratings indicating investors feel confident about these stocks and are buying. Notable stocks that moved from F to A in November include Amazon (AMZN), Ebay (EBAY), and Oracle (ORCL). Other on the list are Allied Irish Bank (AIB), General Dynamics (GD), James River Coal Company (JRCC), US Air (LCC), Legg Mason (LM), Markel Corporation (MKL), ProShares Ultrashort Financials (SKF), Schwab Health Care (SWHFX), ProShares Ultra Real Estate (URE), Vasco Data Security (VDSI), Vanguard REIT ETF (VNQ), Vanguard Value ETF (VTV), and, Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO).
About Cake Financial
Headquartered in San Francisco, Cake Financial is an investing website that provides actionable investment ideas based on the historical returns of the Cake Community. Cake offers a complete view of all holdings across multiple brokerage accounts and measures investing performance as far back as 10 years. Investors compare and share strategies with others while Cake aggregates millions of transactions to generate investment ideas customized to the profile of each investor.
Cake Financial is backed by Alsop Louie Partners and angel investors including Ron Conway of Baseline Ventures, Bay Partners and KPG Ventures. For more information visit http://www.cakefinancial.com.
Media Contact:
Lisa Hempel
lisa@hempelconsulting.com
650-823-5410
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Posted by: Steve Carpenter
December 5th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
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