The delivery of market timing services: Newsletters versus market timing funds
We examine delivery systems that disseminate market timing information either through newsletters or by setting up timing funds in which investors can invest. Absent market imperfections, both systems produce the same result. With restrictions on borrowing, or with other nonlinearities, the newletter system is superior. This result does not depend on the cost of obtaining information or uncertainty about, or the manipulation of, the quality of the information. Institutional restrictions on borrowing, and preferences that lead to nonlinear responses to information signals, provide one explanation for the plethora of market timing newsletters and the paucity of market timing funds.