Good Wednesday afternoon one and all. We've got something a bit different for you in today's newsletter.... something of a teaser, but perhaps more important, part of an explanation that's going to make perfect sense next week. Before we get to the heart of today's comments though, we've got key updates regarding two of our Featured Stocks. I don't think it's something we're not supposed to know, since it was Stephen Barber - the President/CEO of Oakridge Global Energy Solutions (OGES) - who told us about it. So far though, I've seen no press release or public mention of the fact that Oakridge Global Energy Solutions will be hosting a conference call on Thursday to share some new information with current and would-be shareholders... ... not that we're complaining about being the only ones in-the-know so far. Heck, the more you know that other investors don't know, the more of an edge you have. We're guessing, however, some sort of public announcement will be made between now and then. Anyway, we have no idea what's on the agenda for the conference call, but knowing what we know about the company's game-changing lithium battery technology, we're sure it would be time well spent if you listened in. The details: The scheduled date and time is Thursday, May 19th, at 3:00 PM EST (12 PM PST). The call-in number is +1 712-775-7035. Use access code 684304#. We're looking forward to seeing what Stephen's got to say. If you're relatively new and not familiar with Oakridge Global Energy Solutions, here's the SCN's first look, which explains everything. Speaking of Featured Stocks, has everyone seen a chart of National Waste Management Holdings (NWMH) this week? Something lit a fire under it. We always knew it had this kind of potential. Bryan Murphy has the full explanation here, but here's a teaser explanation... the company is simply doing what it said it was going to do all along. It looks like the market is finally starting to believe it. OK, on to the main event... Sad But True You know, we've (the SmallCap Network) been in the investment newsletter business a long time... close to a couple decades now. During that time we've seen the investment publishing industry change. This includes many newsletters. Some have come and gone, some are still around, and some are still around when they should have been canned long ago. Some of the best ones are still free (and yes, we like to think the newsletter you're reading right now is still one of the best free publications you'll ever get), and some of the worst ones still cost a fortune. We know, because at one point in time over the past decade or so we've subscribed to many of those newsletters just to see what they were all about, and see if they lived up to the hype (and their price). We've even made a few changes ourselves. For instance, the introduction of the Elite Opportunity service a couple years back was our response to your frustration of just not finding/seeing any good newsletters for the more active trading crowd. There's one thing that hasn't changed though. That is, most investment newsletters - and ironically, the paid ones in particular - are pretty lousy. That's not just an assumption based on a limited experience either. As Mark Hulbert of Hulbert's Financial Digest has found time and time again, not only do most investment newsletters trail the overall market's performance, most of them lose money. I can tell you why. It would take a book to give you the full explanation, but I can sum it up with one overarching reason.... most of those publishers are very good at marketing and storytelling, but aren't necessarily good at investing, yet they think they know how the market works in the real world. It's the combination of the latter two factors that's the biggest concern - most investment newsletter publishers don't even know how much they don't know about the market. That's not to say we're perfect, and that we know everything. Where we've made a real name for ourselves (albeit a niche one) is, however, is controlling our risk when we know the risk/reward scenario is unknowable. This is especially true of the Elite Opportunity service, where such defense is merited for its style of active trading. Frankly, we're surprised more newsletter publishers haven't figured out that being right and being safe or smart is more important that being loud. And it's not like the non-newsletter world of advice-giving is any better. Look at Bill Ackman. Once deemed one of the world's best hedge fund managers, he and his clients have been absolutely crushed by his big (read "oversized") bets against Herbalife (HLF) and bets on Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX). Both have not only moved against him, but both have moved against him in huge ways. His Pershing Square fund lost 20% last year. How is that "the best"? Ackman's biggest mistake wasn't bad stock-picking though. It was a failure to mitigate risk, rooted in an assumption he can't be wrong. He's hardly the only high-profile expert to post poor results in 2015 for the same reason though. Heck, even 80% of the far-less-aggressive mutual fund industry still underperforms the major market indices. We now know the legendary Bill Gross may not be the genius he's been made out to be much of his career, with he and Pimco jointly forced into outright apologizing for his fund's sub-par performance in 2011. The advent of the robo-advisor last year( though they've actually been around a while) seems like a smart middle ground solution to the above problems, and the systematic approach does have its merit. As a guy who's (1) been a broker that recommended pre-determined portfolios designed for rebalancing, (2) a guy who's worked for a newsletter that tried to build robo-advisor-like software, and (3) a guy who's spent the last seventeen years making a point of figuring out what actually works and what doesn't [you'd be surprised], I can tell you that robo-advisors will work great right up until we get our first big black-swan event. Unable to cope with unforeseeable circumstances, robo-advisors just won't be able to help much when things get ugly or unconventional. Trust me. If there was a completely automated way to pick stocks and automatically re-balance it in a way that consistently outperforms the market, I would have found it by now. My point is, there are only a few truly great financial newsletters out there. All of them are run by real people who think multi-dimensionally. By that I just mean people who understand there is no secret-sauce trading system. Sometimes the market is bearish. Sometimes things aren't 'quite right.' Sometimes things that would normally work won't work at that time because the situation is wrong. Sometimes investors have to be traders, and sometimes traders have to be investors. Sometimes you have to be proactive, and sometimes you have to be reactive. The hard part is knowing when all those "sometimes" are. It can't be programmed into a computer though. That's why there are so few really great newsletters out there. Fortunately, we claim one of them as our own. Even if you're not an Elite Opportunity member though, if your newsletter has demonstrated this kind of true understanding about how the market really works in the real world, you've found a diamond in the rough. Stick with 'em, even if things get a little dicey from time to time. This kind of holistic insight is rare, and worth its proverbial weight in gold. Anyway, keep this idea in your back pocket. We're going to be following up on this theme the rest of the week, leading up to a much bigger point on Monday. Oh, and just a quick note about today's market (to plant a seed for a discussion later this week)... as we've said before, the one thing worse than a falling market is a failed rally, in that it confirms the bulls just don't have any juice. That's what we saw today. The S&P 500 tried to get back above the 50-day moving average line (purple) at 2058, but when it became clear it wasn't going to happen, the buyers just threw in the towel. The S&P 500 actually made a lower low today, and I have to wonder if things could have been worse had the lower Bollinger band not been there to stop the bleeding. Anyway, what I'm really worried about here is the way the VIX finally seems to be trending higher. Like I said, we'll dig deeper into it later this week.