Interview  |  OCT 1991

Paul Merriman On Mutual Fund Timing by Thom Hartle

Paul Merriman On Mutual Fund Timing by Thom Hartle Paul Merriman, founder and president of The Merriman Investment Management Company, manages the portfolio of the Merriman Mutual Funds. He also publishes a newsletter and hotline service called ""Fund Exchange,"" specializing in market timing no-load mutual funds. He wrote Market Timing with No-Load Mutual Funds, which was published 1987, and has a new book due out in January 1992, Investing for a Lifetime. Merriman's philosophy is that the main purpose of timing is not to maximize profits in a bull market but to limit losses in a bear market. Then, he says, long-term profits will take care of themselves. STOCKS & COMMODITIES Editor Thom Hartle interviewed Paul Merriman on July 24 via telephone, talking about, among other things, what kind of systems he uses to time mutual funds and how he applies those systems' signals to his $140 million portfolio. ""Market timing techniques not only help get people out of the market unemotionally, but it has them out of the market as much as 40-50% of the time, which must lower the risk of the investment.""—Paul Merriman

by Thom Hartle